During the early 1960s, Powell was asked about the recruitment of immigrant workers for the NHS. He replied by saying "recruitment was in the hands of the hospital authorities, but this was something that happened of its own accord given that there was no bar upon entry and employment in the United Kingdom to those from the West Indies or anywhere else the Commonwealth or colonies." Powell did welcome immigrant nurses and doctors, under the condition that they were to be temporary workers training in the UK and would then return to their native countries as qualified doctors or nurses. Shortly after becoming Minister of Health, Powell asked R.A. Butler (the Home Secretary), if he could be appointed to a ministerial committee which monitored immigration and was about to be re-constituted. Powell was worried about the strain by NHS immigrants, and papers show that he wanted a stronger restriction on Commonwealth immigration than what was passed in 1961.