HL Deb 18 December 1963 vol 254 cc244-5
LORD COLYTON

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the second Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

[The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what instructions were given to the British Representative on the Security Council in regard to voting on the Ghana resolution on the overseas territories of Portugal, which was adopted by the Security Council on December 10.]

THE MINISTER WITHOUT PORTFOLIO (LORD CARRINGTON)

My Lords, The United Kingdom Representative was instructed to vote for the resolution, subject to a separate vote on operative paragraph 3, on which he abstained, and to certain reservations on operative paragraph 4. The former referred to a previous resolution of the Security Council, on which the United Kingdom abstained, and the latter to a resolution of the General Assembly, on which the United Kingdom also abstained.

LORD COLYTON

My Lords, this resolution was, of course, condemnatory of the Portuguese development of their overseas territories. May I ask my noble friend whether he is not aware that the Portuguese have in fact built up a completely multiracial society in their African Provinces; and that they are now giving them increasing rights of election on an entirely non-racial basis to the local councils, the district councils and the provincial councils? And, secondly, may I ask whether he is aware that under the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373, which we invoked in 1943 in order to get the Azores bases, it was laid down—and I quote: that as true and faithful friends they shall henceforth be friends to friends and enemies to enemies."? Would it not, in the circumstances, have been more decent to have abstained, as did the French?

LORD CARRINGTON

My Lords, I do not agree that this resolution was condemnatory. Our vote on this resolution and the speech of the United Kingdom Representative simply showed our continued support for the application of the principle of self-determination to the Portuguese territories. This is quite a different matter, as my noble friend knows, from laying down how this shall be achieved.

LORD CONESFORD

My Lords, was this resolution proposed by Ghana? Is not Ghana the country in which the Chief Justice has just been dismissed for preferring law to tyranny? Cannot hypocrisy go too far, even in the United Nations?

LORD CARRINGTON

My Lords, I do not think my noble friend was asking me for information.