COLOUR BAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21627, 23 April 1932, Page 15

COLOUR BAR

A ' DELICATE . C^SB LAW STUDENT WINS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) i - LONDON, March 3. Mr Oluwole Ayodele Alakya, a West African graduate of Oxford University and a nephew of the reigning Prince of Abeokuta, Nigeria, was, at Maryleboiic County Court, this week awarded 12 guineas and costs against New Mansion Hotels, Lancaster Gate, W. ’ He claimed £55 damages for breach of contract. Counsel for Mr Alakya sajd that after taking his degree his client was very anxious to settle in London- to read’for tl)e Bar. Wanting accommodation, he wrote to the New Mansions Hotel asking for their terms, and later it was arranged that one room should be reserved for hiin from August 27. Mr Alakya arrived at the hotel on that date. “He handed in his card, .and said he was expected,” said counsel. “He was shown to his room, and had commenced unpacking his trunks when he was told that tha manageress would like to see him. She told him she was very sorry, but they had not room for him in the hotel. He pointed out that the matter had beenarranged, and that he was expected, and eventually it came out that the real reason why he"was told that. they .had not room for him was the fact that he had concealed from them that he was a man of colour. Mr Alakya. was told that he could not stop, and he went to a cousins at Hampstead.” Air Alakya said that he laid been in this country for nine years, and was at Seaford College before going up to Jesus College, Oxford. He took his degree in 1029, and was now reading for the Bar. His father was a barrister of the Middle Temple practising at Lagos. He had three brothers studying in England, and a sister at a public school here. “ I have never been refused at any hotel or boarding house before.” BIG HOTELS AND SMALL.

Miss Grace Foster, employed by the New Mansions Hotels, who interviewed Mr Alakya when he arrived, said she was much surprised when she saw him. “ 1 did not expect to see an African gentleman.” she remarked. “ There had been nothing i n the correspondence to suggest it. It was quite English. — (Laughter.) He noticed something strange in my manner, and I told him we only took white people.” She told Mr Alakya he could go down to the dining room after the other visitors had gone, or he could have a tray sent up to his room. He did not decide immediately/ Mr John Thomas Warren, the proprietor, said that when he first saw Mr Alakya the latter told him he was not stopping, as his room was too high up. If Mr Alakya had mentioned in his letter that be was an African witness would never have offered him accommodation. “ It would ruin my business.” declared Mr Warren. “There are hotels in Lancaster Gate which cater especially for, coloured people.” Mr Farleigh; You know that recently the ruling Prince of Abyssinia was slopping at one of the leading West End hotels. They did not object.—At a small like mine it is different. At the big hotels coloured people can walk about and no one notices them.

Giving judgment, Judge Snagge said that the, question of a coloured man’s duty to disclose the fact that he was a man of colour before taking rooms was a difficult one. Had Mr Alakya known the fact of bis being a man of colour could debar him from obtaining accommodation at this hotel, and had for. that reason refrained from disclosing it, he would have obtained the room by a trick. “That,” continued his Honor, “would have been conduct of a young man in his position upon which judicial criticism could hardly have been adequately | expressed.” The judge was, however, of the opinion that Mr Alakya had not ha* 1 that intention.