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41
permanent neighbours, permanent friends and developing bonds
of affection. There are many cases where children are changing
their address several times in the course of a year.
I was heartened to find that during the last year there appeared
to have been fewer cases of friction between landlord and tenant
involving coloured and white people, and hoped that this indicated
a greater degree of tolerance and understanding. However,
unhappily I also noted that misunderstanding and friction between
landlord and tenant, and between tenants where both parties are
coloured increased. In my report of last year I expressed the fear
that certain areas were tending to develop into racial areas.
Unfortunately, this trend has not halted. This may be the explanation
of the situation described above.
The number of marital and extra marital problems brought to
my attention increased. It is becoming more generally understood
why there are differences in attitude towards marriage, sexual
relationships and raising families between some migrant people and
people among whom they have come to live. These differences are
rooted in the social history of the districts from whence many of
our new citizens come. I should make it quite clear I am not
talking about promiscuity or immorality, but the behaviour that is
accepted as normal. Nevertheless, these different social patterns do
produce complex difficulties when we are trying to fit them into our
pattern of social behaviour and the legislation that goes with it.
While unions not sanctified and protected by marriage can
produce stable and happy family units within a smaller and less
complex community, where social sanctions and custom completely
accept this, and itself exercises the necessary protection and control,
they can produce much hardship and misery in a city like London.
It was to be anticipated that attitudes and customs would not
change overnight, and given that they did, marriage would not
necessarily solve all the problems right away, because previous
personal histories might mean that there would be other ties and
children of other unions living with other family units—sometimes
not even in the same country as the mother or father. It was also
to be expected that as newcomers are like any other group of
individuals, there would be among them some men who would be
prepared to take advantage of the customs of their homeland, but
who, at the same time, would quickly appreciate that in a city of
this size it would be easier to evade responsibility.
I appreciate that these are teething troubles, but this does not
mean we can allow time to take care of them, because there are
children being born under these circumstances, and these children
are defenceless and do not have the protection, care, understanding
or approval that they would normally have in the homelands of
their parents.
The attitude of some of the men towards women is still foreign
to our own and the women who must be the vanguard of the attack
on this situation appear still to be so submissive that in fact they are
encouraging the men to carry on in the old way rather than accept a
more egalitarian attitude towards them.