Collective Punishments (Hansard, 14 December 1955)

§ 6. Mr. S. O. Davies
asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies how he proposes to enforce the collective fine of £2,000 on the Cypriot village of Lefkoniko, particularly with regard to the aged, infirm and the poor; and what alternative punishments he proposes to inflict upon those unable, because of poverty, to find the money.

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
The fine has already been collected. This question therefore does not arise, but I can assure the hon. Member that in the assessment account was taken of the varying circumstances of the inhabitants.

§ Mr. Davies
Will the right hon. Gentleman take the House into his confidence at long last about this abominable practice? Will he be good enough to tell us how this fine was collected from the poorer sections of the people of this small town? Did he distrain upon their goods, did he sell them up—

§ Mr. Speaker
The hon. Member has really asked his question: how it was collected. I think that is enough.

§ Mr. Davies
On a point of order. I am really asking how this instrument is being used by this Government. Up to now the right hon. Gentleman has evaded any answer?

§ Mr. Speaker
The hon. Member has asked his question. I do not object to that, but I do not think that he need multiply it.

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
The individual fines, which ranged from £45 in the case of one rich inhabitant to a few shillings, were based on this year's school assessment register prepared by the municipal council, and I think that the fact that the fines were collected in two hours—and thoroughly deserved—is sufficient proof.

§ 7. Mr. S. O. Davies
asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies why he has agreed to the imposition of collective punishments on certain Cypriot villages, in view of the failure of the same kind of punishments inflicted on Malayan communities and its consequent repercussion on the native people and the British forces.

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
His Majesty's Government agreed to the taking of that power as a means of dealing with a recalcitrant village where misdeeds are repeatedly committed which cannot be attributed to individuals, but which may be prevented if they are made matters for collective responsibility. I do not accept the hon. Member's view on the results of collective punishment when it was imposed in the Federation of Malaya.

§ Mr. Davies
Has the right hon. Gentleman forgotten the consequences of this penal instrument in Malaya? As it failed absolutely there, and with the most tragic consequences, cannot the right hon. Gentleman and the Government learn a little about the cruelties which they are perpetrating on people in more than one place in the world?

§ Mr. Fernyhough
Does the right hon. Gentleman realise that what Her Majesty's Government need more than anything else is the good will of the people in Cyprus, and does he not appreciate that to punish the innocent when one cannot find the guilty increases bitterness and hatred, and the more bitterness and hatred increases the more difficult the task will become?

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
When a hundred school boys from a local school in a comparatively small district like this burn down a public building of great value, no one is going to pretend to me that someone does not know who did it.

§ Mr. Lagden
Would the Minister not agree that when thugs and enemies of this country are concerned, it is extraordinary the sympathy which seems to go to them from the benches opposite?