HL Deb 28 April 1954 vol 187 cc120-3

3.24 p.m.

THE EARL OF MUNSTER

My Lords, perhaps I may interrupt the proceedings of the House for a few moments in order to make a statement similar to that which is being made in another place by my right honourable friend the Minister of State. I am glad to be able to inform the House that the exchanges on constitutional reform with the Gold Coast Government to which my right honourable friend the Colonial Secretary referred in another place on October 21 last have been successfully concluded. The drafts of new constitutional instruments will shortly be submitted to the Privy Council and despatches are being published and are now available in the Printed Paper Office. These draft instruments will provide for an enlarged Legislative Assembly, chosen by direct election, and for a Cabinet of Representative Ministers drawn from the Assembly, with the Prime Minister normally presiding.

Subject to the continuing reserved powers of the Governor and his responsibilities for external affairs, Togoland, defence and in certain matters concerning the police, the instruments provide that the Cabinet, as the principal instrument of policy, is to be responsible for the internal self-government of the country. The intention is that the Governor will be assisted in the discharge of his responsibilities by a Deputy Governor and advised by a Committee of which the Prime Minister and other Representative Ministers will be members.

The Gold Coast Government have been equally concerned with Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom that suitable arrangements should be made in the Constitution to preserve the independence of the Judiciary and the Public Service. It has now been agreed that a Judicial Service Commission should be set up to advise on, and later to be responsible for, Judicial appointments, other than that of the Chief Justice. It has also been agreed that for the present the Governor should continue to be responsible for the Public Service, but that at a later stage the Public Service Commission, which has already gained valuable experience as an advisory body, should itself become responsible for Public Service appointments. In recognition of these successive changes in the conditions of service of the Public Service the draft constitutional instruments provide for an agreed scheme of compensation in two stages on the lines proposed in Dr. Nkrumah's statement of July 8, 1953. As one of the measures decided on to preserve the confidence of overseas investors, the Gold Coast Government have proposed that, although they have no plans for nationalising industry, provision should be made in the Constitution guaranteeing fair compensation should a successor Government ever consider an act of nationalisation essential. Her Majesty's Government have welcomed this proposal. There was not time to insert the necessary clause in the draft instruments, but it will be included in an amending Order which will be submitted to Her Majesty in due course.

With the passing of the present Gold Coast Constitution I should like to pay a warm tribute to the part played in this important development of self government in the Gold Coast by the Governor, the ex-officio Ministers, who will now vacate their posts, and the officers, both overseas and African, of the Gold Coast Public Service as a whole. The discussions which have led to the satisfactory settlement now reached have been cordial and constructive. It is proposed that a General Election should be held under the new Constitution in June. I am confident that when there is an All-African Government it will prove as friendly, co-operative and responsible as the present one.

Under these changes, the powers retained by Her Majesty's Government are the minimum which they must retain so long as they have any responsibility for the Gold Coast. These changes must therefore be regarded as the last stage before the Gold Coast assumes fall responsibility for its own affairs. The grant of such responsibility within the Commonwealth is a matter for the United Kingdom Government and Parliament. and I can say that at the appropriate time Her Majesty's Government will be prepared to take such steps as may be necessary for that purpose. Full membership of the Commonwealth, is of course a different question which, as was made clear by the then Commonwealth Secretary on June 7, 1951, and by my right honourable friend the Prime Minister on June 16, 1952, would be a matter for consultation between all existing members of the Commonwealth.

3.30 p.m.

THE EARL OF LUCAN

My Lords, in the absence of my noble friend Lord Ogmore, who has asked me to apologise to the noble Earl. Lord Munster, may I say how grateful we are for the full statement of Her Majesty's Government describing the latest steps in the constitutional progress of the Gold Coast. The statement is long and rather detailed, but I should like to ask Her Majesty's Government one question arising out of the last sentence, which seems to me to be of great constitutional importance. The statement refers to full membership of the Commonwealth on the part of a formerly dependent territory, and it states that the inclusion of such a territory in the Commonwealth as a full member would be a matter for consultation between all existing members of the Commonwealth. That is, I think, a formula which has been accepted by Governments for some years past: it is a broad statement of principle. But now that we are getting nearer the time, nearer a specific instance of a dependent territory acquiring self-governing status, would Her Majesty's Government be prepared to go further than that and say that the words "consultation between all existing members of the Commonwealth" do not necessarily mean obtaining the consent of the other members of the Commonwealth?

3.31 p.m.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR COMMONWEALTH RELATIONS (VISCOUNT SWINTON)

My Lords, with my noble friend's permission I should like to answer that question. Most certainly Her Majesty's Government can give no such assurance and can make no such change as the noble Earl has proposed—I think, if I may respectfully say so, probably rather off the cuff, and not after any consultation with his friends. It has always been the principle accepted by all the full members of the Commonwealth—of which we are only one equal member—that, whereas the advance towards self-government of any territory for which Her Majesty's Government are responsible is a matter for Her Majesty's Government in this country, responsible to the Parliament of this country, the question of a territory becoming a full member of the Commonwealth, in which all the full members are equal members, must be, and always will be, a matter for all those equal sovereign members of the Commonwealth.