WHAT have Bishop Joseph Cleary and the Rt. Hon. Enoch Powell M.P. got in common'? The bishop lives in Mr.
Powell's constituency, Wolverhampton south-west.
The bishop. like Mr. Powell, has an intimate knowledge of Wolverhampton and the problems resulting from a massive immigration of coloured people.
1 he similarity ends there.
Bishop Cleary, auxiliary of Birmingham. and chairman of the Catholic Committee for Racial Justice. has said that all British passport holders expelled from Uganda must be allowed into Britain. and that when they come, as indeed it seems inevitable that they will. they should he received with sympathy and kindness.
Mr. Powell, on the other hand, chooses to launch a despicable attack upon 50.000 British Asians and attempts to inflame the fears of 55 million citizens in this country, choosing to elevate race and colour above British honour. legal status, and the solemn undertakings of his former fellow Ministers.
Arid this in contrast to the Government's forthright and unequivocal acknowledgement of its moral and legal responsibilities.
I would agree that the arrival of 50.000 homeless and jobless people is going to pose enormous difficulties especially if they all arrive at the same lime.
But that's what puts the Great in Britaip we always manage to cope. Not only have we accommodated thousands of Commonwealth citizens. but we also opened our doors to many thousands of Italians. Poles, Lithuanians. Ukrainians, lungarians. Not to mention well over a million citizens of the Irish Republic.
Between 1937 and 1940 some 100.000 European Jews came to Britain. fleeing from Nazi persecution. I here was hostility, and there were difficulties. But we coped.
And we shall cope this time. It is not only the British thing to do, it is also the Christian thing to do. Mr. Powell's utterances will help no one.