§ 2.36 p.m.
§ EARL WINTERTONMy 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 whether they will instruct their representative at the United Nations to protest against the killing by U.N. guards of a European, who tried to escape from a prison camp on October 28.]
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (THE EARL OF HOME)My Lords, no; I cannot do what my noble friend asks. The dead man was a Belgian citizen and any representations to be made would be the concern of the Belgian authorities.
§ EARL WINTERTONMy Lords, might I ask my noble friend whether he would not agree that the Government have some responsibility as a member State of the United Nations; that this man was arrested without any charge being preferred against him; and that, according to the information supplied by a reputable journalist, Mr. Ian Colvin of the Daily Telegraph, the circumstances of his subsequent death were at least suspicious? However, I do not wish to pursue the subject in view of what I regard as the very desirable attitude the Government are taking in regard to the operations of the United Nations in the Congo.
THE EARL OF HOMEMy Lords, I shall always be perfectly ready, in general, to make quite clear what the attitude of the United Kingdom is about operations in the Congo or, indeed, if the lives of United Kingdom citizens are involved. 858 But this man, as I say, was a Belgian so I think it is right that any representation about him must be made by the Belgian Government.
§ THE EARL OF SWINTONMy Lords, to carry the Question perhaps a little wider, I wonder whether my noble friend could have more widely circulated the admirable speech, if I may say so, which he made in Scotland commending the federal solution as the wisest solution for the Congo. Most people who have experience in the Congo recognise that as not only the best but the only possible solution for peace and prosperity for that country.
THE EARL OF HOMEMy Lords, that falls, I think, a little outside the Question. Her Majesty's Government often make very wise suggestions which are not always adopted by other people, but I will see whether I cannot take more effective steps to bring this proposal to the notice of those concerned.
LORD SALTOUNMy Lords, may I ask the noble Earl whether it would be more in accordance with the spirit which I believe the noble Earl himself in Britain wishes to infuse into the United Nations that ordinary members of the United Nations should show concern about the fate of other nationals besides their own? After all, it is a matter that concerns the United Nations as a whole, not simply Britain or Belgium. And would it not really promote the objects which the noble Earl has in view if we showed some interest in the fate of a Belgian citizen?
THE EARL OF HOMEMy Lords, I do not think it matters which noble Earl it is. Of course, we do pay particular concern to these matters, and are gravely concerned about what is happening in the Congo to-day. Our Permanent Representative, Sir Patrick Dean, has made this very clear in respect of both the operations which took place early on August 13 and the massacre of the Italian airmen the 859 other day, about which I sent a message to Signor Segni, the Foreign Minister of Italy; and we have stressed time and again that the rôle of the United Nations in this matter is pacification: no rôle which would tend to make the matter worse and to increase the dangers to life both of the Africans and of the Europeans, whether in Katanga or in the Stanleyville area, or, indeed, any other area of the Congo.