HC Deb 11 March 1954 vol 524 cc2441-5
Mr. S. Silverman

I beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House under Standing Order No. 9, in order to call attention to a definite matter of urgent public importance, namely, the suspension of the Constitution of British Honduras while an election is in progress. I apologise for not having had an opportunity to give you notice of my intention to ask this leave, but I expected that events would have taken a different course.

Mr. Speaker

The hon. Member for Nelson and Colne (Mr. S. Silverman) asks leave to move the Adjournment of the House under Standing Order No. 9, in order to call attention to a definite matter of urgent public importance, namely, the suspension of the Constitution of British Honduras while an election is in progress. I have had no notice of this at all. At first sight I do not think it is within the Standing Order. It is a matter that can be discussed at any time and not only today, and so, I should have thought, it fails to comply with the condition of urgency.

Mr. Silverman

I apologise for not having given you a better opportunity of considering the matter, Sir. I submit that the urgency lies in the last point in my notice of Motion, namely, the suspension while an election is in progress. One infers that a general election is now running and, as I understand the matter, polling day is only a week or two off. If the Constitution is suspended, one assumes that that puts an end to the election, as the election can only take place under the Constitution which is now being suspended. If that is right, the urgency of the matter is hardly arguable.

Mr. Speaker

I took it, from my reading of the newspapers, that the arrangement for the election was for some time in April—I think it was 23rd April. There is, therefore, ample time. The arrangements for the election seem to form part of the Constitution, and if the hon. Member tells me that the Constitution has been suspended my previous Ruling holds. There is ample time to discuss it at any time. I must rule against the hon. Member. The Motion does not, on my view, comply with the Standing Order.

Mr. Silverman

I appreciate the difficulty of dealing with the matter without adequate notice or proper opportunity to consider it. Might I ask that I may be able to raise the matter with you again, after there has been further opportunity of considering it? The point that I have in mind is that if a Constitution is suspended after an election has commenced, but before the conclusion of it, during the period of that suspension the election is, as it were, dormant, and if the suspension is to be revoked then much of the time devoted to the election has been lost, with consequent great prejudice to the parties concerned.

Mr. Speaker

I do not think we can carry this discussion any further. The hon. Member certainly is at liberty to raise the matter with me and I will deal with the matter in all its bearings when he does so and give the best Ruling I can. I say definitely at the present time that to the best of my belief his Motion does not comply with the provisions of the Standing Order.

Several Hon. Members

rose—

Mr. Speaker

We cannot have further discussion of this matter.

Mr. J. Griffiths

On a point of order. The Secretary of State for the Colonies is not in the country, and there has been no statement to the House on British Honduras. May I ask you, Mr. Speaker, whether permission has been asked of you by the representative of the Colonial Office to make a statement on this matter?

Mr. Speaker

I was asked to allow a Private Notice Question about the Constitution of Honduras, but not about its suspension, which is a new matter entirely. I did not think that it fell within the conditions of urgency which I have to apply for a Private Notice Question. This is obviously a matter which has just occurred, and in my view the House would be far better advised to consider the matter when it is better informed and can come to a conclusion upon it. I must ask the House to accept my Ruling.

Mr. Royle

Can we have your guidance in this matter, Mr. Speaker? This morning I asked permission to put down a Private Notice Question because of the suspension of this Constitution, and in your wisdom you decided against it. Questions to the Colonial Secretary for next Wednesday come very late on the Order Paper, and it might conceivably be three weeks before we can get an Oral Answer. The Leader of the House has stated this afternoon that it will be impossible for him to give time for a discussion of this matter next week. In view of the fact that the election is due on 23rd April, cannot a way be found by which the House can discuss the matter?

Mr. Speaker

It is a matter which hon. Members of the House can arrange for themselves. I am certain that I have not sufficient information about this matter to justify me in acceding to this request.

Mr. Attlee

Is it not clear that the Government ought to make a statement on the matter?

Mr. Crookshank

As the House is aware, my right hon. Friend is in Kenya and, therefore, could not personally make a statement on this or any other topic this week. But I will see that the points which have been raised receive immediate consideration.

Mr. Attlee

The House knows that the right hon. Gentleman is away, but there is, of course, the joint collective responsibility of the Cabinet. It is clear that a statement on a matter of great importance such as this should be made by the Prime Minister or any other Cabinet Minister.

Hon. Members

Answer.

Mr. Speaker

It is obvious to the House that a request has been made for a statement. If that matter is pursued in the ordinary way, I am sure that we shall have a statement.

Mr. J. Griffiths

May I ask the Prime Minister whether the situation in British Honduras has been considered by the Cabinet, and whether the decision announced this morning in the newspapers is the decision of Her Majesty's Government?

The Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations (Mr. John Foster)

I have been in the House and although I did not hear the intervening questions, I heard the hon. Member for Nelson and Colne (Mr. S. Silverman) ask permission to raise a matter of public importance on the grounds that the Constitution of British Honduras had been suspended. I understand that the Constitution of British Honduras has not been suspended.

Mr. Griffiths

Will the Under-Secretary say why the Colonial Office did not at once repudiate a statement, widely publicised, that the Constitution had been suspended? Secondly, is it true that a commissioner has been sent to investigate the position in British Honduras? If so, why was not a statement made when an important step of that kind was taken?

Mr. Foster

The only newspaper report which I read did not state that the Constitution was suspended. As I say, I understand that the Constitution has not been suspended. [HON. MEMBERS: "Understand?"] Yes, I "understand" because that is the information I have been given. I am not in Honduras itself —the only way one would know at first hand. But the Constitution has not been suspended. I am speaking from memory here, but the position is that the existing Constitution goes on until some time in April. That Constitution has not been suspended.

Mr. Speaker

I would recall to the memory of the House that this discussion began with the request from the hon. Member for Nelson and Colne (Mr. S. Silverman) to move the Adjournment of the House under Standing Order No. 9. That is how it all started. It cannot now degenerate into a debate on British Honduras of which we have had no notice.

On the second point which the hon. Member for Nelson and Colne raised; in addition to what I said before in declining to find this to comply with the Standing Order, I would point out that on many, many occasions it has been ruled that when the information before the House is not agreed, or is conflicting, there is no possibility of a Motion under the Standing Order until the matter has been cleared up. When the matter has been cleared up and we are on a sound basis of fact we shall know much better how to proceed. In the meantime, I really must declare this matter at an end. We have disposed of the hon. Member's point.

Mr. S, Silverman

rose—

Mr. Speaker

I hope that the hon. Member is not going to argue with my decision?

Mr. Silverman

I do not propose to argue with it, Sir. I only want to say, further to the point that you, Sir, have now raised, that I hope that you will accept my assurance—and that the House will have observed for itself—that there was no question whatever of any doubt about the information, or any question at all that the facts on which I raised my point were true, until the hon. Gentleman spoke at this moment—at the very end of the interchanges which have taken place. I understand, Sir, that you yourself have said that this morning you were asked for permission to ask a Private Notice Question, which can only mean that the Colonial Office left you in the same ignorance about the facts as they left the House.

Mr. Speaker

If the hon. Member desires an assurance from me that I believe he raised this point bona fides, I gladly give that assurance, because I never thought otherwise.