HC Deb 16 November 1970 vol 806 cc851-2
24. Sir A. Meyer

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will place a copy of his speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations on 24th September 1970 in the Library of the House of Commons.

Sir Alec Douglas-Home

I did so on 2nd November.

Sir A. Meyer

Is my right hon. Friend aware that there is in this country the widest possible agreement with the view that he expressed in that speech, namely, that the use of terror and violence is never justified, even against a régime as odious as the South African régime? Is he further aware that right hon. Gentlemen opposite are committed, by a resolution of their party, to supporting the use of terror and violence in South Africa?

Sir Alec Douglas-Home

The latter part of my hon. Friend's question would seem to be right, unless the right hon. Member for Leeds, East (Mr. Healey) is in a position to say that it is not so. This is not my responsibility, but his.

Mr. Healey

Would not the right hon. Gentleman agree that his hon. Friend's statement in his supplementary question, apart from being offensive to the well-known Scottish family to which the Foreign Secretary belongs, in view of its long history under the Black Douglases and so on, is also insulting to the members of the Special Operations Executive in the last world war when we all, on both sides, recognised the need to use violence and terror to overthrow a régime which maintained itself in position exclusively by the use of oppressive powers?

Sir Alec Douglas-Home

If that is the excuse which the right hon. Gentleman seriously advances, I can only say that it is the lamest that I have ever heard. Of course nations must defend themselves in war. That is admitted. What my hon. Friend was talking about, and what I was talking about in my speech at the United Nations, was the use of freedom fighters in peacetime in other countries, which is a different matter.

Mr. Healey

Would not the right hon. Gentleman agree that throughout the history of Europe brave men have sought to overthrow tyrannies which have maintained themselves in power by violence by using violence themselves, both in peace and in war? Will the right hon. Gentleman recognise, as does the World Council of Churches, that if the use of force is ever justified, the use of force is justified against a violent and repressive tyranny?

Sir Alec Douglas-Home

I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will think out the implications of what he said. Whatever may have happened in the past, it is surely much too dangerous to interfere with force over the frontiers of other countries and to interfere in their internal affairs.