Integration in Holland
SIR,—A lot is talked about the Dutch success in the integration of Indonesians in their society. What is overlooked, when trying to draw parallels with British immigrants, is that there are few Dutch
families who have not either direct connections, or contacts through relatives, with their former colony, and many know the Indonesian language. In England, on the other hand, few people have been to Pakistan or the West Indies. The Indo-
nesians have a culture which is considerably older than our own. They have a religion (Moslem) which enforces morality, courtesy, cleanliness, temperance. This is in contrast to the somewhat elementary standards which may prevail among some of our own immigrants. (The Indonesians might well teach many Europeans a lesson in morality.) It is no doubt a shameful fact that the irrational prejudice against miscegenation with dark-skinned races— reciprocated in reverse by these races themselves---- hardly arises in connection with the lighter-skinned Polynesians, hence a deep-rooted biological fear is absent in Holland. One should not therefore imagine that the integration achieved so painlessly by the Dutch would be equally easy in this country.
3 set 6 Belle Vue Road, Lower Parkstone, Dorset
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