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“Their Only Words of English Were ‘Thank You’”: Rights, Gratitude and ‘Deserving’ Hungarian Refugees to Britain in 1956

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Becky Taylor
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Abstract

The Soviet invasion of Hungary in late October 1956 resulted in the exodus of approximately two hundred thousand Hungarians, of whom approximately twenty-one thousand came to Britain within a matter of weeks. This article historicizes the process of reception and resettlement of Hungarian refugees in Britain. Through exploring the rhetoric used and attitudes displayed during the reception and resettlement process, it considers if and how legally recognized rights established for refugees under the 1951 UN Convention mediated their arrival and treatment. It finds a failure of a new discourse of rights to permeate the language surrounding their reception. Instead, well-worn tropes of the generosity of the British and their traditions of tolerance and hospitality were deployed consistently at national and local levels. This had the effect of implying that entry to Britain was a privilege and one not to be abused, and it marginalized refugees who failed to conform to particular expectations. The article argues that tying attitudes toward Hungarian refugees—variously positioned as “grateful” or “ungrateful”—can be usefully understood within the context of broader conceptions of the “deserving” and “undeserving” poor and their relationship with the (welfare) state. Consequently, along with exploring the experiences of reception and resettlement of Hungarians in 1956/7 the article contributes to understandings of behavior, rights, and welfare in postwar Britain.

Keywords

Refugeeswelfare1950scharitycitizenshipimmigrationpovertytolerance
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , January 2016 , pp. 120 - 144
Copyright
Copyright © The North American Conference on British Studies 2016 

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References

1 The National Archives (hereafter TNA), HLG 107/5, British Council for Aid to Refugees (BCAR), information pack, Appendix D, 28 November 1956, emphasis added.

2 The majority arrived between November 1956 and January 1957. Tony Kushner and Katherine Knox, Refugees in an Age of Genocide: Global, National, and Local Perspectives during the Twentieth Century (Abingdon, 1999), 248.

3 TNA, AST7/1621, Political and Economic Planning, draft report, “Refugees in Britain,” 8 January 1958, para. 18.

4 The notable exceptions are Kushner and Knox, in chapter 8 of Refugees in and Age of Genocide, “Refugees from Hungary: Anti-Communist Fervour Takes Hold,” 241–61; and Alexandre de Aranjo, “Assets and Liabilities: Refugees from Hungary and Egypt in France and Britain, 1956–60” (PhD diss., University of Nottingham, 2013). Good introductions to the Canadian literature are Christopher Adam et al., eds., The 1956 Hungarian Revolution: Hungarian and Canadian Perspectives (Ottawa, 2010); and Robert H. Keyserlingk, ed., Breaking Ground: The 1956 Hungarian Refugee Movement to Canada (Toronto, 1993). For Canadian oral histories, see, for example, 1956 Hungarian Memorial Oral History Project (Canada), http://www.multiculturalcanada.ca/node/1521 and https:// www.pier21.ca/research/collections/online-story-collection/hungarian-revolution-refugees; 1956 Memorial: The Hungarian Exodus, http://www.1956memorial.com/history.php?page=immigration.

5 Home Office, Fairer, Faster, Firmer—A Modern Approach to Immigration and Asylum, July 1998, Cm. 4018; Sales, Rosemary, “The Deserving and the Undeserving? Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Welfare in Britain,” Critical Social Policy 22, no. 3 (August 2002): 456–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bridget Anderson, Them and Us? The Dangerous Politics of Immigration Control (Oxford, 2013). An excellent overview of developments in immigration and asylum legislation since the 1980s can be found in Dallal Stevens, UK Asylum Law and Policy. Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (London, 2004). For analysis of contemporary debates and trends see COMPAS, the Oxford Centre for the Study of Migration, https:// www.compas.ox.ac.uk/research/citizenship/, accessed 27 July 2015.

6 On the different cohorts of refugees to Britain in the twentieth century see Kushner, Tony, “Local Heroes: Belgian Refugees in Britain during the First World War,” Immigrants & Minorities 18, no. 1 (1999): 1–28CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Natalia Benjamin, ed., Recuerdos: Basque Children Refugees in Great Britain (Oxford, 2007); Myers, Kevin, “History, Migration and Childhood: Basque Refugee Children in 1930s Britain,” Family and Community History 3, no. 2 (November 2000): 147–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar; A. J. Sherman, Island Refuge: Britain and Refugees from the Third Reich 1933–1939 (London, 2013); Gerhard Hirschfeld, Exile in Great Britain: Refugees from Hitler's Germany (Leamington Spa, 1984); Frank Caestecker and Bob Moore, eds., Refugees from Nazi Germany and the Liberal European States (New York, 2010); Louise London, Whitehall and the Jews, 1933–1948: British Immigration Policy, Jewish Refugees and the Holocaust (Cambridge, 2000); Weindling, Paul, “Medical Refugees in Britain and the Wider World, 1930–1960: Introduction,” Social History of Medicine 22, no. 3 (December 2009): 451–59CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Adam et al., The 1956 Hungarian Revolution; Colville, Rupert, “Where Are They Now? The Hungarian Refugees Fifty Years On,” Refugees 144, no. 3 (October 2006): 4–24Google Scholar; Zieck, Marjoleine, “The 1956 Hungarian Refugee Emergency, an Early and Instructive Case of Resettlement,” Amsterdam Law Forum 5, no. 2 (Spring 2013): 45–63Google Scholar.

7 David Cesarani and Tony Kushner, The Internment of Aliens in Twentieth Century Britain (London, 1993); Colin Holmes, “Hostile Images of Immigrants and Refugees in Britain,” in Migration, Migration History, History: Old Paradigms and New Perspectives, ed. Jan Lucassen and Leo Lucassen (Berne, 1997), 317–34; Tony Kushner and Kenneth Lunn, eds., Traditions of Intolerance: Historical Perspectives on Fascism and Race Discourse in Britain (Manchester, 1989).

8 See for example Kushner and Knox, Refugees in an Age of Genocide; London, Whitehall and the Jews. See also Peter Gatrell, The Making of the Modern Refugee (Oxford, 2013), and Michael R. Marrus, The Unwanted: European Refugees from the First World War through the Cold War (Philadelphia, 2002).

9 Tony Kushner, Remembering Refugees: Then and Now (Manchester, 2006). See also Wendy Ugolini and Gavin Schaffer, “Victims or Enemies? Italians, Refugee Jews and the Re-Working of Internment Narratives in Post-War Britain,” in The Lasting War: Society and Identity in Britain, France and Germany after 1945, ed. Monica Riera and Gavin Schaffer (Basingstoke, 2008), 207–25.

10 Kushner, “Local Heroes,” 6.

11 Colville, “Where Are They Now?,” 4–24.

12 Steve Cohen, Standing on the Shoulders of Fascism (Stoke on Trent, 2006).

13 Debra Hayes, “From Aliens to Asylum Seekers: A History of Immigration Controls and Welfare in Britain,” in From Immigration Controls to Welfare Controls, ed. Steve Cohen, Beth Humphries, and Ed Mynott (London, 2002), 30–46.

14 Frank, Matthew and Reinisch, Jessica, “Refugees and the Nation-State in Europe, 1919–59,” Journal of Contemporary History 49, no. 3 (July 2014): 477–90, at 478CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 James Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Resistance (New Haven, 1985); Vinayak Chaturvedi, Mapping Subaltern Studies and the Post-Colonial (London, 2000); Dipesh Chakrabarty, Habitations of Modernity: Essays in the Wake of Subaltern Studies (Chicago, 2002); Becky Taylor, Another Darkness, Another Dawn: A History of Gypsies, Roma and Travellers (London, 2014).

16 For details on the inclusion of Hungarian refugees under the terms of the 1951 UN Convention, see Zieck, “The 1956 Hungarian Refugee Emergency.” The 1951 and European limitations of the original convention were removed in the 1967 Protocol. For the full text of both, see http://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10.html.

17 T. H. Marshall, Citizenship and Social Class and Other Essays (London, 1950), 28–29, 40, 78–80. See also Richard Weight and Abigail Beach, The Right to Belong: Citizenship and National Identity in Britain, 1930–1960, ed. Richard Weight and Abigail Beach (London, 1998), intro.; and Harris, Jose “Political Thought and the Welfare State, 1870–1940,” Past and Present 135, no. 1 (May 1992): 116–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For specific critiques of how the (welfare) state excluded particular groups see for example Ruth Lister, Citizenship: Feminist Perspectives (Basingstoke, 2003); Kathleen Paul, “From Subjects to Immigrants: Black Britons and National Identity, 1948–62,” in Weight and Beach, Right to Belong, 223–48; Becky Taylor, A Minority and the State: Travellers in Britain in the Twentieth Century (Manchester, 2008); Pat Thane, ed., Unequal Britain: Equalities in Britain since 1945 (London, 2010). For an American perspective, see Linda Kerber, No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship (New York, 1998).

18 Sonya Rose, Which People's War? National Identity and Citizenship in Britain, 1939–1945 (Oxford, 2003), 16n58. See also Jose Harris, “Nationality, Rights and Virtue: Some Approaches to Citizenship in Great Britain,” in Lineages of European Citizenship: Rights, Belonging and Participation in Eleven Nation-States, ed. Richard Bellamy, Dario Castiglione, and Emilio Santoro (London, 2004), 73–91.

19 Rodney Lowe, The Welfare State in Britain since 1945 (Basingstoke, 1993), 138–39 and 159. For a feminist perspective on citizenship and welfare see Blackburn, Sheila, “How Useful are Feminist Theories of the Welfare State?” Women's History Review 4, no. 3 (1995): 369–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rian Voet, Feminism and Citizenship (London, 1998); and Carole Pateman, “The Patriarchal Welfare State,” in Democracy and the Welfare State, ed. Amy Gutmann (Princeton, 1988), 231–60.

20 John Welshman, Underclass: A History of the Excluded, 1880–2000 (London, 2006).

21 Mark Peel, Miss Cutler and the Case of the Resurrected Horse: Social Work and the Story of Poverty in America, Australia, and Britain (Chicago, 2011); Taylor, Becky, “‘Mrs Fairly is a Dirty, Lazy Type’: Unsatisfactory Households and the Problem of Problem Families, Norwich, 1942–1963,” Twentieth Century British History 18, no. 4 (2007): 429–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 Jordanna Bailkin, The Afterlife of Empire (Berkeley, 2012).

23 Firsthand accounts of those working with refugees in Britain in this period can be found in the diaries and correspondence of Dorothy Strange, a key member of Worthing Refugee Committee. See DD MSS 51, 975–77, West Sussex Record Office, Chichester. The University of East London Refugee Council Archive (hereafter RCA) shows the European focus of their work in this period, see Box 1, Executive Committee Minutes and Box 2, Council Minutes. For discussions of the experiences of these migrants to Britain and the different selection processes see Kathleen Paul, Whitewashing Britain. Race and Citizenship in the Post-War Era (Ithaca, 1997); Inge Weber-Newth, “Narratives of Settlement: Eastern Europeans in Post-War Britain,” in Histories and Memories. Migrants and their Histories, ed. Kathy Burrell and Panikos Panayi (London, 2006), 75–95; Linda McDowell, Hard Labour: The Forgotten Voices of Latvian Migrant ‘Volunteer’ Workers (London, 2013); Webster, Wendy, “Defining Boundaries: European Volunteer Worker Women in Britain and Narratives of Community,” Women's History Review 9, no. 2 (2000): 257–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar; eadem, “Britain and the Refugees of Europe, 1939–50,” in Gendering Migration. Masculinity, Femininity and Ethnicity in Post-War Britain, ed. Louise Ryan and Wendy Webster (Aldershot, 2008), 35–51.

24 See for example the Home Office White Paper Secure Borders, Safe Haven—Integration with Diversity in Modern Britain, 7 February 2002, Cm. 5387, and the subsequent Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002.

25 The literature on decolonizing and postcolonial Britain is vast and expanding. Useful entry points include Vernon, James, “The Local, the Imperial and the Global: Repositioning Twentieth-Century Britain and the Brief Life of its Social Democracy,” Twentieth Century British History 21, no. 3 (September 2010): 375–418Google Scholar; Wendy Webster, Imagining Home: Gender, Race and National Identity, 1945–64 (London, 1998); Bailkin, Afterlife of Empire; Camilla Schofield, Enoch Powell and the Making of Postcolonial Britain (Cambridge, 2013); Bill Schwarz, Memories of Empire, vol. 1, The White Man's World (Oxford, 2011).

26 Psychiatric and sociological research of the period, as well as those working with refugees, revealed the extent significant numbers of refugees had adjusting to life in postwar Britain and living with trauma. Mabledon hospital in Kent was established under the 1947 Polish Resettlement Act 1947 to provide physical and psychiatric care for Polish and Eastern European patients. Bülbring, Maud, “Post-war Refugees in Great Britain,” Population Studies 8, no. 2 (November 1954): 99–112CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Horobin, Gordon, “Adjustment and Assimilation: The Displaced Person,” Sociological Review 5, no. 2 (December 1957): 239–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar; John Tannahill, EVWs in Britain (Manchester, 1958), 107–8. On the Hungarians specifically, see Dormandy, Thomas L., Eldon, William, and Milner, C. A., “Medical Care of Hungarian Refugees,” Lancet 269, no. 6980 (June 1957): 1183–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mezey, A. G., “Personal Background, Emigration and Mental Disorder in Hungarian Refugees,” British Journal of Psychiatry 106, no. 443 (April 1960): 618–27Google Scholar. Bailkin, Afterlife of Empire, chap. 1, provides an overview of the shift from attention on European refugees' mental health to that of Afro-Caribbeans over the course of the 1950s.

27 Wendy Webster, “Britain and the Refugees of Europe 1939–50,” in Ryan and Webster, Gendering Migration, 35–51.

28 See, for example, Michael Banton, The Coloured Quarter (London, 1954); idem, White and Coloured: The Behaviour of British People towards Coloured Immigrants (New Brunswick, 1960); see also Anthony Richmond, Colour Prejudice in Britain: A Study of West Indian Workers in Liverpool, 1941–1951 (London, 1954); idem, “Immigration as a Social Process: The Case of Coloured Colonials in the United Kingdom,” Social and Economic Studies 5, no. 2 (June 1956): 185–201Google Scholar.

29 Drake, John St. Clear, “The ‘Colour Problem’ in Britain: A Study in Social Definitions,” Sociological Review 3, no. 2 (December 1955): 197–217CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30 Translation of Hungarian Relief committee documents text of leaflet to be distributed to refugees, n.d., MCC/CH/CO/1/81, London Metropolitan Archives (hereafter LMA), emphasis added.

31 See for example the 100-page “Cry Hungary” Picture Post special edition, November 1956; Parliamentary Debates, Commons, vol. 560, 19 November 1956, cc1461–518; the Illustrated London Post editions for 3, 10, and 17 November 1956; and the Victor Weisz cartoons in the Daily Mirror, Michael Cummings' in the Daily Express, and David Low's in the Manchester Guardian from mid-October to late November 1956. A discussion of the role of the media in transmitting and interpreting events can be found in Alan Webb, London Calling: Britain, the BBC World Service and the Cold War (London, 2014), chap. 9; and Rawnsley, Gary, “Cold War Radio in Crisis: The BBC Overseas Services, the Suez Crisis and the 1956 Hungarian Uprising,” Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 16, no. 2 (1996): 197–219CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 “Hungarian Relief Workers Short of Space: Appeal for Help in Storing Goods,” Manchester Guardian, 15 November 1956, 14; “Britain's Hungarian Guests Arriving Today: Lord Mayor's Fund Reaches £150,000,” Manchester Guardian, 17 November 1956, 4; “European Reaction to Russian Deeds in Hungary: Riots and Protests,” Illustrated London News, 17 November 1956, 6128, 838; “Gaitskell: We Salute Fight for Freedom,” Observer, 28 October 1956, 11; Keith Flett, ed., 1956 and All That (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 2007).

33 See for example “Hungarian Refugees Crossing the Border,” Times, 6 November 1956, 18l; “Our Special Correspondent, ‘Refugees’ Sanctuary from Soviet Persecution,” Times, 7 November 1956, 8.

34 BCAR, minutes of Executive Committee meeting, 14 November 1956, Box 1, RCA.

35 The uniformed civilian organizations are the British Red Cross, Women's Voluntary Service (WVS), and St. John's Ambulance. For a good overview of debates around the relationship between the state and voluntary sector see James McKay and Matthew Hilton, NGOs in Contemporary Britain: Non-State Actors in Society and Politics since 1945 (Basingstoke, 2009), 1–20.

36 BCAR, minutes of Executive Committee meeting, 16 January 1957, Box 1, RCA.

37 TNA, AST7/1621, Draft Report on Hungarian Refugees, 15 April 1957; BCAR Executive Committee Minutes, 14 November 1956, Box 1, RCA; letter from WVS Northern Regional Office, 4 July 1958, DSO73/27, Carlisle Archive Centre (hereafter CAC). £650,000 is worth approximately £14,000,000 in today's prices.

38 The BCAR included representatives from the British Red Cross, British Federation of University Women, World University Service, International Social Service, WVS, St. John's Ambulance, Rotary, National Council of YMCAs, National Association for Mental Health, Toc H, Inter-church Aid and Refugee Service, Central British Fund for Jewish Relief and Rehabilitation. It also included government representatives from the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Labour and National Service.

39 For details of one region's clothing collection work during the Hungarian crisis, see DSO73/27, CAC. The WVS was established in May 1938 and in 1966 changed its name to the Women's Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS) following official recognition from the Queen. In 2013 it changed again to Royal Voluntary Service (RVS).

40 Minutes of Executive Committee meeting, 14 November 1956, Box 1, RCA.

41 BCAR, minutes of a special meeting of the Executive Committee, 9 January 1957, Box 1, RCA.

42 Jackson, The Most Welcomed (?) Refugees, 25–28. For details of similar activities in other parts of the country see “British Relief Funds to Aid Hungarian Refugees,” Times, 8 November 1956, 7; and “Britain's Hungarian Guests Arriving To-Day: Lord Mayor's Fund Reaches £150,000,” Manchester Guardian, 17 November 1956, 4.

43 For a typical example, see “Welcomed to England: The First Hungarian Refugees to Arrive Here,” Illustrated London News, 24 November 1956, 906.

44 Hungarian Refugee Camp, Hednesford, Staffordshire, 26 September 1957, 2 and 4, 725-1-26-09-1957, Royal Voluntary Service Archive & Heritage Collection (hereafter RVS), Devizes, Wilts. See also 725-1-1957 Narrative Reports, and WVS update circulars, DSO 73/27, CAC.

45 WVS Leaflet for the householder who is offering accommodation to the Hungarians, 11 Dec 1956, MCC/CH/CO/1/81, LMA.

46 Ibid., emphasis added.

47 Hungarian Refugee Camp, Hednesford, Staffordshire, 26 September 1957, 2 and 4, 725-1-26-09-1957, RVS. For other examples of gratitude see 725-1-1957 and 725-1-Narrative Reports, RVS.

48 Kushner, Remembering Refugees, 119.

49 See for example Parliamentary Debates, Commons, 29 October 1956, vol. 558, cols. 68–72; “Life and Death under the God that Failed: Refugees in London, But Still Afraid. Our London Staff,” Manchester Guardian, 19 November 1956, 14; “Home Office Welcome to Refugees: ‘Fullest Protection’ of Law and Courts,” Manchester Guardian, 28 November 1956, 14; “Army's Welcome For Refugees: From Our Military Reporter,” Times, 7 December 1956, 7.

50 North Riding of Yorkshire Branch of the British Red Cross Society to Colonel Pennyman, 28 February 1957, emphasis added, U/PEN 11/17, Teesside Archives.

51 WVS circular letter, “Hungarian Relief Clothing,” 19 February 1957, DSO 73/27, CAC.

52 “First Steps in Hungarian: Talking to the Refugees,” Times Educational Supplement, 30 November 1956.

53 Translation of BCAR documents text of leaflet to be distributed to refugees, n.d, MCC/CH/CO/1/81, LMA.

54 Hungarian Relief Work, Background News Letter No. 10, 4 February 1957, DSO 73/27, CAC.

55 Outline of speech and speakers' report to WVS, February 1957, HU3-Feb-1957, RVS.

56 The Brains Trust ran from 1941 to 1961, first in radio and then in television format, and at the height of its popularity regularly drew audiences of over 10 million.

57 TNA, HLG 107/5, Transcript of BBC The Brains Trust Hungarian discussion, n.d., early 1957.

58 WVS Accommodation for Hungarian Refugees, CN.HR.4/56, 7 December 1956, DSO 73/27, CAC.

59 TNA, AST7/1621, Political and Economic Planning, draft report, “Refugees in Britain,” 8 January 1958, para. 41.

60 BCAR: Information Bulletin for Local Committees, Cooperating Organisations, Headquarters and Field Staff, April/May 1957, LCC/CL/WEL/1/54, LMA.

61 TNA, HLG 107/5, S. J. Partridge to A. J. Merritt, 8 April 1957.

62 Accounts submission to BCAR, n.d.; house log book; North Riding of Yorkshire Branch of the British Red Cross Society to Col. Pennyman, 28 February 1957, U/PEN 11/17, Teesside Archives.

63 Handwritten notes of speech, n.d., probably February 1957, U/PEN 11/17 Teesside Archives.

64 Scott, Weapons of the Weak.

65 Sister M. Agilbertha, Pennsylvania to Mr and Mrs Penimen [sic], 18 February 1957, U/PEN 11/17, Teesside Archives.

66 Letter to Colonel Pennyman, 10 July 1958, ibid.

67 TNA, HLG 107/5, Transcript of BBC The Brains Trust Hungarian discussion, n.d., early 1957.

68 For example, note on meeting held at Home Office, 7 January 1957, HH56/62, National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh (hereafter NAS).

69 Hungarian Refugee Camp, Hednesford, Staffordshire, 26 September 1957, 725-1-26-09-1957, RVS.

70 TNA, S. J. Partridge to A. J. Merritt, 8 April 1957.

71 Narrative Reports, Ockenden Hungarian Hostel, Torquay, 725-1, RVS.

72 Report by Alastair MacPhee, Camp Manager, Broomlee Camp, n.d., HH56/62, NAS.

73 Ibid., Report of Broomlee Camp Medical Officer, Dr G. K. Mackenzie, n.d.

74 TNA, LAB12/934, AC Johnston to Hepburn, 9 August 1957.

75 Ibid., J. Oates, “Note of a visit to Hednesford Hungarian Camp to investigate the need for closer cooperation between the various organisations operating in the camp,” 18–21 June 1957.

76 Peel, Miss Cutler and the Case of the Resurrected Horse; Taylor, “‘Mrs Fairly is a Dirty, Lazy Type.’”

77 WVS Regional History of Hungarian Camps: Region VII (South West), 1–2, 20 August 1957, 725-1-20-08-1957, RVS.

78 See, for example, discussion surrounding the reception of Vietnamese refugees, First Meeting of the Advisory Council for the Reception and Resettlement of Refugees from Vietnam, n.d., early 1980, LMA/4243/A/06/090, LMA.

79 Minutes of Scottish Committee for Aid to Refugees third meeting, 8 January 1957, HH56/62, NAS. Articles about the camp appeared in the Scotsman, 5 January 1957, 5, and the Sunday Dispatch, 6 January 1957.

80 Scottish Home Department, minute, 10 January 1957, HH56/62, NAS.

81 Minute to Mr Mackenzie, 10 January 1957, minute from Mackenzie to Graham, 10 January 1957, Scottish Home Department, minute, 10 January 1957, NAS: HH56/62, NAS. At the end of January, four hundred Hungarians were transferred from Scotland to Northern Ireland in preparation for immigration to Canada.

82 Refugee Relief Work, WVS Background Newsletter No.18, 21 May 1957, DSO 73/27, CAC.

83 See also the series of letters to the editor of the Manchester Guardian in the week of the 14 February 1957. BCAR workers and those of an immigrant background were significantly more sympathetic to the problems faced by refugees than the Ministry of Labour interpreter who thought “a very large majority of the refugees did not take an active part in the uprising, and left largely for economic reasons.” Cuttings from TNA, LAB12/934.

84 “Letter to the Editor: Are they Heroes or Scoundrels?,” Observer, 10 March 1957; Harry Hendrick, Child Welfare: England 1872–1989 (London, 2003); Wills, Abigail, “Delinquency, Masculinity and Citizenship in England 1950–1970,” Past and Present 187, no. 1 (May 2005): 157–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

85 TNA, AST7/1621, Confidential Memorandum 994, 13 December 1957.

86 “Trouble outside Hostel: Twenty-Two Fined,” Manchester Guardian, 27 June 1957, 3; Jackson, The Most Welcomed (?) Refugees, 54.

87 TNA, AST7/1621, Confidential Memorandum 994, 13 December 1957.

88 “Trouble outside Hostel.”

89 Jackson, The Most Welcomed (?) Refugees, 56.

90 See, for example, “Our Correspondent, ‘Refugee Mine Workers,’” Times, 10 January 1957, 3.

91 Jackson, The Most Welcomed (?) Refugees, 30.

92 Refugee Relief Work, WVS Background Newsletter, No. 21, 30 July 1957, DSO 73/27, CAC.

93 TNA, AST 7/1621, Confidential Memorandum 994, 13 December 1957.

94 Note on meeting held at Home Office, 7 January 1957, HH56/62, NAS.

95 Frank and Reinisch, “Refugees and the Nation-State,” 484.

96 The Hungarian uprising lasted from 23 October until 10 November 1956, and the Suez Crisis from 29 October to 7 November 1956. An implicit criticism of Britain's hypocrisy over invading Suez while condemning the Soviet invasion of Hungary can be found in “Double Standard,” Times, 22 November 1956, 11.

97 “Heroes or Scoundrels,” Observer, 10 March 1957.