§ 13. Sir L. Ungoed-Thomasasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he will arrange for the Bills, Regulations and enactments of Northern Rhodesia and of Nyasaland to be made available in the Library of the House of Commons immediately on publication.
§ Mr. Iain MacleodI am always ready to make particular documents of interest to hon. Members available in the Library 1113 of the House, but it does not seem to me to be practicable to make the entire legislative proceedings of any Colonial Territory available in this way.
§ Sir L. Ungoed-ThomasCannot the Minister be a little more forthcoming? Does not he appreciate that during this critical period of development in Central Africa it is immensely important that this House should be kept up to date and fully acquainted with the legislative enactments carried out there? Does he appreciate that in the Public Security Bill provision is made for drastic measures, such as conscripting labour, and, in so doing, discriminating between black and white? Does not he further agree that it is extremely important that this House should be kept fully informed at the earliest possible moment about what is going on?
§ Mr. MacleodI am very ready to help the hon. and learned Member, or any hon. Member, on this matter, but it cannot be done in the way suggested by the hon. and learned Gentleman. I could not make the documents available immediately on publication because to do so I should have to have copies of them before they were published. But I do not think it right—because what I do for one Territory I should have to do for all the others—that we should try to keep under the microscope the individual legislative programmes of the thirty-eight Territories. That is against the whole theme of devolution of responsible Government from this House. On the other hand, I will try to help the hon. and learned Gentleman or any other hon. Members who would like special arrangements made for them in special circumstances, but I would not do this for all Territories, nor would I wish it to be a continuing process.
§ Sir L. Ungoed-ThomasDoes not the Minister appreciate that precisely for that reason and owing to the critical situation in Central Africa at the moment the Question was limited to Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia? Would he not make a special arrangement owing to the special circumstances that apply there?
§ Mr. MacleodI fully understand that. If I were to do that for these Territories, I do not see how I could resist doing it for other Territories. I am very ready to consider whether the information that 1114 comes is adequate. I know the great interest of hon. Members in these matters, but I should like to leave it in this way. If an hon. Member would like information about a particular document, I will try to make it available to him or put it in the Library of the House. I will look into the question whether the main legislative enactments of particular Territories can be made available in the light of what the hon. and learned Member has said.