HC Deb 28 June 1962 vol 661 c1335
14. Sir T. Moore

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (Central African Office) whether he has yet arrived at any definite conclusion regarding the future of the Federation of the Rhodesias and Nyasaland.

Mr. R. A. Butler

I do not intend to reach any conclusion on this matter until I have received and considered the report of my advisers whose names I have just announced.

Sir T. Moore

Do I understand from that rather conditional reply that the Federation is likely to remain as at present constituted, which I believe to be right, or that a Federation will be continued, possibly with a different composition?

Mr. Butler

That depends very much on what my advisers find out and what we decide to do afterwards. My advisers will have, as their first charge, as I said on 8th May, the task of examining with the Nyasaland Government, before any final conclusion is reached, the economic and financial consequences for Nyasaland of withdrawal from the Federation. They will also have the task of examining— possible alternative and acceptable forms of association with the other two territories, and … with the Governments of Northern and Southern Rhodesia … possible forms in which all three territories might be associated in future, or any alternative form of association that might be worked out."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 8th May, 1962; Vol. 659, c. 245.]

Sir C. Osborne

Does not political independence necessarily involve economic self-sufficiency?

Mr. Butler

I think it all depends.