Evening star., 1943-08-02
Denies Alleged Discrimination
Against Colored Races Of Empire.
70 the Editnr of The

Against Colored Races Of Empire.
To the Editor Of The Star:
Blair Bolles In his interesting COM
ments on conditions In England says:
THE English = do not hesitate to
assume superiority over the dark
skinned inhabitants of the empire"
But Mr.. Bolles, believe, paid only
brief visit to England and his observa-
tions must necessarily be the outcome
of very limited experience. Will you
allow me Gas one who knows the English
intimately as we'll as the peoples of
most parts of the British commonwealth
to say that he is wholly inaccurate in
this statement? There is no distinction,
social or political, against color as such
in any part of the British Empire, with
the possible exception of South Africa,
where the Dutch element opposes British
ideas of complete equality, and where
the colored form an overwhelming ma
jority of the population.
There are ill-mannered individuals in
all communities and If an individual
Enghshman has been known to treat a
colored person extensively 1t is not neces-
sarily because of his color, nor can 1t
be taken as typical. Which of us hav-
ing survived to adolescence has not been
insulted or offended by somebody?
1t was far back in the 18th century
that great English Lord Chancellor
ruled that any slave who set foot on Eng
lish soil thereby became free man.
ArI fN ty, {kA IL 10
made a capital offense in any part OF
the British dominion at least half CEN
tury before it's abolition in the U. S. A.
England had been a melting pot of
many races thousand years ago. Since
it acquired its overseas domains it has
been center of cosmopolitan culture,
and for years past people of all nations
and colors have been its welcome guests.
Colored people go to court and are re-
ceived by the King and Queen at Buck
ingham Palace garden parties and state
balls. More than one colored man has
been created an English nobleman; at
least one has become a member of the
English House of Commons: at least one
colored woman has become an English
peeress. The London Club, usually re-
garded as the most exclusive, founded
by King Edward VII for his personal
friends and used regularly by the royal
princes, has colored members oxford
and Cambridge-of which today about
so per cent of the students are supported
in whole or in part out of public funds
as we'll as other universities have large
numbers of colored students who reside
In the same dormitories and associate
fully with English students. At the
present time the president of the stu
dent body of Oxford-usually consid-
cred the most conservative of univer-
sities-s West African Negro, chosen
freely by the whole body of the students.
One of the fashionable colleges-Bal-
liol-a considerable proportion of whose
students come from Eton and other
leading public schools, has also a large
number of colored students. A we'll
known story-which amuses both white
and colored-relates that an English
missionary once fell into the hands of
cannibals who were about to make him
the chief item of their dinner menu
They began to undress him, and then
one of them noticed that he was wearing
an old-school tie in the Balliol colors:
Hello" he shouted, ARE you Balliol
man? We're all Balliol men," and so
released him.
From all parts of the empire con-
siderable numbers of colored students
frequent the socially distinguished Inns
Court In London-law schools Of the