§ 10. Mr. Marquandasked the Minister of State for Commonwealth Relations what official information he has received from the Government of Southern Rhodesia regarding the conditions under which it is prepared to co-operate in this year's review of the constitution of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
§ Mr. AlportI have not received any official communication from the Government of Southern Rhodesia in this sense.
§ Mr. MarquandIs the right hon Gentleman aware that, according to a report in The Times on 29th January, in Salisbury Sir Edgar Whitehead announced three conditions on which he would be 1195 prepared to co-operate in the constitutional review this year? Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that one of those conditions was the removal from the Southern Rhodesian constitution of all the remaining reservations which give power to this Parliament to protect the interests of Africans in Southern Rhodesia, and that the other two conditions, taken together, amount to an insistence upon white domination, not only of Southern Rhodesia, but throughout the Federation? Does not a declaration of this kind by the Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia amount to a mockery of the Monckton Commission even before it has started its work and a condemnation in advance of anything it may find?
§ Mr. AlportNo, I do not think that is at all the case. The points of view of the various Governments which are to form part of the 1960 Conference is a matter which no doubt they will express at that Conference. In the meantime, presumably there can be no obstacle to any leader of opinion putting forward views beforehand if he wishes to do so.
§ Mr. MarquandDoes the right hon. Gentleman realise that this statement by the Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia was elicited in response to reports of what our Prime Minister said in Nigeria as a direct consequence of our Prime Minister's action? Will the right hon. Gentleman draw the attention of all the members of the Cabinet to the very serious impasse which now seems to be developing?