Rhodesia (Currency Restrictions) (Hansard, 13 March 1967)

§ 52. Mrs. Knight
asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what are the present currency restrictions placed upon British visitors to Rhodesia.

§ The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. Niall MacDermot)
As announced by the Treasury on 1st December, 1965, no facilities for travel to Rhodesia are allowed except for approved official or business purposes.

§ Mrs. Knight
What possible right has the Treasury to withhold permission for people to spend their own money and their full travel allowance to visit their own relatives in Rhodesia? Is it not overbearing and arrogant to treat people in this way?

§ Mr. MacDermot
Not at all. The exchange control restrictions, of which these are part, are a very important part of our sanctions policy.

§ 53. Mr. Ronald Bell
asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will increase the allowance for personal gifts to residents of Rhodesia to an aggregate of £50 from any one donor per annum.

§ Mr. MacDermot
No, Sir.

§ Mr. Bell
Why not? Is not this also very harsh? Is it not the case that when the £50 was laid down it was considered that there was an emergency which would last rather a short time? Now that it is dragging on, ought not the allowance to be put on an annual basis, which is surely what the Government originally had in mind?

§ Mr. MacDermot
No, Sir. For the reasons which I gave in answer to the hon. Lady the Member for Birmingham, Edgbaston (Mrs. Knight), the longer this goes on, the more important it is that we should enforce these provisions. In cases of genuine hardship it is always possible to give special treatment, but as a general rule we ought to maintain this limit.