MONCKTON COMMISSION (REPORT) (Hansard, 25 October 1960)

§ 41. Mr. Wyatt
asked the Prime Minister whether he will make a statement on the Report of the Monckton Commission.

§ 48. Mr. Dugdale
asked the Prime Minister whether Her Majesty's Government accept the recommendations of the Monckton Commission.

§ 49. Mr. G. M. Thomson
asked the Prime Minister if he will make a statement on the Report of the Monckton Commission.

§ 50. Mr. Wade
asked the Prime Minister whether he will make a statement on the Report of the Monckton Commission.

§ The Prime Minister
Her Majesty's Government have expressed their warm gratitude to Lord Monckton and his colleagues for this important Report which provides a valuable analysis of a very complex problem. The Report is now being studied and will be considered at the Federal Review Conference which is to be held shortly.

§ Mr. Wyatt
Will not the Prime Minister say whether the Government adhere to the fundamental principle that secession may be permitted to any one of the three territories after a period of five years, or whether he eventually intends to shelve this Report in the same way as he shelved the Devlin Report?

§ The Prime Minister
No, Sir. This is a Report of an advisory character, covering an immense field; it consists of a majority report and a minority report, and it has a great number of reservations on certain aspects. It is not a question of accepting it or declining it; it is a question of discussing it with all those concerned, once more expressing our gratitude to those who have worked so hard to give us this excellent starting off ground.

§ Mr. Dugdale
is the Prime Minister aware that his best method of expressing gratitude to the Monckton Commission is to accept its recommendations?

§ The Prime Minister
I do not know whether the right hon. Member has read the Report in detail; but it is not a question of accepting a report or declining to accept a report. It covers a very great range, and there are a great number of reservations. Sometimes it merely makes suggestions and proposals that it might be done this way or that way. All that must be considered by the Governments at the review. That is the purpose of the Report.

§ Mr. Gaitskell
Is the Prime Minister aware that, while many of the recommendations are addressed to all five Governments concerned, there is one particularly important one which is addressed to Her Majesty's Government only—the recommendation that they should make a declaration of intention to consider a request from the Government of a territory to secede from the Federation? Will he inform the House whether it is the intention of Her Majesty's Government to accept this recommendation?

§ The Prime Minister
No, Sir. We shall consider the Report as a whole at the Conference.

§ Mr. Gaitskell
In that case may I ask whether the Prime Minister has read or seen a report of the broadcast made by Sir Roy Welensky, which was published in The Times on 12th October, which relates to the important matter of the right of secession? Is the Prime Minister aware that in the course of that broadcast Sir Roy Welensky said that he had received from the Prime Minister assurances that secession was not for consideration by the Commission? Will the Prime Minister make the position clear? Did he in fact give Sir Roy Welensky that assurance? If so, what is his attitude to the Commission's recommendations?

§ The Prime Minister
That supplementary question does not seem to arise out of any of the Questions on the Order Paper. Had it been put down I would have answered it in detail. The statement no doubt was issued on the question whether the terms of reference had or had not been exceeded. The Government issued a statement on 11th October, which I will circulate in the OFFICIAL REPORT. I think it would be more appropriate to deal with this matter in my speech on Tuesday next, for it is rather difficult to deal with it in answer to a supplementary question. I would ask the indulgence of the House to allow me to deal with it in detail in my speech.

§ Mr. Gaitskell
I appreciate what the Prime Minister has said, and agree that some of these matters can be dealt with more appropriately in debate. Would he, however, assure us that he will then deal with the point that I have raised about Sir Roy Welensky's broadcast?

§ The Prime Minister
Yes. I was intending to deal with this question of the terms of reference and the point that has been raised of any assurance which I may have given.

§ Mr. Thomson
Has the Prime Minister noted that, although there are reservations in the Report, the major recommendations of the Commission are exactly in line with the point of view expressed to the Government over a long time by such non-party bodies as the Church of Scotland, and by the Opposition in this House? Will not the Government correct their past mistakes by accepting these major recommendations now?

§ The Prime Minister
I repeat that this matter would be better dealt with in a debate than by Question and Answer in this way. I should have thought that the one absolutely clear result of the Report is the feeling held by all the members, with the exception of the signatories to the minority report, that from the political, social and economic points of view it would be a fatal and tragic error if the Federation were broken up. All the Commission's recommendations, including this one, are calculated not to destroy the Federation but to sustain it.

§ Mr. P. Williams
Is my right hon. Friend aware that there is a considerable body of opinion which considers that the recommendations of the Commission referring to secession have gone outside the letter of its terms of reference? If this is so—there may well be Ministerial opinion to support this point of view—should they not, first, be rejected by the Government, and, secondly, deprecated as leading to a reduction of investment in the Federation in the intervening period?

§ The Prime Minister
I hope that my hon. Friend will allow me to deal with the terms of reference by a speech rather than by attempting to do so in answer to a supplementary question. That course proved agreeable to hon. Members opposite.

§ Mr. Wade
Does the Prime Minister agree that the reference in the Report to the need for the right to secede introduces an element of realism into this very 2151 difficult problem? Will he give an assurance to the House that Her Majesty's Government will not put any obstacles in the way of this being discussed at the Constitutional Conference?

§ The Prime Minister
The object of the Constitutional Conference is that the whole problem should be discussed. The Constitutional Review was due to take place in any event. I believe that, in spite of all the difficulties, the Report will help the Conference to do its work. It is in the spirit of trying to find an answer to this formidable question that I hope that all the Governments will approach their task.

§ Mr. Deedes
Do I understand from what the Prime Minister said that we are to have a day before the Federal Review to discuss the Report?

§ The Prime Minister
No. I suppose that everything is in order in the debate on the Gracious Speech. I merely asked that I should be allowed to deal with this particular point by a speech rather than in answer to supplementary questions.