LAST week we carried a story about the need to accommodate an influx of refugees into the Malvern area.

The story, Counting the Cost of Asylum, strove to show the financial implications of accepting these unfortunate people into our area. It's an area which is still grey and needs to be solved by central government.

We did not attempt to sensationalise the story or comment on why these people have been forced out of their own homes into a foreign land.

But today we will - if only to back the sensible and compassionate words of school govenor Heather Williamson.

Mrs Williamson should know what she is talking about. Around 20 years ago she was involved in helping to integrate a number of "boat people" onto our shores. It seems she made quite a good job of it.

Today we are faced with a different world but, hopefully, the same values have endured.

For while costs are an issue to be sorted out by the authorities, there is something else which is necessary in order for refugees to start picking-up their lives. Tolerance.

Having escaped tyranny, political persecution and racial abuse, refugees should be assured they will not face the same in this country.

This is the true test of a civilised nation...