HC Deb 04 February 1957 vol 564 cc31-3
60. Mr. Brockway

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs how the British delegate on the ad hoc committee of the General Assembly of the United Nations voted on the Resolution asking the Government of the South African Union to revise their policies on apartheid in the light of their obligations under the Charter; and which member nations voted for the Resolution, which against, and which abstained.

The Joint Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Ian Harvey)

The United Kingdom Representative on the Special Political Committee of the General Assembly of the United Nations voted, on 21st January, against the Resolution in company with four other Members. Fifty-five Members voted for the Resolution and ten abstained. As there was no roll-call vote on the Resolution as a whole there is no official record of the votes of the individual Representatives. I am informed, however, that the Representatives of France, Australia, Belgium and Portugal voted with the United Kingdom against the Resolution and that among those who abstained were the United States of America, Canada, New Zealand, Austria and Brazil. Details of voting by roll-call on certain paragraphs of the Resolution are given on pages 4 and 5 of United Nations Document No. A/3508, a copy of which is available in the Library.

Mr. Brockway

While thanking the hon. Gentleman for that Answer, may I ask him whether he does not think that it is time, in view of the flagrant breach of the Charter of the United Nations and of the Declaration of Human Rights by the Government of the Union of South Africa, that the British vote at the United Nations should go for human liberties in these matters?

Mr. Harvey

It has been the policy of successive Governments not to intervene in the internal administrative problems of members of the Commonwealth. We adhere to that principle in this respect.

Mr. Younger

Does not the Minister think that, despite the well-known juridical difficulties about the question of domestic jurisdiction, it might have been wiser for us at least to have abstained, in company with countries such as the United States, rather than to form, as seems to have been formed, a small group of colonial Powers, thereby giving a totally wrong impression of this country's attitude towards apartheid?

Mr. Harvey

I see the point which the right hon. Gentleman wishes to make, but I think that our vote was an indication of the principle to which we adhere.

Mr. Peyton

Does not my hon. Friend agree that every time attacks are made by hon. Gentlemen in this House on the Union of South Africa they constitute an affront to liberal opinion in South Africa and, as such, are a very marked hindrance to the progress of the cause which they themselves have in mind?

Mr. Harvey

I think, with respect to my hon. Friend, that that is another question.

Mr. J. Griffiths

Can the hon. Gentleman say whether the Government share the view of the country that the way in which liberal opinion has been suppressed and put down in South Africa calls for our condemnation?

Mr. Harvey

I think that the same answer goes as that to the supplementary question of my hon. Friend the Member for Yeovil (Mr. Peyton).