Rhodesia

HC Deb 17 November 1976 vol 919 cc1320-1

13. Mr. Brocklebank-Fowler

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

Mr. Crosland

I gave my views on this, as did many others, during the debate on the renewal of sanctions order on 20th October. I have not altered those views. Rhodesia's future depends totally on the negotiations now proceeding at Geneva.

Mr. Brocklebank-Fowler

Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that Soviet policy envisages a Marxist revolutionary regime in Zimbabwe, with all the risks to life and property that are entailed? Will he now consider whether Her Majesty's Government will take full control throughout the period of transition before the democratic elections establish a popular Government of the Rhodesian people's choice?

Mr. Crosland

I do not doubt that that is the objective of Soviet policy, just as a quite different objective would be pursued by the United States Government or by the EEC. As for taking full responsibility, if the hon. Gentleman means that we should send troops and assume military responsibility and that we should send British civil servants and assume administrative and executive responsibility, that would mean our resuming a full colonial role in Rhodesia—a role which we have never exercised as a Government. That would not be accepted by a Government of any party in this country.

Mr. James Lamond

Will my right hon. Friend ensure that any settlement arrived at on Rhodesia does not involve the British Government in paying substantial sums of compensation to white people who may at that point wish to leave Rhodesia because they have never at any time acceded to the legitimate desires of the Rhodesian people?

Mr. Crosland

I have made clear on other occasions, and I wish to repeat today, that the main objective of the aid proposed for Rhodesia is to assist the development and growth of an independent Rhodesian Government. As for the white population, so far from its being our desire that its members should leave, we want all those who wish to stay, and who have the will to stay, to do so and thus help the development of the economy of an independent Rhodesia.

Sir John Hall

Does the Foreign Secretary agree that if the present Geneva Conference breaks down, through no fault of the Smith regime, it would be quite wrong to continue to impose sanctions on Rhodesia?

Mr. Crosland

No, Sir. I have no doubt that when the conference breaks down—if it breaks down, and I hope and believe that it will not—it will break down in a situation in which no simple attribution of blame is possible. It will break down, if it does, fundamentally because of mistrust, scepticism and hostility born of 11 years of illegal independence.