§ 1. Mr. Brockwayasked the Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations on whose authority police personnel and cars from Bechuanaland were used to patrol Zeerust in the Union of South Africa when disturbances were feared in connection with the regulation requiring African women to carry passes.
§ The Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations (Mr. C. J. M. Alport)Police personnel and cars from the Bechuanaland Protectorate have not been used to patrol Zeerust. The hon. Member may perhaps have in mind a recent visit by a sub-inspector and two constables of the Bechuanaland Protectorate Police from Lobatsi to Zeerust in a Bechuanaland Protectorate Police vehicle. Their journey was made on official business connected with the acquisition of evidence about a recent robbery at Ootsi siding in the Protectorate and was not connected with any events in Zeerust.
§ Mr. BrockwayWhile thanking the hon. Gentleman for that reply, may I ask whether he is aware that I have in mind reports which appeared in the South African Press of the disturbances at the village of Zeerust and the statement there that police trucks with British Protectorate registration plates took part and 540 that there were police and a contingent apparently from Bechuanaland? Will he look further into the matter?
§ Mr. AlportIf the hon. Gentleman will send me the information at his disposal, I shall be only too glad to look into it. But the information I have does not bear out the allegations in the reports to which he refers.