Tradition Broken; Coloured Officers In British Army

Northern Advocate, 26 December 1940, Page 7

Tradition Broken; Coloured Officers In British Army

Despite the preoccupation of war, Britain has found time to consider some of its more pressing social problems, particularly that of coloured persons of the Empire, .and the special London representative of the “Christian Science Monitor” quotes an example: The regulation governing admission to the British Army, stating that no man coulcl be commissioned as an officer unless of “pure European parentage,” has been broken to allow a coloured person to train as an officer.

Mr Arundel M. Moody, son of Dr. Harold A. Moody, president of the League of Coloured Peoples, who early this year was accepted for training as an officer in the British Army, will, it is believed, be the first man of colour ever to be given a commission in this country’s armed forces. This does not include India, where there are many native officers in the Indian Army.

That Mr Arundel Moody has achieved this unprecedented honour is largely due to the work of his father, who personally sought the help of the Prime Minister and Mr Malcolm MacDonald, then Colonial Secretary, in having the strict colour and race bar to army commissions removed.

Mr Moody is to be an infantry officer. Two other coloured men are to receive commissions in specialist branches of the forces, the medical and dental corps.

But although progress has been manifested in this particular phase, in others it still remains a problem, as for instance in the City of Liverpool.

Speak Little English.

A report published a short time ago by the-University Social Science Department under the auspices of the Association for the Welfare of Coloured People, states that the coloured population of Liverpool is due in part to men from, for example, West Africa and India, who, having obtained employment on a ship in their native country, land ,as’ soon as the ship reaches Liverpool and do not return home. These men, having only a limited amount of skill (probably in one direction and that not suitable for employment ashore) speak little or no English, so that they find serious difficulty in obtaining employment. Although no one can prevent a coloured man—if a British subject, and owning a current British passport—from landing in England and settling down ashore, yet 73 per cent, of these coloured men are out of work; whereas the incidence of unemployment in a corresponding group of white seamen is only 34 per cent.

The report states, however, that as a rule, coloured families respect the law, live honestly and cleanly, and are prepared to be friendly with the white population if the latter show any inclination to reciprocate. Investigations over a period by skilled observers indicate that coloured and white families, in similar circumstances and with a similar income, spend almost identical amounts on light, fuel, food and clothing, but coloured people are usually asked to pay a higher rent.