from a Parliamentary correspondent’ eee tte
Mr. Reginald Freeson, M.P,. for Willesden East and Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Transport, has written to the Labour Chief Whip, Mr, Edward Short, saying that he is “seriously considering" his position on immigration, Mr. Freeson entered Parliament at the General Election and he has been prominent in anti-Fascist activities - he has helped to establish the anti-racialist, anti-Fascist paper Searchlight,
His letter to the Chief Whip Challenges the basis of the Government's figure of 6,500 a year for Commonwealth immigration, He deplores the "Muddled thinking and prejudice" that these restrictions and other aspects of the White Paper imply. "I fear that we have shown a lack of political courage," he concludes,
Mr. Freeson's letter sets out 13 questions he intends to put to Ministers when Parliament reassembles. One will enquire as to how the figure of 8,500 was arrived ats; he will ask how,this figure compares with that arrived at by the Mountbatten Mission; way does the report of the Mountbatten Mission have to remain confidental? he will further enquire.
Meanwhile the Kidderminster Labour Party is in a turmoil over immigration: its president, Mr. R.A. Ricketts, has resigned from the panel of Parliamentary candidates, and its press officer, Mr. W. Bufton, has resigned his post. In both cases the Government's immigration policy was the cause,