THE COLOR LINE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 15 November 1913, Page 6

THE COLOR LINE.

Recently the Camberwell Board of (Juardians advertised for a district medical officer (says the London Daily Telegraph). Two replies were received, but only one of the applicants, an Englishman, appeared before the guardians at their meeting. When a member protested that they were not able to make any selection another guardian replied that it was not thouaht desirable to bring the second applicant before the board. Mr A. H. Roe protested that this was because the second applicant was a blacck man. He did not" care what color a man was, born, and it was scandalous for a public board of guardians to adopt a partial attitude of this sort. He objected to the proceedings, and he moved that the second candidate should he invited to wait upon the board, so that he could have an equal chance with his English competitor. Dr $apes, another guardian, admitted that the foreign doctor's qualifications were exceedingly good —better than those of the candidate it was proposed to aopoint. "In plain English,' he said." "the second candidate is a nigger, and as such he is not a suitable doctor for a post of this sort. The duty of a medical officer is to attend the" noor, and the poor are a great deal more fastidious than many people imagine. You may ' take it from me [ that patients would refuse to be attended by a man of color." "Some years ago," Dr Capes added, "a nurse came from Jamaica to earn her living in; Camberwell, but owing to her color the people boycotted her, and she starved. For six years she sought in vain to build up a practice. She w^s well bred, and I recommended her, but nobody would engage her. Mr Roe's motion was lost by eight votes to fifteen, and the English doctor was appointed. ■