1 July 1962 Immediately the minute hand passed midnight, the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 came into force. Described by Hugh Gaitskell, leader of the opposition, as a ‘cruel and brutal anti-colour legislation,’ the new law required all Commonwealth citizens arriving in the United Kingdom to hold a valid visa, effectively revoking the right of settlement…
21 June 1900 On 21 June 1900, opposition was voiced by a minister in Cabinet to General’s kitchener’s ruthless war against Boer insurgents in South Africa, including the destruction of entire villages and the shooting of prisoners on sight. It was not on a point of principle but rather over concern as to how public…
3 June 1940 On 3 June 1940, Winston Churchill wrote a minute to the Cabinet Secretary asking anxiously: ‘Has anything been done about shipping 20,000 internees to Newfoundland or St. Helena ?’ Churchill added, ‘I should like to get them on the high seas as soon as possible.’1 Within weeks of the start of the…
10 January 1949 On 10 January 1949, Emergency regulation 17D authorised the British High Commissioner for Malaya to use mass detentions and deportations, including even entire villages, towns or rural districts, where elements among the population were suspected of supporting the communist insurgents, who were fighting to end British rule.1 Â It was immediately acknowledged even…
LONDON’S LORD MAYOR BANS EMPLOYMENT OF BLACK APPRENTICES [ 14 September 1731 ] On 14 September 1731, the Lord Mayor of London, banned the employment of black apprentices, with a proclamation declaring that ‘It is Ordered by this Court, That for the future no Negroes or other Blacks be suffered to be bound Apprentices at…
GENERAL’S REQUEST TO DEPORT BOER WOMEN TO REMOTE ISLAND IMPRACTICAL [ 20 July 1901 ] On 20 July 1901, the British Secretary of State for War, St. John Brodrick, wrote to General Horatio Kitchener, the Chief of Staff of British forces in South Africa, commenting on the general’s suggestion for the permanent banishment of the…
