HC Deb 09 December 1969 vol 793 cc232-3
Q1. Mr. Barnes

asked the Prime Minister if he will invite General Gowon to visit London to take part in talks with him about future British policy regarding the Nigerian civil war.

The Prime Minister (Mr. Harold Wilson)

I have no plans to do so. As my hon. Friend is aware, my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs is at present visiting Lagos.

Mr. Barnes

My right hon. Friend spoke yesterday of a choice between evils. Would he agree that one makes a choice between evils only when that is the only way to achieve a specific objective? Would he further agree that increasing the supply of British arms, which was presumably intended to help Nigeria win, has not brought a Nigerian military victory any nearer than a year ago?

The Prime Minister

These matters were very fully dealt with in my speech yesterday and are likely to be debated at considerable length today. I do not think that the issues raised in my hon. Friend's supplementary question can be most appropriately dealt with by way of question and answer.

When I referred to a choice between evils, I was referring in this context to a clash between, on the one hand, a prolongation of the war and all that that would mean in terms of malnutrition and so on, and, on the other, proposals for speeding relief supplies. I thought that that was a problem and dilemma which I should put before the House because we must all face it.

Mr. Thorpe

Since the right hon. Gentleman referred in his Answer to the visit of the Parliamentary Secretary, may I ask him to say if it is the intention of the Government that that Minister should also seek to have a meeting with Colonel Ojukwu and visit Biafra?

The Prime Minister

That is not currently proposed—[Horn. MEMBERS: "Oh? "]—but this is the sort of issue with which my right hon. Friend may wish to deal when he speaks in the debate later. I have said that we do not rule out contact at varying levels with the Biafran leadership. Indeed, I myself offered a meeting with Colonel Ojukwu last March in one of 10 possible African areas for a meeting. It is well known, of course, that there is a Biafran representative in London, and it is possible for us and others to have contact with him.