Owen Sees Racial Trouble in England

"Britain is becoming more like the United States. I found it less interesting than I used to," David E. Owen, Gurney Professor of History and Political Science, told the Winthrop House Forum last night.

Returning to the House for the naming of a private dining room in honor of him and his wife, the former Master, who teaches a course on Victorian England, assessed his year on Sabbatical and pointed to racial prejudice as the country's most serious problem today.

"Though they haven't institutionalized prejudices as we have," Owen said, the British have established a color bar that applies in all areas of society. He said the Los Angeles riots served as proof to Prime Minister Harold Wilson that the flood of non-white immigrants must be integrated into society.

Owen attributed the defeat of former Foreign Secretary Patrick Gordon Walker in his Smethwick constituency to prejudice and the effectiveness of the opposition's slogan, "If you want a nigger neighbor, vote Labour."

Alien Whites

But he said that Wilson's new immigration policy -- restricting the Commonwealth nations to 7500 people a year -- had offended many by putting "alien whites" ahead of people who feel loyal to England.

"Unions have got to learn to understand the world they are living in," Owen asserted as he reviewed England's bleak economic picture. They must leave "their never-never land" and the productivity per unit of labor must rise, if the British balance-of-payments is to improve, he said.