§ 2.40 p.m.
VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLS BOROUGHMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government to give their reasons for not supporting the resolution adopted on June 9 by the Security Council on the situation in Portuguese Angola.]
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (THE EARL OF HOME)My Lords, the United Kingdom delegate to the Security Council made clear in his speech on June 9 why he could not support the resolution on Angola. His main reason was that the resolution before the Council contained a reference to General Assembly Resolution No. 1514 of December 15, 1960, which calls for immediate steps to be taken to make non-self-governing territories independent. A part of that resolution reads as follows:
that inadequacy of political, economic, social or educational preparedness should never serve as a pretext for delaying independence and that immediate steps shall be taken in trust and non-self-governing countries or all other territories, which have not yet attained independence, to transfer all powers to the peoples of those territories without any conditions or reservations".I could not advise the House that the United Kingdom's vote should be cast in favour of such proposals which are quite impractical and very dangerous.Secondly, we must always be careful of clauses in resolutions which infringe Article 2 (7) of the Charter. If we are not prepared for the United Nations Assembly to act in our colonial territories without our consent, we can hardly vote that they should do so in other cases.
It would make the orderly attainment of independence in territories for which we are responsible, at the pace calculated to serve the best interests of the inhabitants, quite impossible. However, now that our position has been established, and as abstention on all resolutions containing the clause to which I have referred leads to misunderstanding of Britain's attitude on colonial 811 matters, I think another procedure would be better. I am instructing Her Majesty's representative in the United Nations to ignore this clause whenever it appears in any preamble to a resolution, and on every occasion to make it clear that he does so. He will thereafter direct his vote to the substance of the matter which is being discussed.
§ VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGHMy Lords, I am very much obliged to the noble Earl the Foreign Secretary for his Answer. I am glad to think that at last, in face of the terrible situation in Angola, some steps are being taken to alter the impression which has been gained in the world that we have been, if not on the wrong side, at least completely neutral in face of these atrocities. The British Press, the British people, the Baptist Missionary Society, and the British branch of the World Council of Churches, with its great programme this weekend on the wireless, have all come down in full condemnation of the Government's attitude in this matter. In view of the horrors that are going on in Angola, I hope that some immediate steps may be taken and that the Government will make a public statement in condemnation of the pursuit of these atrocities.
THE EARL OF HOMEMy Lords, I do not know why anybody should assume that the Government are in favour of any country pursuing policies in its colonial territories of the nature which the noble Viscount has described. Certainly neither I nor any other Minister of the Government has given any impression that we condone any policy which leads to atrocities. Of course, we never do. I made it quite clear when I was in Lisbon that the colonial policy of Her Majesty's Government was quite different from that of the Portuguese Government. Before I make an absolute assessment I want to know the facts, and therefore I am sending the Consul General, and another member of Her Majesty's Embassy in Lisbon to see for themselves what is going on; and the Portuguese Government have consented to that. I think that now that certain journalists are also going to Angola we shall probably hear what are the true facts. I am also seeing the Council of Churches, of course, in order to hear what news they have to give. But if the noble 812 Viscount will read the part of the resolution which I have quoted in my Answer he will see what complete nonsense it would be for the United Kingdom representative to vote for anything like that. But I think the new procedure will result in this: that we make quite clear that we cannot ever vote for a resolution which contains that kind of operative clause, but we will vote on other resolutions according to their merits.
§ VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGHMy Lords, I am still a little disturbed about that, although we will carefully study the facts which the Foreign Secretary has included in his Answer. But when the United States and other well-known Powers vote for the resolution, and there are only two abstentions, France and Britain, it does make people think very greatly. I should like to ask the noble Earl whether he has seen the speech made in the Ghana Parliament by Dr. Nkrumah on a similar position on May 30. Has he seen that speech?—because that is what is making us anxious about the effect of the Government's policy, or lack of it, on the rest of Africa, in this very difficult time for Africa.
THE EARL OF HOMEMy Lords, it is because I realise that that I have altered the procedure; and I think that the noble Viscount, on looking at it, will see that it is satisfactory. But I do not care who votes for a clause which contains the words:
That immediate steps shall be taken in trust and non-self-governing countries or all other territories, which have not yet attained independence, to transfer all powers to the peoples of those territories without any conditions or reservations"—I do not care who votes for it, the United Kingdom Government is not going to do so as long as I am Foreign Secretary.
§ THE EARL OF LISTOWELMy Lords, may I ask the noble Earl whether he is aware that his statement about the alteration of procedure will give very great satisfaction to all who deeply deplore these policies which differ from Her Majesty's Government's colonial policy, and which the world condemns? May I also ask the noble Earl whether, after the diplomatic mission which he is sending to Angola to ascertain the facts has reported, he will place a copy of the report in the Library of your Lordships' House in order that these facts 813 may be available for any noble Lord who wishes to study them? May I finally ask the noble Earl whether he is aware that Portuguese policy in Angola is having the same effect on world opinion as the policy of apartheid in the Union of South. Africa had?
THE EARL OF HOMEMy Lords, so far as the report I get from the members of the Embassy is concerned, those are reports to the Foreign Secretary which are confidential; but it will enable me to assess the facts and I will give what facts I have to the House after hearing their report. In answer to the noble Earl's last question, these matters are still, in a way, before the United Nations. Of course world opinion is gravely disturbed by them; there is no use disguising that. There has, of course, been a great deal of interference in Angola from outside; a great many terrorists have come from outside, so the parallel with South Africa is not exact. But the noble Earl is quite right in drawing the parallel between the anxiety these matters cause to world opinion.
§ LORD FRASER OF LONSDALEMy Lords, may I ask my noble friend whether he is aware that there is not the slightest resemblance between the policy of apartheid and the policy alleged to be pursued in Angola? The two things have not the same origin or the same pattern, and it is a gratuitous insult to a friendly country to suggest that they are anything like the same. May I finally ask my noble friend whether he is aware that neither Ghana nor the United States have any colonies and have not any experience in this matter?
§ LORD OGMOREMy Lords, may I ask the noble Earl if it is not a fact that the final resolution of the United Nations is taken as a whole and delegates vote as a whole; and in view of the fact that it would be undesirable to vote for a preamble of that kind, how in fact is he going to register this objection to the preamble without voting as a whole on something which includes the preamble?
THE EARL OF HOMEMy Lords, the procedure varies. Sometimes you can vote for a resolution as a whole; sometimes you can vote paragraph by para- 814 graph; and we shall probably have to do that.
§ VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGHMay I ask the noble Earl, with reference to the question put by the noble Lord, Lord Fraser of Lonsdale, whether the British Press has not already described the action of the Portuguese in Angola as worse than that of South Africa?
THE EARL OF HOMEI understood my noble friend to say that there is no parallel, so far as apartheid is concerned. It is well known that there is a great deal of inter-marriage in Portuguese Angola, and, so far as the policy of apartheid is concerned, there is therefore no parallel.
§ VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGHThen it is worse.