Warning of "explosive" Race Relations If Unemployment Rises

Dr. Davison, a senior lecturer in economics at the University College of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica, has said that emplgment is one of the most potentially dangerous areas of race relations in Britain. His warning comes in a study of coloured immigrants: "Black British", published by the Oxferd University Press, price 35 shillings. Competition for jobs, he says, is even more fundamental than competition for houses, and because local inhabitants have been reluctant to take unattractive jobs during full employment immigrants have easily found work in such fields as the hospital services and public transport. "The difficulties begin when the coloured immigrants want to abandon the unattractive jobs and seek better opportunities, particularly when they claim the right to work in skilled trades where strong craft unions operete. .. . Trowble also begits when coloured workers find ~-themselves eligible for supervisory jobs." Dr. Davison's book is largely taken up with a statistical analysis of a careful study of immigrants from Jamaica. These Jamaicans were selected at random before leaving for Britain. They have subsequently been visited and questiened to trace their experiences and problems in a new society. Dr. Davison rejects the commonly held view that West Indians are keener to integrate than Indians and Pakistanis.