§ 3.5 p.m.
§ LORD HASTINGSMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the first Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to publish the promised White Paper giving the Government's decisions on the Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Financial Structure of the Colonial Development Corporation.]
§ THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR COLONIAL AFFAIRS (THE EARL OF PERTH)Yes, my Lords, we do intend to publish a White Paper as soon as we can, after our consultations with the Colonial Development Corporation have been completed.
§ LORD HASTINGSMy Lords, I thank the noble Earl for his reply and have no supplementary questions to ask.
§ VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGHMy Lords, is not this matter being greatly prolonged? It is many months now since I spoke on this subject. How many more months will it be before we have this White Paper?
§ THE EARL OF PERTHMy Lords, I wish I could tell your Lordships. It has taken a long time. What I can say is this: that there are very close consultations going on now between the Colonial Development Corporation and ourselves —very amicable consultations—and we are anxious, on both sides, to get the right answer to this difficult question. I know that we have been long in coming to the right answer, and while I should like to "stick my neck out" and give the actual time when the White Paper will be published, I think it would be 858 unwise. All I can say is that we are pressing on, on both sides.
§ VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGHMy Lords, I hope that this "pressing on" is going to lead to the tape's being reached at some time or another. After all, it is 16 months since we had our first main debate on this question, and the Sinclair Committee were perfectly specific, it seems to me, in what was required. Where is the "nigger in the woodpile"—at the Treasury or at the Colonial Office?
§ THE EARL OF PERTHNeither, my Lords. The fact is, as I have said, that the Colonial Development Corporation and we are having these talks together to make sure that we get the right answer. It is a difficult problem and it would be a mistake, for the sake of a quick decision, to come to an answer which afterwards we should all regret.