Fijian Student Denied Flat

J.P. Dickers on Colour Bar

The upstairs tenant "objects to sharing her kitchen with a coloured person" a Fijian student was told, when applying for a flat in Oriental Bay last week. The student, married to a European girl, was first accepted, but then called again by the landlord and told "we had better call the whole thing off."

Approached by Salient, the landlord, a Justice of the Peace, said "they say there is no colour bar here, but deep down there is. It might work with the people I have here now, but what show have I got if they leave? Who would I get in with a mixed couple here?"

The two disappointed applicants are philosophical about it. The student's wife said, "what gets my goat is the hypocrisy of these people. If the tenant had objected the first time on the grounds of colour, I would have admired her for her courage. The landlord was no better: he kept hedging on the issue too."

Salient then approached a staff member who had some contact with the Colombo Plan, to see if the same thing applied to Colombo Plan students. "No," we were told, "it has happened that one or two Colombo Plan students have run into difficulties—but it is not at all general."

—Special Correspondent.