BRIEF
3⁄4/6
Minister of State, Lord Shepherd
MINISTERIAL COMMITTEE ON COMMONWEALTH
IMMIGRATION
Preta of Employment Vouchers for the UK
Dependent Territories
A memorandum by the Commonwealth Secretary
is attached and is to be considered at a
meeting of the Ministerial Committee on
Monday, 13 November.
Background
The Official Committee on Commonwealth
Immigration considered on the 3 August a paper
which proposed that the total quota for
Commonwealth immigrants should be increased by
1,000, from 8,500 to 9,500 a year, and of
this a quota of 1,300 a year should be set
aside for the dependent territories. This
proposal received a hostile reception and was
not approved. The chief objection was the
present level of unemployment in the United
Kingdom and the difficulty of getting across
to the public proposals to increase
immigration.
Subsequently we suggested that the quota
ahould be found from within a total figure and
not be made additional to it. Initially there
was objection to this because it would mean
reducing the number of vouchers issued to
immigrants from the independent Commonwealth
countries and this would cause considerable
resentment