THE COLOUR BAR

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 71, Issue 6142, 28 September 1945, Page 6

THE COLOUR BAR

REMOVAL URGED ' APPEAL BY QUAKERS “Without the removal of the colour bar, we see no hope for peace and friendly co-operation among the peoples around the Pacific,” states an appeal from the Society of Friends (Quakers) sent recently to members of the Cabinet and members of Parliament. It asks specifically that the laws of the Dominion be amended to make it clear that no one is excluded from the country or from naturalisation on grounds of race or by a racial test. “Our society has long upheld the principle that all persons regardless of race are entitled to equal human rights,” says the statement, which was approved by the annual conference of the Dominion Quakers. Gratification is expressed at the repeal of the Dominion’s Chinese polltax law, also at the_ action of the United States in repealing the Chinese exclusion law and admitting Chinese to Alnerican citizenship. The present position in New Zealand is reviewed. Since 1920 immigration of aliens has been regulated by administrative action, every alien entering the country for permanent residence being required to obtain a permit from the Minister of Customs. British subjects of alien race are counted as aliens for the purposes of this law. A few Asiatics have been admitted since this law came into force—wives and families of Indians already resident here and wives and families of certain Chinese.

The Quaker statement expresses approval of these relaxations of the exclusion principle but asks that the colour bar bo definitely removed. The necessity for the regulation of immigration in order to safeguard social and economic standards is recognised, and confidence is expressed that such safeguards can be devised and that then “tho presence of people of other cultures can become an enrichment rather than a mcnce” to the life of New Zealand. It is further urged that restrictions should be reciprocal—that New Zealanders should be willing to accept for themselves in entering other countries, regulations similar to those imposed here.

The abandonment of racial discrimination, it is claimed, will do much to open the channels of harmonious living.