§ 19. Mr. Alportasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will make a statement with regard to the Sudan Government's announcement on the terms of compensation to be offered to British officials whose appointments are Sudanised either prior to or after 1st July, 1955.
§ 24. Mr. E. Wakefieldasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what arrangements are being made for payment of compensation to British officials in the Sudan who, in accordance with the Sudanisation programme, will shortly be relinquishing their appointments.
§ Mr. Selwyn LloydA statement was made in the Sudanese House of Representatives on 22nd April on behalf of the Sudanese Government outlining the principles of the Government's policy regarding expatriate officials. The most important of these is that both the Government and expatriate civil servants shall have the right, on giving due notice, to terminate their contracts on 1st July, 1955, and the officials whose services are terminated under this provision shall have fair treatment in accordance with terms of compensation to be decided. The Government had already announced that those whose services were terminated as a result of Sudanisation should receive fair compensation.
I understand that a joint committee of the Sudanese Government and representatives of the Governor General has been set up in Khartoum and is studying actual compensation terms with a view to early action in the Sudanese Parliament, which reassembles on 10th June.
§ Mr. AlportMight I ask whether the panel of experts to advise the Sudanese Government on matters of compensation has been appointed and, if so, whether it contains a representative of the United Kingdom?
§ Mr. LloydI do not know whether the word "panel" is the right word to describe the body. I understand that the Sudanese Government have invited certain experts from certain countries to advise them. They have invited one from the United Kingdom who I think has already gone, or is about to go, to the Sudan.
§ Mr. WakefieldIs my right hon. and learned Friend aware that, in order to create ill-will between British and Sudanese, money is now being collected in the streets of Khartoum for a fund to provide compensation for British expatriate officers? What is the attitude of the Government towards that fund, which has been approved by the Ministry of the Interior? Cannot the Government do something to anticipate a comparable offer from the Egyptian Government?
§ Mr. LloydI am not aware of the fund about which my hon. Friend has just asked. I have no knowledge that the Sudanese Government are unwilling to deal with this matter on a fair basis. I cannot believe that the Sudanese Council of Ministers would regard it as consistent with the dignity of a self-governing country to encourage the practice to which my hon. Friend referred.