§ The following Question stood upon the Order Paper:
§ 44. Sir J. RODGERSTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the recent official visit of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State to Anguilla.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. Private Notice Question. Mr. Peter Walker.
§ Mr. HenigOn a point of order, Mr. Speaker. May I ask whether any request has been received by you, Sir, from the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to answer Question No. 44?
May I further ask you how the rights or hon. Members are to be respected when an international crisis of this kind occurs and there is already a Question on the Order Paper thus preventing other hon. Members from taking alternative procedures to raise it if the hon. Member is not present in the House when his Question is called?
§ Mr. SpeakerI cannot compel an hon. Gentleman to be here to ask a Question, no matter how important it is. I hurried Questions in order to get to Question No. 44, because I feel that the House thought it important, but as the hon. Member was not here I could not call him.
§ Mr. Biggs-DavisonFurther to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. How is the Government being carried on? If the hon. Member was not here to ask his Question, surely it is in the interests of the Government to make a statement at the first opportunity on this disturbing situation?
§ Mr. SpeakerIt may or may not be in the interests of the Government. That is a matter for the Government, not for the Chair.
§ Mr. BraineFurther to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. You will be aware that since last Wednesday I have sought 40 twice to ask a Private Notice Question on this matter—
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. The hon. Gentleman is an experienced Parliamentarian. He cannot even breathe to the House the subject of any Private Notice Question which has been refused.
§ Mr. BraineOf course, I accept that, Mr. Speaker. But may I ask your guidance here? I am sure that the House would wish this point to be ventilated. We have here an extraordinary and, indeed, unprecedented situation where a Minister of the Crown has been expelled from a Commonwealth territory under duress over the weekend. Four other British subjects have been expelled. There are reports that force may be used and so far, before any final decision or precipitate action is taken, Parliament has been left with a complete lack of knowledge of what is afoot, without any explanation from the Government. May I, through you, invite the Secretary of State to make a statement?
§ Mr. SpeakerAn hon. Member can always invite a Minister to make a statement. That is a matter for the Minister to decide.
§ Mr. Chapmanrose—
§ Mr. Biggs-Davisonrose—
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. I can take only one point of order at a time. Mr. Chapman.
§ Mr. ChapmanFurther to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. Is it not the case that under the reforms made one or two years ago you are authorised to take into account the likelihood of the matter being reached by normal processes in deciding whether to allow a Private Notice Question, and, therefore, you are not bound to refuse a Private Notice Question simply because there is a Question on the Order Paper?
Could you then confirm that it is because you felt the matter was likely to be reached rather than because there is a Question on the Order Paper that you have not so far acceded to the Private Notice Question?
§ Mr. SpeakerIt would be a bad practice if the Chair began to give reasons 41 why he disallowed Private Notice Questions. The first part of the hon. Gentleman's point of order is a statement of fact.
§ Mr. ChapmanThank you, Mr. Speaker.
§ Mr. SpeakerIn former times the existence of any Question on the Order Paper precluded a Private Notice Question from being asked. That no longer obtains.
§ Mr. HeathFurther to the point of order. This is obviously a very serious situation. If the Foreign Secretary were to volunteer now to give an answer to the Question on the Order Paper, would you be prepared to allow it, Mr. Speaker?
§ Mr. SpeakerYes, it can be answered if the right hon. Gentleman wishes to do so, even though the Question is not asked.
§ The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. Michael Stewart)I may say, Mr. Speaker, that I came here fully prepared to answer Question No. 44 and expected it to be asked; or, to be accurate, my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State was intending to answer it himself. He is, unfortunately, ill and unable to answer it.
The answer is as follows:
My hon. Friend visited Anguilla on 11th March in order to consult Anguillan opinion on Her Majesty's Government's proposal to establish on the island a British official to be known as Her Majesty's Commissioner. The intention was to restore lawful government in Anguilla which would be acceptable to the Anguillans. He received an enthusiastic response from the majority of the crowd at the airport when he announced the proposal on arrival.
Later, however, a group of armed men demanded his withdrawal from the island, and, after shots had been fired, he decided to withdraw his party in order not to endanger innocent persons.
As my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House said last week, I shall be making a statement on Anguilla later this week.
§ Mr. BraineIs it not a fact that the Government have been extraordinarily complacent about the dangers in Anguilla 42 for quite a long time? Is the right hon. Gentleman not aware that the Anguillans bitterly resent being placed under St. Kitts' rule? Therefore, should not Government policy be formulated from that very beginning? Can the right hon. Gentleman say what basis there is for the assertion that the island is in the grip of Mafia-like elements? Can he say, further, whether it is intended to use force to bring the island back to the rule of law?
§ Mr. StewartIn view of the wish of the House, I endeavoured to be as helpful as I could by answering Question No. 44 out of turn. I have said that I will make a further statement later, and I must ask the House to await that statement.
§ Mr. LuardWould my right hon. Friend consider calling a conference of Governments in the Caribbean, the British Government, the St. Kitts Government and representatives of Anguilla to consider this very serious situation? Would he consider some kind of association between Anguilla and the United Nations as one possible element in a solution of this problem?
§ Mr. StewartThere are many possibilities here, but I believe that if I start to answer questions of this kind I shall do what I urged the House would not be wise.
§ Mr. MartenCould the right hon. Gentleman say whether reports that troops are being prepared to go to Anguilla are firm or not?
§ Mr. StewartI have no further comment to make.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. Private Notice Question. Mr. Peter Walker.