HC Deb 05 May 1959 vol 605 cc200-1
26. Mrs. Castle

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies how many European civil servants in Nyasaland, receiving expatriate pay, are expatriates.

Mr. J. Amery

Nine hundred and forty-four, but I should perhaps add that eight of these are children of parents who settled for life in Nyasaland.

Mrs. Castle

Is not the Under-Secretary of State therefore aware that these persons who are the children of Europeans who settled in Nyasaland are as much locally domiciled as are the Africans in the equivalent level of the Civil Service, but who nevertheless are receiving hundreds of £s a year less? Is not this, therefore, a contradiction of the statement made by Lord Home when he returned from Salisbury recently in which he said that under federation Africans will get equal treatment when they are equally qualified with Europeans?

Mr. Amery

I am not quite sure about the validity of the hon. Lady's first assertion. I think that some of the eight out of the 944 were recruited in this country after living in this country for a number of years, but I am at present making inquiries into that. In any case, looking to the future, it seems to me that this is a matter which will arise for consideration in connection with current proposals for a locally based Civil Service in Nyasaland, to which I referred in my supplementary answer to the hon. Lady on 28th April.

Mr. J. Griffiths

Is the Under-Secretary aware that he has enunciated a new principle? Do I gather that former Colonial civil servants who decide in future to base their homes in the Territory are still to be regarded as expatriates and that they will go on receiving expatriate allowance? Is not that a departure from the time-honoured principle?

Mr. Amery

I think that the right hon. Member has misunderstood my supplementary answer. If he will look at it in HANSARD tomorrow, the right hon. Gentleman will see the correct effect of it.

Mr. Griffiths

I did not misunderstand the hon. Under-Secretary's statement. I gathered the Under-Secretary to state that there were so many hundred expatriates, eight of whom were those who had decided to make their permanent home in the Territory. If that is not what the Under-Secretary said, at least it is what I understood him to say and perhaps he will correct it.

Mr. Amery

I said that eight of those were the children of parents who had decided to make their permanent home in Nyasaland. I went an to say to the hon. Lady the Member for Blackburn (Mrs. Castle) that I have not been able to discover whether in each case these people were living in Nyasaland at the time they joined the service.