These warning signals-are -not being ignored. The present Minister of Education, Patrick Gordon Walker, came to his post as an expert on remedial reading. Walker has even devised a phonetic spelling system which would make the language much easier for the foreigner. In Cambridge there are a number of schools experimenting with various new approaches to the task of bringing immigrant children up to par.

"Virtually Impossible"

The third vital area in which immigrants have the most to complain about is housing. Only 11 per cent of the "for rent" advertising does not specifically exclude colored people, and two thirds of those exclude them in practice. "It is virtually impossible to get a furnished flat for a Pakistani or West Indian," one real estate agent admitted. Real estate agents themselves often give fewer addresses to colored customers. Also it is much more difficult for an immigrant to obtain a mortgage, and rates are almost invariably higher. The last alternative, public housing projects (council houses) take a much larger percentage of whites than they do nonwhites holding similar jobs. And the NCCI claims to have evidence that where immigrants have been evidence that where immigrants have been housed, they are given the worst accommodation. According to officials, this was done to allay hostile reactions on the part of white residents.

Britain has no open housing law. Indeed, as the problem itself, all existing legislation is recent, and the government is still in the process of ironing out the folds. So far there is only one civil rights law on the books--the Race Relations Act of 1965. It does not cover employment, nor the even more explosive issue of open housing. The distinctive feature of this law as opposed to its American equivalents is that it refers any complaints which fall within its jurisdiction to local "Conciliation Committees"--which try to bring about some agreement between the two parties without having recourse to the courts.

Working Example

This procedure is designed to promote mutual understanding in a community rather than automatically pitting one side against the other. It worked for one visiting Harvard student. A Negro, he arrived in London with an English friend, and began to look for a place to stay the night. Exhausted from his trip, he stayed in the car while his friend went to find a hotel room. He finally found a room in a small West London hotel, but when the American entered the hotel, he was told he could not stay because he was colored. The English friend complained, and then lodged a complaint with the Greater London Conciliation Committee. They in turn called up the proprietress, who apologized for what it turned out was her son's decision. Mother and son both agreed to apologize to the American, and signed an assurance against discriminating in the future.

But the Race Relations Act has very limited effectiveness. Seventy per cent of the complaints brought to the attention of the local Committees prove to be outside their power. Most often it is a matter of discrimination in housing or employment, the two areas in which discrimination most seriously affects the lives of colored people.

Both Labor and Conservative parties have, over the last few years, become sensitive to the race problem and to the need for legislative action. And so far, both parties have strained to keep the issue out of the political arena. The truce has been productive. The '65 Race Relations bill was passed with little difficulty, and it was also possible to set up a number of committees to deal with various aspects of the issue.

There has not always been a truce between the parties. The Conservatives' Immigration Control Act of 1962 sparked a vitriolic debate in all Commonwealth nations. It was the first measure designed to curb the influx of colored immigrants from the Commonwealth countries into Britain, and the Labor party vehemently accused the Tories of racism, putting petty self-interest over and above the special bond between mother country and Commonwealth, and maliciously slamming the ceiling on any Commonwealth subject who wanted to better his economic situation by emigrating.

180 Degree Turn

Faced with the problems of integrating what is now one million foreigners (two per cent of the population) into a social structure already in a state of transition, the Labor party has swung around a full 180 degrees on its former position. Experts predict that by the end of the century there will be 3 million non-white British citizens (or over four per cent of the population). This figure does not allow for any additional immigration, but takes into account the important fact that almost all the immigrant population is of child-bearing age.

The confrontation between the two parties has had its nastier moments, reminiscent of the American dilemma in both tone and substance. In 1964 the Conservative candidate for Parliament in Smethwick, an ugly industrial town with a growing colored population, ran his campaign against Laborite Gordon Walker on the slogan, "If you want a nigger neighbor, vote Labor. "The Conservative won.

With these frightening statistics in mind, either party has only to look at the United States to persuade itself of the need for action. The Labor government is quietly feeling its way to yet another bill restricting immigration--helping individuals evade the present one has become a very lucrative and flourishing business.

Hornets' Nest

But the big problem and the most controversial one remains what is to be done for the non-white subjects currently living in Britain. The issue now is open housing, and it is not certain whether the Labor Party can count on Conservative support to pass a bill which will undoubtedly stir up a hornets' nest of emotions. Unlike in this country, there is hope in Britain that the problem can be mastered. "We have great advantages (over America)," the Race Relations Board stated in their yearly report. "Our colored population has arrived here far more recently and patterns of behaviour both among immigrants and among the indigenous population, are more flexible; we are more law abiding and the structure of our constitution gives the central government far greater control over local politics. We have therefore the opportunity to avoid many of the difficulties with which the United States is struggling."

Britain has found that it is not profitable to point a finger at us; instead she is showing herself willing to learn from our mistakes. She has awakened, but out of her slumber have risen passions and fears which may not be easy to allay. There is a hope, because the British are waking up to this danger too