Hide Article Text (OCR)
w i einpura; w mures;Perhaps in some far distant day historians will pore over the files of our current newspapers so that they might comment on life during the lateTwentieth Century. We are sure that they will be puzzled.Last week, for example, they might have read that we refused to permit Bobby Fischer, the American chess champion, a visa to play in a Cuban tournament. His application was accompanied by a letterand credentials from Colonel Kdward P. S. Egan of the Peopled oPeople Sports Committee who urged that this visa be granted. Mr. Fischer's attorneypointed out in an accompanying letter that were Bobby to win, it would be a “fantastic propaganda victory for the United States/' Finally, “The Sat* urday Review1' and Chess Magazine certified him us a correspondent, commissioned to do articles for both magazinesMr, Fischer would have joined players from Argentina. Canada. Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain and Britain among others (the others were Iron Curtain countries.)It was not be be. The Slate Department ruled that Bobby Fischer was not a legitimateJournalist since his primary purpose is to play chess. No visa! We wonder why we are so unsure of our way of life that we fear exposure to another system? It would seem to us that if not just a Bobby Fischer but a John Q. Citizen was exposed to life in Cuba under Castro they would return reconfirmed in their faith in the American system.On the other side of Atlantic, an even more peculiar situation has arisen. Britain has, of course a Socialist government. a gv eminent allegedly dedicated to the good of man. But they have just set new impossible quotas on immigration of Commonwealth citizens Into Briiian based on work permits. Most of the citizens so affected are colored many are Indians and Pakistani although most of the would-be i mm i era tils arc from the West Indies. They are all citizens of the Commonweath, The restriction goes so far as to prohibit children tinder the age of lb to join relatives from the Commonwealth now living in Britain.As the correspondent reporting the move for I lie New York Times pointed out, tins is as ifthe United Stales were to bar Puerto Ricans - who are American citizens - from emigrating to the mainland unless they had work permits. A British LaborMember of Parliament put it.'succinctly. She asked if it was going to be easier for an Italian waiter coming to work in Sohu. who may have fought against tins country* to settle here than for a British Commonwealth citizen who may have fought on our side.”It is doubltless true that aloose combination of states with cit zens of nor only different skm pigmentation but different ethnic, cultural ami religious traditions does create problems that make our Negro problems loom minute by comparison. It is what has caused, this w'ock. the unfortunate withdrawal of Singapore from the Malaysian Federation. , ~But, be the facts explained as pver they ran, we pity the historian of the Twenty-Fifth Century who tries to rationalize life in the Twentieth, in our proud Free World,Cicero said it almost two thousand years ago: “O temporal O mores!J.S
Newspaper Details
Scarsdale Inquirer
Scarsdale, New York, US
Thu, Aug 12, 1965
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Iredell C.
NC, USA 09 Oct 2020
Other Publications Near Scarsdale, New York
Scarsdale Inquirer
