FEARS FOR MORALS

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31081, 9 June 1966, Page 15

FEARS FOR MORALS

Immigrants In Britain (Special Crspdt. N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, June 8. Many Commonwealth immigrants are forbidding their children to join youth clubs because they fear that mixing with English teenagers will lower their morals, says Miss Joan Bennett, youth and community service officer for Sheffield.

She was speaking at a conference on the education, employment and social life of young immigrants, held in Leeds by the Yorkshire committee for Community Relations. Miss Bennett said immigrant parents were alarmed by the sexual freedom of English teenagers and their lack of respect for parental authority. Parents were worried in case their children were “contaminated.”

As a result, virtually no immigrant children were joining clubs, and the few who did were barred by their parents from taking part in activities, no matter how strictly supervised, which involved staying away from home overnight, said Miss Bennett. The young immigrants themselves were reluctant to join, partly because they shared their parents’ anxiety and also because they feared meeting racial prejudice. Miss Bennett added that their fears about racial hostility were not groundless.