RHODESIA (Hansard, 15 March 1978)

§ Mr. Cormack

I beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House, under Standing Order No. 9, for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that should have urgent consideration, namely, the internal settlement in Rhodesia in the light of the decision of the Security Council to reject it. I asked last week that the House be given an opportunity to discuss this matter. I would submit that the decision taken in the Security Council is a new factor which makes this subject all the more urgent. I believe that this is something which the House should discuss, because the Government have not yet had an opportunity fully to explain their position to the House and the House has not had an opportunity to debate the matter.

The Government, in the person of the Foreign Secretary and the Prime Minister, have said time and again that this issue remains a British responsibility. Last night's decision in New York makes it vital that we should discuss the matter here. Peace in Africa hangs on a thread. I submit that in debating this subject we would not be displacing any other urgent business. There is no business before the House in which lives are put at stake in the way in which they will be put at stake if the internal settlement in Rhodesia is rejected and civil war breaks out. The peace of a great continent depends on this—perhaps the peace of the world. I would urgently ask you, Mr. Speaker, to grant this request.