HC Deb 22 November 1962 vol 667 cc1403-5
Q.7 Mr. Healey

asked the Prime Minister if he will appoint a Secretary of State with responsibility exclusively for Colonial affairs.

The Prime Minister

No. Sir.

Mr. Healey

Without raising any question of the personal suitability of the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Streatham (Mr. Sandys)—we all hope that he will soon be restored to health and that we shall soon see him again in the House—might I ask the Prime Minister whether he would not agree that the exceptionally heavy burden of work in the spheres of Commonwealth affairs and colonial affairs is too much for any single Minister to carry at one time? Is he aware that very many people both inside and outside this House feel that some of the recent events relating to British Guiana, Kenya and Aden might have been avoided had there been a senior Minister exclusively responsible for colonial affairs able to deal with them?

The Prime Minister

I cannot accept what the hon. Gentleman says in the second part of his supplementary question. The responsibility is that of the Minister and the Government as a whole.

With regard to the main supplementary question, I think that for quite a long time there has been discussion about the desirability of amalgamating these two offices. There is a great deal to be said for it. I have not gone as far as that because at present we are operating by bringing them together at the top through the Minister, keeping the offices for the moment separate bat working much more closely together than perhaps they have been able to do in the past. When one considers that only in the last two years British Colonies with a combined population of 50 million have become independent, and now Jamaica, Trinidad and Uganda have become independent, with the result that what used to be in comparison an enormous responsibility has been reduced to one for about 17 million people, I think this tentative movement towards getting the two offices together is a good experiment. The close cooperation of the two Departments is already showing good results.

Mr. Healey

Although the number of Colonies has been drastically reduced in recent years, the complexity and difficulties of the remaining colonial problems are as great as any faced in the past. Does not the Prime Minister recall telling the House that his right hon. Friend would be unsuitable for accepting responsibility for Central Africa because he was identified with one particular communal interest in the area? Is not that also an argument against his being made responsible for areas where there are majorities of people of non-European race?

The Prime Minister

No, Sir. I thought that what we did in the case of Central Africa was a step which had the advantage of placing all these territories under a single Minister instead of under one or the other of two Departments. My right hon. Friend the First Secretary of State was given an office of his own to deal with it. This is a wider experiment in the direction in which I feel sure we have to move. I think that it is best to make a start, not by trying at this stage to combine the two Departments, but by putting them under the responsibility of a single Minister. Great as my right hon. Friend's responsibilities are, they are not greater, for instance, than those of my noble Friend the Foreign Secretary.

Mr. Gaitskell

Is not part of the difficulty caused by the fact that the two Departments are not combined, which necessarily means an exceptionally heavy burden on the Secretary of State? Will the Prime Minister consider whether the time has not come—since he seems unlikely to separate the two again—when they should be properly integrated so that the civil servants can share the burden?

The Prime Minister

Yes, Sir. I think that steps to closer co-operation are being taken and we may at some point be able to take a further step. This seems the best way to start the experiment.