HC Deb 13 April 1960 vol 621 cc1281-7
The Minister of State for Commonwealth Relations (Mr. C. J. M. Alport)

With your permission, Mr. Speaker, and that of the House I would like to make a statement.

As I informed the House on 5th April, the United Kingdom High Commissioner has been keeping in close touch with the Government of the Union of South Africa with regard to the rights and interests of citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies who have been arrested as a result of the emergency in that country. I subsequently gave the House, on 7th April, details of the report of the visit of the High Commissioner's representative to Miss Stanton, in Pretoria Prison.

Since then the High Commissioner has informed my noble Friend that the Supreme Court at Pretoria has given judgment that Miss Stanton has the right to consult her legal advisers, subject to any rules applicable from time to time at the place of detention. The Union Government have been pressed for details of the charges against Miss Stanton. Miss Stanton has also been seen by her brother.

A representative of the High Commissioner has also visited Dr. Elias Letele, a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies, in Kimberley Prison, and has found him in good health and well treated. He has requested the Union authorities to allow Dr. Letele to consult a lawyer without delay and to accord him certain other facilities. The High Commissioner has also asked the Union authorities the details of the charges on which Dr. Letele is detained.

The High Commissioner is keeping in touch with the Union Government on both these cases with a view to obtaining an early decision regarding their release or their appearance before the courts of justice.

The High Commissioner is also in touch with the Union Government with a view to ascertaining whether any of the other arrested persons is a United Kingdom citizen and not also a Union national. It has now been confirmed that Miss Blumberg is a citizen of the Union of South Africa and not of the United Kingdom.

A limited number of persons have entered the High Commission Territories including, as the House is aware, Mr. Segal and Mr. Tambo. Both the latter are in the Bechuanaland Protectorate and there is no objection to them remaining there. I think that the House would wish to know that the High Commissioner is being given powers of discretion in relation to immigration into the Protectorates of Bechuanaland and Swaziland broadly similar to those which the Home Secretary possesses in the United Kingdom.

The Anglican Bishop of Johannesburg, Dr. Reeves, arrived in Swaziland early this month and from there asked the High Commissioner to discover whether the Union authorities intended to arrest him or to detain him under the emergency regulations, if he returned to the Union.

The High Commissioner has approached the Union Government for information which he thinks may assist the bishop in determining his future course of action, and in the light of the exchanges which he has had with South African Ministers has been in touch with the bishop. It will, of course, be for Dr. Reeves to reach his own decision whether to return to the Union or not.

The services of the High Commissioner will continue to be available to any person in the Union of South Africa whose status and circumstances warrant it.

Mr. Marquand

While welcoming the announcement that the High Commissioner now has adequate powers to ensure that persons who had committed no crime whatever and who had entered the High Commission Territories will not be sent back, may we have an equally categorical assurance that such persons are free to leave and go to any other country they wish if they so desire?

Is the hon. Gentleman aware that he has really told us nothing more about Miss Stanton and Dr. Letele than he told us a week ago? We know that the High Commissioner is keeping in touch with the Union Government, but we know no more. Has not the situation passed altogether beyond the desirability of keeping in touch? Is the hon. Gentleman aware that no charges whatever had been preferred against Miss Stanton or Dr. Letele, both persons of high repute, and will he not now follow the very good example set by Canada and demand their immediate release?

Mr. Alport

First, as far as I know, there is no obstacle to anyone leaving the Protectorate that he is in provided that he is in possession of the requisite travel documents. Let me add to that. It is not, of course, necessary for them to be in possession of these documents simply for the process of leaving the Protectorate.

Secondly, I fully realise the concern of hon. Members on both sides of the House about the position of Miss Stanton and Dr. Letele. Everything that I have heard about both of them testifies to their high character and, in the case of Miss Stanton, her long record of Christian work in the Union.

The points which the right hon. Gentleman has made have been drawn to the attention of the Union authorities by the High Commissioner, and we hope that they will be effective in ensuring that to both these individuals full justice and proper treatment is accorded. I would point out to the right hon. Gentleman, however, that their cases are not immediately parallel with that of Mr. Phillips, the Canadian national. The right hon. Gentleman will remember that the decision in the case of Mr. Phillips was, in fact, not only to release him, but to deport him, which, in the case of the two individuals concerned, may be a very different matter.

Mr. Marquand

We are not suggesting that these people can be deported. What the House of Commons would like to say —I believe that the whole House of Commons is with me on this, looking, as I do, at the faces opposite—is that these two United Kingdom citizens, charged with no crime whatsoever, have been imprisoned far too long already and ought now to be out.

Mr. Alport

I fully recognise that. The right hon. Gentleman and I were both present at the debate on Friday when we dealt with this difficult and grave problem, as a House of Commons, with great restraint, sympathy and understanding. I assure the right hon. Gentleman and hon. Members on both sides of the House that we fully recognise the force of what they feel about these two cases.

Mr. Gresham Cooke

Is my hon. Friend aware that, despite the order of the Supreme Court of Africa that Miss Stanton should be able to see her legal advisers, there were Press reports yesterday that she was in solitary confinement and had not, in fact, yet been allowed to see her legal advisers? Is he further aware that there is a great deal of sympathy in this country for Miss Stanton? I have had a great many letters testifying to her high Christian character. Would he press the High Commissioner in South Africa, as no charge has been made against her, to ask that she should at least be allowed out on bail?

Mr. Alport

I do not think that the High Commissioner needs pressing in this matter. Indeed, on the instructions of my noble Friend, he has taken very direct action in regard to these two cases with the South African authorities. On the question of solitary confinement, it is perfectly true that this lady is confined alone in a room, or cell, on her own. I thought, originally, that perhaps the privacy which that entailed might have been of some advantage to her. I fully understand my hon. Friend's point that if this is in any way regarded as solitary confinement it would be a very different matter indeed.

Mr. Elwyn Jones

Is it right that these British subjects should be denied access to a legal representative, kept in durance vile without charge, without an emphatic protest by Her Majesty's Government on the Floor of the House?

Mr. Alport

I have already said that the House and the Government regard this matter with great seriousness. So far as our contacts with the South African authorities through the High Commissioner in the Union are concerned, I can assure the House that there need be no doubt but that the Union authorities realise the concern which is felt here about these two cases. I have already said, and I am sure that the House will accept, that these cases are not necessarily parallel with that of Mr. Phillips, but I am sure that the expression of view which has been included in this exchange will further add to the purpose and views of the representations which have been made.

Mr. Callaghan

Can I ask the Minister of State a perfectly straightforward question? Has the High Commissioner asked for the release of the British subjects who have been detained without charge? If he has not yet done so, will the Minister of State instruct him to do so immediately?

Mr. Alport

Our anxiety is to get urgently ߞ[HON. MEMBERS: "Answer."] I am answering the question. We are trying to get a statement of the charges which are made against these two individuals. If, in the circumstnaces, they are not forthcoming, I can assure the hon. Gentleman and the House that further representations will be made.

Mr. Callaghan

Why has the Minister of State waited for a fortnight? Miss Stanton was arrested on 30th March. No charges have yet been forthcoming in the 14 days which have elapsed. If the South African Government have been unable to construct charges in that period, why cannot the Minister of State tell the House that he will protest to the South African Government and ask for their release?

Mr. Alport

I have already said to the hon. Gentleman that the views of the Government on this matter have been made perfectly clear to the South African Government. Our anxiety—and the High Commissioner's anxiety—duffing the whole of this period has been to do everything he possibly could to help these United Kingdom citizens. It was not a question of our waiting for any lapse of time. As soon as it was possible to ascertain that they had been arrested, the High Commissioner took immediate action in accordance with the instructions of my noble Friend.

Several Hon. Members

rose—

Mr. Speaker

I need the help of the House. We cannot debate these matters when there is no Question before us.

Mr. Gaitskell

There is one other matter arising out of the statement to which reference has not been made—the case of Miss Blumberg. Are we to understand from the Minister's statement that because it appears that she is a citizen of the Union of South Africa, and not of the United Kingdom, he therefore washes his hands of her affairs altogether, despite the fact that she represents a British newspaper and was arrested almost certainly because of her attempts to report to that newspaper what was happening in South Africa?

Mr. Alport

The right hon. Gentleman asked me about this lady in supplementary questions yesterday, and I told him that I would give him the information as soon as I possibly could. The fact is that she is a citizen of the Union and not even a dual citizen. We have no locus standi in this matter. I have no information to suggest that what the right hon. Gentleman said is borne out by the facts, that is, that the arrest of this lady was related to any contribution which she made to a newspaper here or anywhere else.

Mr. Gaitskell

Does the hon. Gentleman accept no responsibility for the position of the representative of a British newspaper in these circumstances? If he doubts what I said about her being arrested because of attempts to report, may I refer him to the reports of her arrest in the British newspapers? Will he at least make inquiries about the reasons for her arrest?

Mr. Alport

As the hon. Gentleman is aware, we had questions about this matter yesterday. I said, and I am sure that the House agreed, that we are concerned that no hindrance should be placed in the way of obtaining from the Union of South Africa, or anywhere else, accurate news of events taking place there. But this is the case of a particular citizen of the Union of South Africa and we are governed in this matter by the law, which is accepted generally, not only in the Commonwealth but elsewhere.

I know that at one point yesterday the right hon. Gentleman seemed to be rather impatient with the effect of the law in this matter, but, on reflection, he may agree that it is important that when, as in this case, we are dealing with the legal rights of individuals, if the Government's views are to carry weight and are to be effective, the Government must bear in mind their legal obligations as well.

Mr. Gaitskell

I am not concerned with the details of the legal position. I am asking the Minister of State whether he does not think it right that our High Commissioner should inquire why this representative of a British newspaper was arrested and whether it was because of what she was reporting about the events in South Africa; and whether he does not think it right that our High Commissioner should therefore protest about it.

Mr. Alport

Certainly, if there is no further information about it, I will make inquiries and let the right hon. Gentleman know.

Several Hon. Members

rose—

Mr. Speaker

I think I require the aid of the House. We cannot debate this matter now.