AFRICAN DEFENCE CONFERENCE (Hansard, 14 April 1954)

§ LORD OGMORE
My Lords, I beg to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

§ THE MINISTER OF DEFENCE (EARL ALEXANDER OF TUNIS)
My Lords, the Conference was held at Dakar from March 11 to 18, 1954, to discuss West African defence facilities. In addition to delegations from the two sponsoring Powers, France and the United Kingdom, the Conference was attended by delegations from Belgium, Liberia, Portugal, South Africa and the British West African Territories, and by observers from the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and the United States. The French delegation was headed by M Mon's, Secretary General of the French Ministry of Defence. The British delegation was correspondingly headed by Sir Harold Parker, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence.
The Conference was called to reach common agreement on the use, in time of 1253 war or international emergency, of existing and projected facilities for communications and the movement of military forces and supplies in the Western Territories of Africa South of the Sahara. In its general aims, it was complementary to the Conference held at Nairobi in 1951 on the initiative of the United Kingdom and South African Governments, which made a similar study of movement facilities and communications between the South of Africa and the Middle East. On that occasion, the noble Lord, Lord Ogmore, led the British delegation and was elected Chairman of the Conference, and he will remember the great variety of subjects discussed arid agreed so successfully under his chairmanship. It should suffice for me to say, therefore, that the Dakar Conference was equally successful. The recommendations of the Conference are now being studied by Governments.

§ LORD OGMORE
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble and gallant Earl for his full and explanatory reply and I am grateful to him also for suggesting that our Conference in 1951 may have been successful. I always thought it had been. May I ask the noble and gallant Earl whether the loose ends that may exist between the two Conferences are now being tied up and whether he envisages the possibility of holding any further Conference on the important subject of African defence facilities?

§ EARL ALEXANDER OF TUNIS
My Lords, until this week not all the countries attending the Conference of which the noble Lord, Lord Ogmore, was Chairman had accepted the recommendations. It was only last week that the last country accepted those recommendations, hut now that they have all done so, action has been taken to devise the best measures for implementing them. As regards the present Conference, we shall have to wait until the countries concerned have accepted the recommendations made, of which there are quite a number, and when we receive these acceptances we can again see how those recommendations can best be implemented. As regards a third Conference, I would not say it has been thought of. I have not immediately thought of it, but I am obliged to the noble Lord for having suggested it, because I think these Conferences can do nothing but good. A good deal of information has been 1254 Gained, useful recommendations have been made, and, if we can implement them, a great deal will have been done. Therefore we will bear in mind the noble Lord's suggestion about a third Conference.

§ EARL JOWITT
My Lords, I am sure the noble and gallant Earl will agree with me about the advantage of selecting as Chairman of such a Conference a well-known public figure such as, for example, my noble friend Lord Ogmore. If there is to be another Conference at Dakar at a suitable time of the year, perhaps the noble and gallant Earl himself will go out to represent us.

§ EARL ALEXANDER OF TUNIS
My, Lords, I am much obliged for the compliment.