HC Deb 17 November 1976 vol 919 cc1322-5
15. Mr. Cronin

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

18. Mr. Wall

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

19. Mr. Ioan Evans

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will make a further statement on the constitutional talks at Geneva on the future of Zimbabwe.

22. Mr. Whitehead

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

Mr. Crosland

I would refer my hon. Friends and the hon. Member to the answer which I gave to the hon. Member for Edinburgh, Pentlands (Mr. Rifkind) earlier today.

Mr. Cronin

Will my right hon. Friend confirm that, in spite of the pressure to advance the independence date, it is still his policy that in no circumstances will independence be granted other than to a Government constitutionally elected, with a proper mandate?

Mr. Crosland

Yes, Sir; I confirm that that is our intention. Indeed, the fact that we have stuck to that intention has been one of the complications in the disagreements of the last few days. Nevertheless, we cannot allow ourselves in Parliament to be put into a position where we are legalising what is still an illegal regime.

Mr. Whitehead

Returning to the answer given to the hon. Member for Norfolk, North-West (Mr. Brocklebank-Fowler) on Question No. 13, may I ask my right hon. Friend to say whether, if the impasse at Geneva continues—and we hope that it will not—he will close his mind and that of the Government to the resumption of any responsibility for security within Rhodesia or Zimbabwe?

Mr. Crosland

It depends what is meant by "any responsibility". What I said in answer to that earlier Question was simply that, if that responsibility involved British armed forces being sent to Rhodesia, Her Majesty's Government would not accept that situation—nor, I believe, would any Conservative Government dream of accepting it.

Mr. Hastings

The Foreign Secretary may have seen a report by a responsible commentator at the beginning of the negotiations suggesting that the British delegation appeared to have gone out of its way to insult Mr. Smith and his delegation. Will he reassure the House on this point and make certain that there is no question of any bias of that kind in future?

Mr. Crosland

I try to read as many responsible commentators as I can, but there are quite a few of them to read every day. I do not recall such a suggestion, but I assure the hon. Gentleman that the British Government's negotiators in Geneva do not—I repeat "not"—believe in exchanging insults. In the last few days the main insults have come from Mr. Smith.

Mr. Faulds

If the talks are to be successful, will my right hon. Friend reconsider the urgent necessity of accepting Britain's responsibility in a colonial ter- ritory and in the interim period providing a governor-general backed, once the white officers of the Smith regime have been dismissed, by Commonwealth troops from various countries?

Mr. Crosland

I repeat that Britain has never exercised full colonial responsibility for Rhodesia since 1923—nor indeed before, for quite different reasons. As for the institution of a governor-general, the extent of British involvement will have to be decided in the light of whatever agreement is reached. But I wish to make it clear that the Government rule out in all circumstances any dispatch of British armed forces. As for an international peacekeeping force under the United Nations, the Commonwealth or the OAU, I shall bear that suggestion in mind, but the great objection to such an international force is that it would take an immense amount of time to organise and to get to Rhodesia. It would take a very long time and a great deal of negotiation and bargaining to get this force there. Whatever presence we have must be there from the beginning, which I hope will not be a very long time away.

Mr. Marten

Is not one of the great dangers that the longer the Smith Government stay in power the greater is the threat of the spread of Communism in Africa?

Mr. Crosland

That is a very acute danger indeed. In my view, there would be no threat of Communism now in that part of Southern Africa—incidentally, one should not exaggerate the threat—and there would be no such threat of any kind at all had Mr. Smith and his illegal regime not refused to budge one inch for 11 long years.

Mr. Maudling

Would I be correct in understanding that the Foreign Secretary no longer entirely rules out the suggestion of myself and of some of my hon. Friends that the presence of a British governor-general, by mutual agreement with the African countries surrounding Rhodesia, might serve as a good guarantor of an independence constitution guaranteeing individual rights, the independence of the courts, and law and order?

Mr. Crosland

No, Sir, I have nothing more to add to what I have already said in answer to questions on this extremely difficult and complex subject.

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