§ 6. Mr. Elwyn Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations how many qualified lawyers, employed in his office in London or on the staff of the United Kingdom High Commissioner in South Africa, are fluent speakers and readers of Afrikaans.
§ Mr. Elwyn JonesIf that is so, can the Joint Under-Secretary of State explain to the House how it was that he and his right hon. Friend were able to consider the significance of the contents of the report of the Commissioner on the Sharpeville shootings, a report of considerable importance to a large number of British-protected persons who were wounded in the shooting, and to the relatives of those who were killed there? If no one in either of these offices could read the report, how on earth was it decided to draw conclusions from it?
§ Mr. BraineI was, of course, answering the Question on the Order Paper. The High Commissioner has on his staff officers who are adequately fluent in the reading and speaking of Afrikaans for normal work. The Question referred to qualified lawyers, however, and it happens that the lawyers do not have this fluency in Afrikaans. Other officials in the Commonwealth Relations Office are fluent in Afrikaans but are not lawyers. I must, of course, make it plain that this was a report to the South African Government and not to the Government in the United Kingdom, but we are concerned with it, and our very proper concern stems from the claims of the Basutos in the Sharpeville shooting, 1724 whose interests are adequately secured by the arrangement come to by the Basutoland Government with a firm of qualified lawyers in Ladybrand, who have a staff of qualified lawyers who can read and speak Afrikaans.