Rhodesia

HC Deb 22 December 1976 vol 923 cc649-50

4. Mr. Wall

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

5. Mr. Brocklebank-Fowler

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

11. Mr. Brotherton

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement about progress at the Geneva talks on Rhodesia.

Mr. Crosland

I refer the hon. Members to my statement on Rhodesia of 14th December.

Mr. Wall

Does the Foreign Secretary agree that the problem now is the transfer of power not so much from white hands to black but from white hands to non-Marxist black? Does he agree that failure here will mean that Rhodesia will follow the fate of Angola and Mozambique? Will he comment on the recent massacre by guerrilla forces on the Mozambique border?

Mr. Crosland

I do not accept the hon. Gentleman's interpretation in the first part of the question, which gives a totally inaccurate view of how matters stand and will stand in the forthcoming talks in Southern Africa. On his second point, clearly there have been atrocities on both sides with an escalation of the guerrilla war, as most people foresaw there would be. We in the Government strongly deplore any atrocities, whoever commits them, but the plain fact is that all this will continue until a settlement is reached.

Mr. Brotherton

In view of the recent disgusting atrocity, will the Foreign Secretary tell Mr. Ivor Richard when he starts his tour of Africa that no aid will be given to any of the five front-line countries until those countries, particularly Mozambique, stop giving aid and succour to these murdering guerrillas?

Mr. Crosland

I do not think that it would be a very productive exercise. Accusations of atrocities have been made on both sides. I will not go into them because we have no means of verifying whether they are correct. Atrocities are deplorable, and everyone accepts that, but I have no doubt, as we have discovered in other cases nearer to our borders, that where a civil war of this kind occurs it will be an unpleasant and disagreeable affair.

Mr. James Lamond

Will my right hon. Friend bear in mind, in view of the Government's public expenditure cuts, that it is not desirable for them to spend vast sums compensating white Rhodesians who, after 10 years of supporting the illegal régime, may now feel that it is time to abandon their property in Rhodesia?

Mr. Crosland

The Government have no intention whatever of offering compensation to people for leaving Rhodesia.

Mr. John Davies

Will the right hon. Gentleman bear in mind that the prime objective of the Geneva Conference must be to find a means of ensuring an orderly interim Government pending the advent of majority rule? Will he assure the House that after Mr. Ivor Richard's visit to the United States and subsequently to Africa the Government will be taking a positive line in the Geneva Conference and will be seeking very hard to use their influence to achieve a right and just settlement?

Mr. Crosland

Yes, I can give the right hon. Gentleman that assurance. Mr. Richard has already been to discuss these matters in New York with Dr. Kissinger and others, and he will be going to Southern Africa armed with very positive proposals from our side. When the conference reconvenes in Geneva, we certainly propose to play as positive and constructive a rôle as we possibly can.