Source 3: Express and Star

Transcript (Caption for the photo)

When this party of West Indians stepped ashore at Plymouth their worries had only just begun. And few people were ready to give them a helping hand.

Transcript (Article)

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But until he gets a job, the West Indian can go to public assistance [unemployment benefit], filling in a form which is signed by a National Assistance Board officer and honoured by payment at the employment exchange.

At this point, it is necessary to correct a fallacy [mistake], spread by white people on the “dole” [unemployment benefit] , West Indians are not overpaid on Public Assistance. Skilled N.A.B officers allow them bare living sums and often inspect lodgings to check up on wealth and income.

The search for a bed is often a living nightmare for the West Indian. If he finds a boarding house with rooms to spare, he is often turned away, sometimes rudely as soon as the landlady sees his skin.

The general housing shortage intensifies [makes it worse] the difficulty. Last week I heard a Wolverhampton Citizen’s Advice Bureau official relate how she had to turn away a West Indian six times in a week, when he asked for accommodation.

HOUSE FULL

“In desperation”[as there was nothing] , she concluded, “I had to give him the address of a house already brimming with West Indians. After all, he had got to have a bed and shelter!”

On the other hand, some immigrants like to join up with earlier arrivals. Unsophisticated [natural], naturally warm-natured, they are easily depressed by loneliness, seek the company of their own folk-and very often pay for the privilege [put up with cost] in the form of a stiff [high] rent for crowded rooms owned by coloured landlords.

But the picture is not always dark.

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