Rhodesia (Hansard, 16 June 1976)

§ 4. Mr. Biggs-Davison
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the latest situation in Rhodesia.

§ 13. Mr. Luce
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the latest developments in Rhodesia.

§ Mr. Crosland
The situation continues to give cause for grave concern and the prospects for a negotiated settlement without further bloodshed are obviously receding. But I have not given up hope that the European minority will accept the realities of the situation and the need to negotiate in good faith with the African nationalists on the basis outlined by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister in his statement of 22nd March. I strongly urge them to do so before it is too late.

§ Mr. Biggs-Davison
Will the Foreign Secretary endorse what was said by Sir Harry Oppenheimer, who knows a great deal about these matters, to the effect that parliamentary government is better than a majority rule which leads to dictatorship? Will the Government keep this in mind in their efforts to reach a sound constitutional settlement in Rhodesia and in any advice given to Dr. Kissinger or to anybody else who is trying to help.

§ Mr. Crosland
The realities of the situation and also the morality of the situation demand that the principle of majority rule should be conceded, and should be conceded quickly. The plain fact is that if it is not conceded the prospect for peace in Southern Africa is desperately bleak.

§ Mr. Grocott
Does my right hon. Friend agree that the recent report of the so-called presidential commission on racial discrimination in Rhodesia has come at least 10 years too late and that even if implemented in full it would rightly be regarded by black Rhodesians as simply window dressing, and that the only conceivable solution for that country is the immediate implementation of majority rule?

§ Mr. Crosland
I think the report is irrelevant to the present realities of the situation, which are only too horribly clear, and will be clear to the House as a whole. If the principle of majority rule is not conceded, the guerrilla warfare will escalate, the nationalist guerrillas will seek support from outside Africa, and will turn first for that support towards Cuba and the Soviet Union. If that occurs, the United States will intervene on the other side, and the prospects of the most bloody conflagration in Southern Africa will be really desperate.

§ Mr. Blaker
Would it not be useful if the Foreign Secretary, or even the Prime Minister, were to seek a meeting with Mr. Vorster, the South African Prime Minister, who will be in Europe next week for a discussion about Rhodesia, bearing in mind that our two countries share a common interest in ensuring that constitutional progress there is made by peaceful means?

§ Mr. Crosland
There has been a Question on the Order Paper on that subject already, but perhaps I could tell the hon. Member that I shall be seeing Dr. Kissinger both on Monday, before he meets Mr. Vorster, and on Friday, after he has met Mr. Vorster. Therefore, we shall certainly have a very close and detailed impression of what occurred at that meeting.

§ Mr. Ioan Evans
When my right hon. Friend speaks to Dr. Kissinger, will he point out to him that the illegal régime in Rhodesia is being sustained because of the fact that South Africa is trading with 519 Rhodesia, and that if tomorrow South Africa stopped trading the illegal régime would collapse?

§ Mr. Crosland
I think I should be mainly concerned, at the meeting with Dr. Kissinger, to discover whether there is any shift in the South African position and to try to discover what is now the attitude of the South Africans in this extraordinarily tricky situation.

§ Mr. Maudling
The Foreign Secretary very rightly stressed the extreme gravity of the situation, but is he really content, as British Foreign Secretary, to leave any new initiative at the present moment to Dr. Kissinger?

§ Mr. Crosland
As I have told the House before, the British Government's stand on the position was outlined to the House by my right hon. Friend, now Prime Minister, on 22nd March, and until the preconditions laid down in my right hon. Friend's statement are met we do not believe that there would be any sense in starting a new programme of negotiation.

§ Mr. Luce
Since the growing war of attrition in Rhodesia is fundamentally against the interest of Rhodesians and the West, may I welcome the release of Mr. Garfield Todd and ask the right hon. Gentleman if he has noted that it is reported on British television this week that Mr. Todd has suggested that a peaceful solution in Rhodesia requires the active encouragement of the Western world, led by Britain? How does the Foreign Secretary respond to that?

§ Mr. Crosland
Like the hon. Gentleman, I greatly welcome the release of Mr. Garfield Todd. I noted the statement, but nevertheless it remains the conviction of the British Government that, until there is some clear sign of major movement on the part of the white Rhodesian régime, to start a new process or a new programme of negotiation would be a total waste of time.

§ Mr. Robert Hughes
Is it not a fact that there is no denying that responsibility for the growing conflict in Rhodesia rests entirely with the illegal Smith régime, and that everything possible should be done, including encouraging South Africa not to give military help or 520 to trade, if there is to be any move at all towards a peaceful solution?

§ Mr. Crosland
I broadly accept that. I think that the primary and essential responsibility for the present situation lies on the white régime in Rhodesia. As I said before, until there is some sign of a major change of policy and direction on the part of that régime, I think that a new round of endless negotiations would be fruitless.

§ Mr. Wall
While accepting the principle of majority rule, may I ask the Foreign Secretary whether he realises that by laying down a timetable of two years he is going exactly the opposite way? Does he not realise that the rapid transfer of power would immediately lead to a civil war between the Mashona and the Matabele?

§ Mr. Crosland
The two years refers to two things—first, the acceptance of the principle of majority rule and, second, elections for majority rule to be held within the two-year period.
The hon. Gentleman, with respect, referred to a total transfer of power. Nobody has suggested that within that two years the whole of the existing administration would be dismantled and replaced by a totally new one. Indeed, it would be the hope certainly of Her Majesty's Government and of the African leaders that as many of the present white Rhodesians as possible would stay behind in order to help the new régime.