§ 3.0 p.m.
§ LORD COLYTONMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the second Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether agreement has been reached with the Justices of the Supreme Court of the former Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in regard to the arrangements for the payment of their pensions and compensation.]
THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIREMy Lords, the arrangements for the payment of pensions and terminal benefits to the Justices of the Federal Supreme Court are set out in Part V of the Second Schedule to the Dissolution Order in Council. These are as agreed by the Territorial Governments and the British Government and, before the dissolution of the Federation, by the Federal Government. Although they do not accord with the views on pension and compensation put forward by the Federal Judges themselves, which received most careful consideration Her Majesty's Government regard the arrangements as fair and equitable.
§ LORD COLYTONMy Lords, as my noble friend will remember, I raised this matter in our debate on December 17, and it is quite clear that these proposals 1130 are not satisfactory to these very distinguished gentlemen, the Judges of the Supreme Court of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. I understood that my noble friend and the Government had undertaken to look into some of these matters again.
§ LORD COLYTONMay I ask my noble friend whether, in respect of what he has said to-day, he will reopen this question and seek to satisfy these gentlemen in regard to terms of pensions?
THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIREMy Lords, these matters have been very fully gone into, and I think that I should be doing less than my duty to the House if I were to give any answer to my friend other than, No.