Constitution

HC Deb 14 February 1963 vol 671 cc1459-60

3. Mr. Healey

asked the First Secretary of State if he will now convene a conference to revise the Constitution of Northern Rhodesia.

5. Mr. Goodhew

asked the First Secretary of State what plans he has for a new Constitution for Northern Rhodesia.

Mr. Iain Macleod

I have been asked to reply.

When my right hon. Friend was in Lusaka last month a joint delegation of the United National Independence Party and the African National Congress presented proposals for a new constitution, but he entered into no commitments at this stage.

Mr. Healey

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that yesterday in Central Africa the Northern Rhodesian Parliament voted by an overwhelming majority to secede from the Federation, or expressed the desire to secede from the Federation, and that on the same day the Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia said that it would be wise to make a clean break with the Federation now? As all the Territorial Governments now wish to end the Federation, and any hope of economic co-operation between the constituent parts depends on recognising the end of the Federation, can the right hon. Gentleman tell us why his right hon. Friend is still delaying and dilly-dallying on this matter? Is there some other secret pledge yet to be published if we take some other step?

Mr. Macleod

That is a very unworthy comment. Of course I am aware of what has been happening in Central Africa recently. The general election to which the hon. Gentleman refers was, after all, completed only on 10th December, 1962, and whatever the shortcomings of that Constitution for which I have been a good deal criticised, it has at least produced a Government which reflects the majority held in the Legislature by the African parties. I think that what is in the minds of people at the moment is really the future association of the territories. That is the present concern, and not perhaps the question of immediate constitutional change.

Mr. Goodhew

Does not my right hon. Friend agree that if there is to be any stability in this type of territory, any new constitution should at least be given some time to prove that it works properly? Does not he also agree that the most urgent thing to do at the moment is to call a conference in Africa, and not in Lancaster House, in order to discuss the whole future of the Federation?

Mr. Macleod

I agree with the general tenor of my hon. Friend's supplementary question, but the question of the venue of such a conference, if one is called, is a matter for my right hon. Friend the First Secretary.

Mr. Healey

With his great experience of these matters, will not the right hon. Gentleman accept the fact that any hope of a fruitful association between these three territories—as many hon. Members on both sides of the House believe—is extremely important, and that it will depend on accepting that the Federation was a mistake, allowing it to be dissolved, and allowing the constituent Governments to get into contact with each other from a clean sheet?

Mr. Macleod

I cannot altogether accept that suggestion, although I accept parts of it. Everybody knows the position in relation to the Federation at present, but I think that I am right in saying that in most people's minds the immediate question is not so much one of constitutional advance for any given territory—although that will come—but the future of the association, and what form it should take, between these territories.