RHODESIA AND NYASALAND FEDERATION BILL (Hansard, 14 July 1953)

§ THE PARLIAMENTARY UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (THE EARL OF MUNSTER)
My Lords, on behalf of my noble friend Lord Swinton, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a third time. I think the House will expect me to say a few words before we part with this measure. The Bill to which I now ask the House to accord a Third Reading is the result of some years' work, to which all Parties in the State have contributed. I think I should be correct in saying that the debates which have taken place, first on the many White Papers and more recently on this Bill, have been conducted at a very high level and in a very friendly spirit. There has, I think, also been abundant evidence of good will in Parliament towards the inhabitants of Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia 597 and Nyasaland. I am confident that this good will will continue, and I hope that it will become an ever-increasing factor in the scheme.
I know that differing opinions about this Bill are sincerely held by noble Lords on the two sides of the House, but I hope that when the Bill has finally completed its passage through Parliament the dust of controversy will die away, and that we shall all do our best to make the new Constitution work. Throughout the discussions some noble Lords have had some reservations about the scheme, and they have expressed concern about the feeling which exists among Africans in regard to federation. I think we have done our best to reassure them on these points which they have raised. There are, in my judgment, many and ample safeguards which should reassure them that these safeguards for the protection of the people of Central Africa have been embodied in the scheme; and I have no reason to doubt that they will be worked in the spirit in which they were conceived. On two previous occasions when we have been discussing this Bill, I have referred to the signs of ever-increasing association between the different races in Central Africa, and I myself look forward to a further development of that association in which all races can work together for the common cause and the common good.
The House must not forget that, after we have passed this Bill, and at a later stage, when we have approved the Order in Council, heavy burdens will rest upon the European and African communities if their responsibilities under the scheme are to be properly and efficiently discharged. But there are men in Central Africa who, I am firmly convinced, are capable of sustaining these burdens, and in whom our confidence wholeheartedly rests. After this Bill has received the Royal Assent this evening, copies of the Draft Order in Council will he available in the Printed Paper Office at six o'clock. I would remind the House, in conclusion, that at a later stage an Affirmative Resolution will be required for this Draft Order. I think I need say no more at this stage, beyond asking your Lordships and the noble and learned Earl who leads the Opposition to give this Bill your blessing, and to express the hope, as I do, that it may operate 598 successfully to the happiness and the prosperity of the peoples of Central Africa. I beg to move.

§ EARL JOWITT
My Lords, I thank the noble Earl for what he has said. There is no doubt that this Bill has given rise to sincere differences of opinion—not, I think, because anybody doubts that the economic possibilities of this scheme are very great, but simply because the scheme, unhappily, did not receive the ready assent of the Africans and has had to be imposed upon them. That was a grave misfortune, and it prevented the going forward of the scheme under the auspices we should all have liked. I was grateful to the noble Earl for saying that our debates on this Bill in this House had been sincere and honest expressions of opinion, free altogether from acrimony and heat. May it always be so! In another place my Party opposed the Second Reading of this Bill, and also voted against it on the Third Reading. Our position is so different here, and the tactics we employ in regard to each other are so different, that we did not vote against the Bill on the Second Reading and do not propose to vote against it on the Third Reading. But, as noble Lords no doubt realise, this does not mean that we here have not exactly the same misgiving as Members in another place felt in regard to this Bill—we have; I say quite frankly that we have. But we have done the best we can in discussion and argument to sustain and maintain our point of view. I fully realise that noble Lords on the other side hold their point of view with the utmost sincerity.
In an hour or so's time this Bill will become the law of the land, and the differences, the doubts and the hesitations we have had in regard to passing it will cease to matter. Here I may say, in response to the invitation of the noble Earl, that this Bill will certainly have my blessing, for what it is worth. I hope it will have the blessing of all men of good will throughout this country. It: will become the law of the land and it will become the duty of every one of us to operate it, as far as we can, to the best advantage. There are solid reasons for hoping that good will come of this Bill. As I have already said, we have men of 599 distinction to work it on the spot—men for whom I have already expressed my admiration—and we have a new Governor-General who is obviously the right man in the right position; and it matters enormously to all of us that this Bill should work.
If it is not impertinent to do so I would venture to express the hope that those who are concerned in the working of the Bill will regard almost as their first task—and what an important task it will be!—the securing of the confidence and the good will of their African citizens. If they do that, once they can establish confidence, then there is no end to what may be done under these provisions. But that, to my mind, is the first task. I believe that in the quiet and almost humdrum discussion we have had about the Bill we have, in fact, passed a very great measure, a measure which is charged, for good or for ill, with the happiness of millions of Her Majesty's subjects. The recent visit of the Queen Mother has evoked, as visits of our Royal Family always seem to do, all that is best in all the races that are proud to acknowledge the Sovereign as their Sovereign. When I saw that the African folk, if I may use the old Biblical phrase, "girded up their loins" and ran before her carriage to show their approbation of what she was doing that seemed to me to be an augury of hope for the future.
On this side of the House no less than on the other side, notwithstanding the differences of opinion we have had about this Bill, you will find no more fervent supporters of this scheme which in an hour and a half's time will become the law of the land. We—I myself and every one of us here—will do the utmost we can to secure that this Bill achieves that which its framers desire—peace, and the happiness and contentment of the millions of people who will become citizens of the new Federation. If, in time, that Federation is to pass on into a Dominion, it presupposes that there must then be a unitary state, and that pre-supposes that all the various constituent members, Nyasaland, Southern Rhodesia and Northern Rhodesia, must through their inhabitants, fully and freely consent to that change of status. That is why I said that I believe the first and most important task of those who are to 600 administer this scheme is to gain the good will of their African fellow-citizens. I conclude by saying: Please God they will succeed!

VISCOUNT MERSEY
My Lords, I much regret that my noble friend, Lord Samuel, cannot be in his place this afternoon, but in his absence I should like to take this opportunity of assuring noble Lords opposite of the complete support of noble Lords on these Benches for the measure. I should like also to congratulate the noble Earl, Lord Munster, and the noble Viscount, Lord Swinton, on the work that they have done in putting this measure through.

§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR COMMONWEALTH RELATIONS (VISCOUNT SWINTON)
My Lords, I should like to add just a few valedictory words, if only to thank the two noble Lords who have spoken. This Bill, so soon to become an Act, goes forward with the good will and the good wishes of men of all Parties. Throughout our debates, I have been more and more struck with the underlying unity of purpose and intention which animates us all. I have been impressed, too, as I think we are all impressed, by the confidence which has been expressed in all quarters of the House in the liberal spirit and high purpose of the men on whom the responsibility of guiding this Federation will fall.
In this House, so far as there has been criticism, it has, I think, been of two kinds. First, there were those, the great majority, who believe, as the noble and learned Earl the Leader of the Opposition said to-day, that federation will be of real benefit to the Central African Territories and all their peoples. But some of these have advocated that we should take more time in order to convert those Africans who have expressed their opposition to federation, or their fears of how it might operate. That has been fully answered in our debates, and there is, I think, one conclusive answer—namely, that the convincing proof which will carry conviction to every African is to see federation in being. Then there have been those whom perhaps, to take an air metaphor, I might describe as the advocates of dual control. They want the aircraft always to be under dual control, and remote control at that. That is not the way to make a successful or 601 trustworthy pilot. Either the pilots have proved their fitness to fly the aircraft or they have not, and the tributes which have been paid on all hands to the men who will guide the Federation and will fly this craft have been a complete answer that they have our confidence.
The Constitution sets the course and provides some navigational aids, and I am confident—I think we all are—that that course will be well and wisely followed. It has been said that this Constitution contains features which we do not find in other constitutions. Of course, that is true. We have a very unusual situation to deal with here. We have quite a different problem from that which has faced us in framing many other Constitutions. It is not only a problem of three Territories, but of two races and of people at varying stages of development. The Constitution has been designed, therefore, by men with great knowledge and a singleness of purpose, in both Parties and in all four countres, who over two years have tried to make the best they can for its purpose. It is the best that they can design to create that partnership and to make it work. The result is a Constitution which, of course, differs from other Constitutions. After all, there ought not to be anything surprising in that to us in the British Commonwealth, for the diversity of the Commonwealth is as great as its unity: Many roads thou halt fashioned: All of them lead to the light. The unity of this Federation, I am convinced, will be as fruitful as any we have achieved in our long Empire history. Certainly, it carries all our good will.
I should like to add one thing in conclusion. The noble and learned Earl the Leader of the Opposition has referred to the felicitous visit of the Queen Mother. She has rendered a great service. And what a happy augury it is that this Federation should come into being in the centenary year of Rhodes's birth! The lands that bear his name stand to-day on the threshold of a new advance, a new venture, a widening opportunity. And how Rhodes would have rejoiced to see that come to pass! He would have been the first to appreciate the great material and economic advance that federation alone can bring. But, with Rhodes, material success was always the means to achieve the spiritual concept and way of 602 life. His aim and purpose, constant and selfless, was a land of tolerance and cooperation and opportunity for all its people; and to-day federation must and will make that dream come true.