HC Deb 17 July 1974 vol 877 cc428-30
8. Mr. Teddy Taylor

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the future rôle of the Commonwealth.

Mr. James Callaghan

The Commonwealth, with its wide membership and its tradition of frank and informal discussion, has an important rôle to play in fostering international understanding and in promoting a constructive and co-operative approach by the world community to present problems. At the same time the Commonwealth association will continue to provide a valuable forum for co-operation in many fields between member countries.

Mr. Taylor

Will the right hon. Gentleman take practical steps further to strengthen the Commonwealth by arranging for the Commonwealth Secretariat to take practical steps to reinvite Pakistan to become a member of the Commonwealth?

Mr. Callaghan

That is a matter for the Commonwealth as a whole. With regard to practical steps that we are taking to strengthen the Commonwealth, the hon. Gentleman may know that there is to be a meeting of Heads of Government on 29th April next year, in Jamaica, and our representatives at the United Nations and other international organisations have been instructed to consult their Commonwealth colleagues on every available occasion where interests are common.

Mr. William Hamilton

Will my right hon. Friend say whether he has any evidence that any member of the Commonwealth wants us to get out of the Common Market? Does he think that relations with Zambia and Tanzania will do other than deteriorate, so long as we have British citizens imprisoned there without trial and without charges made against them for months on end?

Mr. Callaghan

With regard to the first part of my hon. Friend's supplementary question, I have not asked members of the Commonwealth—[Interruption.]—I have not asked them whether they wish us to leave the European Community. That is a matter for the British people, and no one else, to decide. The British people will take this decision. I have naturally inquired, about the impact of the Community, and our entry, upon attitudes of Commonwealth countries, but I would not dream of asking Commonwealth countries whether we should remain a member of the Community, and I hope that hon. Gentlemen would not do so. It is for the British people to decide. They will be given the opportunity so to do.

With regard to the second part of my hon. Friend's supplementary question, our attitude has been made clear by my hon. Friend on a number of occasions.

Mr. MacCormack

Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that the step which the last Government—of which the hon. Member for Glasgow, Cathcart (Mr. Taylor) was a member—took in joining the Common Market was the greatest blow against the whole principle of the Commonwealth that could have been struck?

Mr. Callaghan

There is no doubt that our entry into the the EEC has given a new perspective to a number of Com- monwealth countries. Some have diversified their trade as a result, and others look to the Community as being a wider means of access for their commodities. Like most of these matters, this truth is many-sided.