May I say that the intention of this announcement was, as the honourable the honourable Member will know that we are asking colleagues to support the amendment on our behalf, to omit it from the first `to` after `government` at the end of the motion for a resolution and to add instead: to continue to promote the gradual abolition of the coloured bar in all these countries. But I do not approach them from that point of view. I approach it from a much lower point of view, that I believe that common decency is against, that I believe that one of the purposes of civilization is to try to overcome the primitive reactions of humanity against people who are different from them. It`s one of those things not to do. You don`t make fun of men because they blink. You don`t make fun of people because they have a physical difference from themselves. For common reasons of decency and for common reasons of luck, everything speaks against the color bar on both sides. I don`t think it makes white or black happy. I don`t think this has led to the happiness of either race in America, and I believe it should be abolished as soon as possible. I rise on a point of order.

The honourable member named me, may I say, that is what my honourable member is. The friend, the member for Spelthorne (Mr. Beresford Craddock), pointed out that he was right? We have an amendment to the Rules of Procedure, but because the honourable Member tabled his request very late, which was not possible for my honourable Member. Friend to put the amendment late at night. If there was a misunderstanding about the whip`s wording, I apologize, but I agree with the point made by my honourable colleague. But despite all this, no one can say today that the world has not gone back. In the European part of the world, the lights of freedom are going out. When Sir Edward Grey said that the lights would go out and perhaps never be on again in our time, he was right. Many were never resurrected. Lord Boyd-Orr`s warnings showed that the future of colored races is a future that is truly bleak. We live in a world where two-thirds of the population is condemned to poverty, misery, disease and premature death. What is the real basis of our attitude? To answer this question, we must ask ourselves about the meaning and purpose of humanity.

What is the ultimate meaning of man? If we have the answer to this question, we can proceed to the realization that man must get rid of his prejudices, stupidity and arrogance if he wants to reach adulthood. The colored bar is one of the things that must disappear because it thwarts this purpose and hinders one`s spiritual maturity. I wonder if the hon. member, on the other hand, are aware that if they go ahead with the amendment, it will no doubt be interpreted as a gesture against the motion for a resolution and, again, whether they like it or not, as a gesture that they identify with the people who still believe that if we build new houses for the poor, You will use them to put coal in the bath. That will not be true. I am sure that the Honourable Hon. These gentlemen, on the other hand, are no less human than I am, not even the Secretary of State, who is a very human man, but I wonder what it will do. I now come to the subject between the motion for a resolution and the amendment.

It was in 2511 that we scrapped our proposal to legislate, and it is proposed that we continue to promote the gradual abolition of the coloured bar in all these countries. I would just like to point out that if the gradual abolition of the colored bar is to continue as before, regardless of the psychology of the African people, it could lead to the desperate situation of a race war. I would not say for a moment that the member is not a Christian. I am not a Christian myself, so there is no way I can make such a suggestion. I try to live up to Christian ethics, and I constantly fail; I guess I`m not an unusual character that way. When Bishop Carey`s articles were published in a London newspaper, I wrote a very short letter asking him how much latitude he had drawn his particular colored bar and whether it was north or south of Nazareth, but the letter was not published. The effect of alcohol on an African is remarkable. I admit that alcohol sometimes has a remarkable effect on Europeans. But in general, alcohol seems to bring out all the bad instincts in Africa in the most amazing way.

I mention all these points to convey the other side of the coin and to show that it is not only the stupidity of Europeans that has led to a coloured bar and racial discrimination. It may be a small point, but I mention it because it is not fully recognized that a different philosophical approach is to some extent responsible for the disagreements that are taking place here today. Despite the fact that we are not born free and equal, but are born chained and subordinated to a variety of instincts, I would like to add that, therefore, in my opinion, there is a great purely instinctive justification for the color bar and other means of classifying the human race. It has not yet completely disappeared, but we are now moving towards equality for the people of this country, where no man, because he is rich and because of his birth, dares to consider himself better than a miner, a railway worker or a docker. This change is only the result of a series of pieces of legislation that have been implemented in the House of Commons. Just as we had a law that helped us do that, we need to move towards a law that deals with the colored bar in our colonies. This motion for a resolution has been deliberately worded in a way that one would have thought would not be controversial, and one would have really thought that a simple explanation of the Christian religion in a house where people pray every day would have been adopted without amendments. One would have thought that a simple request from Her Majesty`s Government 2518 to try to remove some of the most egregious monstrosities from the coloured bar would not have been considered a partisan attack.