Correspondence to and from the Indian Workers Association on race relations legislation

This file primarily contains correspondence between Jagmohan Joshi, on behalf of the Indian Workers Association, and members of the Race Relations Board, but also includes letters written by members of the West Midlands Conciliation Committee - the local body appointed by the Race Relations Board to investigate complaints of racial discrimination and find solutions, through conciliation in the first instance.

The correspondence concerns initial meetings arranged between Joshi and Mark Bonham Carter following the establishment of the Race Relations Board in compliance with the 1965 Race Relations Act, and discussions between the two men about matters relating to the Act, specifically a case of racial discrimination experienced by members of the Indian Workers Association when attempting to buy drinks at public houses in West Bromwich in November 1966.

The bulk of the correspondence in the file relates to the appointment of Oscar Hahn as chairman of the West Midlands Conciliation Committee, and his connections with a trade delegation to South Africa. Letters between Joshi and members of both the Race Relations Board and West Midlands Conciliation Committee contain discussions about the views held by the Indian Workers Association about the formation of the Committee, and the organisation's disappointment at the appointment of Oscar Hahn, as well as the response to Indian Workers Association concerns expressed by Committee members and by Mark Bonham Carter and John Lyttle of the Race Relations Board, and arrangements for meetings between representatives of the different organisations 1966-1967.
Included in this correspondence is a set of minutes of a meeting held at Colmore Row in Birmingham, called by the Co-ordinating Committee Against Racial Discrimination and the Indian Workers Association for organisations which had protested against the appointment of Mr Hahn to meet John Lyttle, Secretary of the Race Relations Board, in December 1966. These minutes include a list of those who attended the meeting, giving details of their names, addresses, and the organisations they represented.
One of the letters sent by John Lyttle to Joshi was written immediately after this meeting, and attempts to explain the reasons why the Race Relations Board agreed the appointment of Oscar Hahn.
Letters dating from the early months of 1967 contain discussions about the possibility of meeting a representative from the Home Office, David Ennals, to exchange views on race relations, and the possibility that the Indian Workers Association might be represented on the West Midlands Conciliation Committee.

Also included in this file is correspondence between Joshi and Mark Bonham Carter about the provision of Indian language editions explaining the Race Relations Act, dated January 1968, and a letter to Joshi from David Ennals at the Home Office concerning a particular prosecution under the Race Relations Act, dated May 1968.