HL Deb 18 November 1964 vol 261 cc657-68

7.9 p.m.

LORD COLYTON rose to ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to protect British subjects, and British interests generally in Tanzania, in the light of the recent actions of the Government of Tanzania and the build-up of Soviet and Chinese influence in that country. The noble Lord said: My Lords, I must apologise to your Lordships for giving such short notice of this Question. I should explain that I had put it down, or something rather like it, as a Private Notice Question for yesterday afternoon. The Leader of the House was, unfortunately, not able to accept it, on the ground that it had been answered on Monday in another place, and was consequently no longer a matter of urgent national importance. In fact, only part of my Question had been answered by the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, and in respect of the remainder the matter was still of great urgency since the second British subject in question, Mr. Dunmore, had not then been deported. However, I decided not to trouble your Lordships yesterday by referring the issue to a decision of the whole House, and to put down an Unstarred Question for to-day which, incidentally, gives me the advantage of going a good deal wider than I should otherwise have been able to do.

In December, 1960, after the Constitutional Conference of that year, Mr. Julius Nyerere, then Prime Minister of Tanganyika, made the following statement in the Legislative Council. He said: We want to avoid aggravating the fears of the minority, however unfounded. But we must take even greater care to avoid anything which might lead the majority of people into thinking that the only men and women who ought to represent them on this Council are those with black skins. Let not the world point a finger at us and say that we gained our freedom on a moral argument—the argument of the Brotherhood of Man—and then threw that argument overboard and began ourselves to discriminate against our brothers on grounds of colour. My Lords, those were noble sentiments, and I remember them particularly well because I had just visited Tanganyika, a week or so before, and had had talks with Mr. Nyerere which convinced me that he spoke with complete sincerity. Certainly, that was the view taken by the British and other farmers of European race in the Arusha and other areas of Tanganyika who remained in the country as a solid body after independence and continued to cultivate their farms to the great advantage of the economy of Tanganyika. I believe I am right in saying that those European farmers still produce over 50 per cent. of the revenue of the country.

It is true that, shortly after independence, there took place some deportations of British subjects on various grounds which were, in fact, regarded as affecting the country's dignity and which, if not perhaps all justifiable, were at least understandable. There were also, my Lords, certain cases of racial discrimination in the immigration laws of Tanganyika. Recently, however, the situation has suddenly become exacerbated by the decision of the Government of what is now Tanzania to take over, without notice or compensation, twenty or thirty farms in the Arusha area, on the ground that they are neglected. Eight of these farms, as I understand it, are owned by British subjects, who strongly protest that their farms are thriving. My information is that some of the farms in question are among the highest producing farms in the country, and that possibly only one or two are marginal. Certainly, if they have any resemblance to the farms I myself visited near Arusha I can well believe that this is true.

My Lords, untold damage has already been done to outside investment by this action, and the situation has been further aggravated by the sudden decision of the Government of Tanzania to deport Mr. Gallaher, a former land commissioner, and Mr. Dunmore, who until last week was a land survey official in Arusha. The conclusion one must draw, I think, is that these officials had protested at the expropriation of the British and other farmers, and were therefore deported. A further move has taken place, in a threat to close all the British clubs in the area, including the Caledonian Club and the Society for St. George. I feel that if such action were to be taken the strongest possible proof should be available of some major mismanagement or misdemeanour on their part.

This situation has to be judged against the build-up in Tanzania of Soviet and Chinese power. It must also, I think, be judged against the fact that the Minister of Finance of Tanzania, Mr. Bomani (an old friend of mine), is at present in London negotiating a £7½ million loan for Tanzania development. On January 14 of this year, when my noble friend the Duke of Devonshire made a statement reporting to the House the Afro-Sharazi revolution in Zanzibar, I ventured to suggest that Zanzibar would become the advance post of Chinese pentration into Africa—a sort of Chinese Cuba, I think I said—and I am inclined to think that noble Lords opposite were apt to feel that I was being rather unduly alarmist. Unfortunately, it has all turned out very much as I had expected. After the initial murders of several thousand Zanzibaris of Arab race—against which, incidentally, no single voice was ever. raised at the United Nations—Zanzibar settled down to become what I can only describe as a Communist base, with the Soviets and later the Chinese (who, incidentally, are the only two remaining great imperial Powers in their own right) collaborating, in this instance, with one another.

We had all hoped that, with the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar last April, policies of moderation would prevail. Unfortunately, that was not to be. The islands of Zanzibar and Pemba are now almost entirely Communist-run. The People's Liberation Army in Zanzibar has been built up and armed with large quantities of the most modern weapons. There are also, incidentally, twice as many Communist civil servants in Zanzibar as there were when the Colony was being entirely run by the British. Recently there has been an outbreak of further atrocities against Arab Zanzibaris. The reason for this we do not know. It may have been inspired by the allegation of Mr. Kambona, the Foreign Minister, of a Western plot to invade Tanzania, and by trumped-up charges of arms smuggling against the Americans, which I believe have now been disproved. But certainly this dangerous situation has been aggravated by this build-up of troops, both in Zanzibar itself and on the mainland, with Soviet and Chinese instructors, and by the so-called Freedom Fighters of the Organisation for African Unity, who are intended for action against Mozambique.

Those of your Lordships who read the Sunday Times this week will have observed the concluding statement of Mr. Tom Stacey's article, which ended on a rather sinister note, and said that if and when the Freedom Fighters' offensive against Mozambique fails the Communist Powers involved in its preparation will feel compelled to move in and save the day. He is a highly reliable journalist, and I do not believe he would have written that unless he thought it was true. But in the event, we shall find ourselves faced with a direct confrontation between the Soviet and Chinese Communists, on the one hand, and our NATO Ally, Portugal, on the other.

My Lords, this aggression against Mozambique is being prepared for all to see, and I find it very difficult to understand how it is tolerated by the United Nations, who are specifically pledged under the Charter to resist such activities. To my mind, it is a situation of extreme danger, and should, I think, form the subject of consultation with other members of the Commonwealth. It also, as I have said, constitutes a serious threat, not only to British interests in Tanzania but also to the whole of East Africa—and I would even say to Northern Rhodesia, where, after all, the Copper Belt must be one of the greatest prizes on which the Russian and Chinese imperialists are seeking to lay their hands.

My Lords, that is going pretty wide of this Question, and I cannot debate it this evening; but, in asking the Question of Her Majesty's Government, I should like to emphasise, first of all, that I am not in any way guided by any ill-will towards President Nyerere or the people of Tanzania. On the contrary, I have the greatest respect, admiration and affection for him personally and for his people; and, in seeking to safeguard British interests, I should also hope to be able to some extent to help preserve the people of Tanzania itself from what I regard as a creeping and insidious taking-over by the Communists. I hope that, in replying, the Government will feel able to express themselves forcefully both in regard to recent action against British subjects and in regard to the build-up of Communist strength which constitutes such a desperate threat to peace and liberty in East Africa.

To conclude, I will, if I may, emphasise the particular questions to which I Originally referred. They are the question of the expropriation of the farms; the deportation of British subjects; the closing of British clubs, and finally, a matter I had not mentioned before, the question of the 40,000 non-Arab Asians in Zanzibar, many of whom, I understand, are British subjects, and of whose fate we know virtually nothing.

7.21 p.m.

LORD COLERAINE

My Lords, I will not detain you for more than a moment or two, but there are two questions raised in my mind by the speech of my noble friend to which your Lordships have just listened. I do not think that they are questions which the noble Lord who is going to reply will be able to answer, but they are questions that we all ought to ask ourselves on both sides of the House, in another place and throughout the country. The first is this. Why it is that we seem to adopt a double standard in our attitude towards what is going on in Africa? What has been going on in Zanzibar in the past few months is, I should have thought, at least as shocking, at least as odious, as anything which has been going on in South Africa. The Government take strong action—I think ill-advised action—on South Africa; but so far as other parts of Africa are concerned, when abuses equally bad, abuses far worse, occur, no action at all is taken. It is not only that the Government do not take action; curiously enough, opinion here seems completely unmoved.

My noble friend referred to massacres in Zanzibar early this year, when thousands were killed. Let your Lordships remember the outcry over Sharpeville which resulted in one death! We talk of racial discrimination in this country at Smethwick; racial discrimination in Zanzibar scarcely seems to worry us at all—racial discrimination against Arabs and Indians by the authorities there. That is one of the questions: why is there this double standard in our attitude?

The other question, my Lords, is this—my noble friend touched on it. For the past twenty years we have all been con- scious of the world threat of Communism. Sometimes it has been acute; sometimes tension has relaxed. But in spite of that, we just look idly by when a whole continent may be being handed-over to Communism. Certainly I think from my information that what my noble friend said about the Island of Zanzibar is no exaggeration whatever. The Communists are penetrating into Africa and they are doing so almost at our invitation. Why have we taken this so calmly and why do we still take it so calmly? This I cannot understand. I am grateful to the noble Lord for allowing me these few minutes to speak, especially as I have raised wider issues than he may be able to deal with.

7.25 p.m.

LORD SHEPHERD

My Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Colyton, and to the noble Lord, Lord Coleraine, who, while going considerably wider than the terms of the Question, spoke with considerable moderation, which I think is extremely helpful when one is dealing with matters like this. In your Lordships' House one can use words which perhaps have the effect one would like within this House, but through the medium of the Press and radio those words can echo through the world and, as we know, can be misinterpreted and misunderstood and cause greater difficulties than exist. I should hope that when I have finished—and I fear that I may have to make rather a lengthy statement, particularly for this time of the evening—neither I nor Her Majesty's Government will be accused of double standards.

We are on this side of the House, as, I am sure, are noble Lords opposite, extremely concerned about racial tensions wherever they may be. But at least within this country we have some power, we have some authority and we have some voice. Therefore let us use it. But if we have to speak perhaps in a voice of more moderation let it not be misunderstood; it would be quite wrong for the noble Lord to suggest it is a double standard.

The British Government are naturally gravely concerned at recent developments in Tanzania. Much that has been said publicly and much that has been printed in the last few days seems to reveal an attitude of growing hostility towards Britain and her Western Allies. As the noble Lord, Lord Colyton, said, the Western Powers have been accused of conspiring to attack Tanzania and liberation bases in that country and of plotting against President Nyerere's Government. It is, I think, true that these allegations appear to have been made on the most flimsy evidence and without any prior warning or serious attempt to test the validity of the particular documents which have come into the hands of the authorities. The noble Lord, Lord Colyton, will accept that the United States Government has repudiated these documents and has described them as clumsy forgeries. As my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations said in another place on November 16, the Tanzanian High Commissioner in London has assured him that no accusations had been directed towards the British Government. We have been glad to receive this assurance and also to note that President Nyerere, who was away from Dar-es-Salaam when these allegations were made, has indicated that his Government would welcome proof that they are entirely without substance.

The British Government has been no less concerned and disturbed by the recent revocation of the leaseholds of a number of British-owned farms in the Arusha area, and by the expulsion from Tanzania of British citizens. The Tanzanian Gazette of November 6 contained orders revoking the leases of 21 farms; and I understand that six British farmers and some ten British-owned farms were involved. The Tanzanian authorities have alleged that the farms were not being properly developed but our own information does not support this claim. Two of the British subjects who have been expelled are Mr. G. Dunmore and Mr. L. G. Gallaher. Here I would stress that both have records of long service with the former Government of Tanganyika. Mr. Dunmore was area lands officer in Arusha and had been reported in the Press as having commented favourably on the state of the British farms. Mr. Gallaher was a former Commissioner of Lands who had retired and had just returned to start a private practice in Dar-es-Salaam as a chartered land agent and valuer. Mr. Dunmore was arrested and then deported within 48 hours, Mr. Gallaher's re-entry permit was withdrawn and he was declared a prohibited immigrant.

Although the Tanzanian Press has implied some link between the alleged plot and the dispossession of British farmers, there appears in fact to be no connection between them. I have not the slightest reason to suppose that any of our farmers have been engaged in activities detrimental to Tanzania. On the contrary, the official policy of the Tanzanian Government has hitherto recognised the major rôle played by expatriate farms and estates in agricultural production and development.

My honourable friend the Minister of State for Commonwealth Relations had made it plain to the Tanzanian High Commissioner in London that these actions are bound to have a most damaging effect on public opinion in this country. The British High Commissioner in Dar-es-Salaam has also been instructed to make urgent representations. He has already had an interview on this matter with President Nyerere and has been trying to see Mr. Lusinde, the Minister of Home Affairs, for further discussions. The British Government are studying the reports they have received from him, and are awaiting further advices. Our High Commissioner and Department in London are meanwhile in touch with the British citizens concerned and naturally will give all possible assistance.

Speaking with some hesitancy, in view of the remarks made in the last debate regarding a personal matter, I cannot help but feel that these events will be received with considerable concern by many of President Nyerere's friends in this country, both in politics and in business. I hope that they will not have an adverse effect on the morale of the British community in East Africa. We know that our friends in East Africa have come through many stresses and strains.

It is natural in this situation that fear should be expressed for the safety of the British community in Tanzania. There are some 350 United Kingdom citizens in Zanzibar, including 72 who are of British extraction. If the noble Lord will forgive me, I made a note in regard to the large number of Asians in Zanzibar. We have no record of 40,000 Asians in Zanzibar and I do not know where that figure has come from. According to the information available to me, there are 280 Asians in Zanzibar who are British citizens and about 5,000 whom we believe to be stateless. There is also a large number, the total of which is unknown to us, who are now Zanzibar subjects. I think it can be said that Her Majesty's Government, like the previous Administration whilst they have no direct responsibility for persons other than British citizens, would have a special concern for all peoples who may be threatened. These are the figures made available to me in the short time since the Question was put on the Order Paper. Naturally, it has been difficult to check t its type of information, but if what I have said should be corrected later on by the Ministry, will certainly inform the noble Lord, Lord Colyton.

The figure of United Kingdom citizens in Tanganyika includes approximately 15,000 British and over 50,000 Asians. As noble Lords will be aware, the primary responsibility for the safety of the British community rests with the Tanzanian Government, as it does with the Governments or every other country in which British citizens reside. We have no reason to believe that they are at present in any danger, and perhaps it might be of some comfort to say that within the last hour or so we have received information to the effect that there is a marked absence of racial tension in the present atmosphere. The Government will naturally continue to watch the situation most carefully.

Both the noble Lords, Lord Colyton and Lord Coleraine, have referred to Chinese and Soviet influence in Tanzania. With due respect, I think that we should keep this type of development in perspective. Remembering the words quoted by the noble Lord, Lord Colyton, President Nyerere has publicly declared his adherence to a policy of non-alignment, but, as he reminded the Press some months ago, his country is still heavily dependent on the West for its civil servants, teachers and technicians; and its institutions and traditions are generally Western-based. Even in the military field Western aid is predominant. The Tanzanian Government doubtless aim to balance their dependence on the West by the acceptance of financial and other assistance from the Communist Powers. I recognise that some noble Lords may feel apprehensive about this, but others may feel otherwise.

The Communists have, of course, been able to build up a powerful presence in Zanzibar itself, following the revolution in January. Noble Lords will have seen reports of arms shipments and military training facilities. Here again I think we should keep this in perspective. A very small number of Chinese military instructors have also been engaged—I believe, temporarily—to help in training units of the United Republic military forces in Tanganyika. While I do not wish to minimise the political danger of these developments, I think that it would be wrong to regard them as a threat to the safety of the British community.

The noble Lord, Lord Colyton, also referred to Mozambique. The Government well understand the preoccupation of African nationalists with the remaining colonial situations in that continent. The Tanzanian Government are in the forefront of the African Liberation Movement, which has its headquarters in Dar-es-Salaam. I feel that our own views and theirs are very close, on the importance of the principle of self-determination for the peoples of Africa. I do not believe that any of your Lordships will deny this. Britain's record is clear on this issue. But we and our friends in the West have always urged that this is a problem which ought to be solved by peaceful means and by the mobilisation of international opinion, rather than by the use of force.

I do not think that I need remind noble Lords that the British Government's record of assistance to Tanganyika, particularly in the earlier months of this year, is an impressive one, and I am sure that President Nyerere and his friends would be the first to recognise the support, the sympathy and the material help which our predecessors in office so readily gave, supported by the late Opposition. Her Majesty's present Ministers are anxious to continue to make British help available within the limits of our resources, and to cultivate and extend the many links of friendship and co-operation which have long existed between President Nyerere's country and ours. We earnestly hope that the difficulties and misunderstandings which recent events have revealed can be speedily resolved, in our mutual interests and for the strengthening of the Commonwealth relationship, and peace, not only in Africa but in the world.

The noble Lord, Lord Colyton, suggested that this is perhaps a matter for the Commonwealth. I am sure that there will be discussions, through the usual channels, between Commonwealth countries who may be particularly concerned with the situation. While recognising the tension that now exists, I think that it would be wrong for us to exaggerate it. I feel that we should give an expression of our support and confidence in President Nyerere, a good friend of this country, and a great leader of his country. I think that, given time, wisdom and fairness between the various races in this particular country, harmony will prevail.

House adjourned at eighteen minutes before eight o'clock.