BACK STREET NEW WORLDS

England Forever!"" is generally agreed. The question is rapidly becoming ""English Forever?"" Although this is, as admitted, ""a brief inquiry"" instigated at the request of Punch and based on a series of articles which appeared there, it does point up Great Britain's increasingly overwhelming immigration problem. Elspeth Huxley combines statistics with personal observation and comment as she explores the major problems caused by the recent influx of aliens. Her informal examination of the more populous ethnic and racial groups results in some generalizations amplified by anecdotes and man-in-the-street comments. The obvious problems of housing, education, jobs, health, etc are carefully noted but her major concern is with their side-effects: prejudice, apartheid, cultural identity vs. assimilation, etc. She comments candidly on these issues from a British point-of-view i.e. prejudice ""isn't race prejudice, which we could remedy, but our national character, which (at least quickly) we can't."" An interesting, if partisan, sociological study.