HL Deb 10 March 1970 vol 308 cc689-92

2.41 p.m.

LORD BROCKWAY

My 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 whether they will make the association of British universities and the University of Rhodesia conditional upon a reversal of the policy of the illegal Southern Rhodesian Administration to reduce African secondary education, so restricting the multiracial character of the College.]

THE MINISTER OF STATE, FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (LORD SHEPHERD)

My Lords, the 1964 grant of £750,000 to the University College was spent in full by 1967. No grant has been made since, and none is contemplated.

LORD BROCKWAY

My Lords, while apologising to my noble friend, may I ask whether he is aware that he has answered a Question that I had on the Order Paper two days ago and that that Question has been corrected? Could he answer the Question which is now on the Order Paper?

LORD SHEPHERD

My Lords, not without notice.

LORD BROCKWAY

My Lords, may I put it to him—

Several Noble Lords: No.

LORD BROCKWAY

My Lords, I will appeal to the noble Lord the Leader of the House. This Question is on the Order Paper for to-day: have I not the right to put that Question?

LORD SHEPHERD

My Lords, while I deployed my point, "not without notice", it gave me an opportunity to read the Question that the noble Lord now has on the Order Paper. The position of the British universities—that is, of London and Birmingham—is that they have retained links with the University College in Rhodesia. It is felt that so long as University College operates under the Royal Charter, which provides for multiracial education, then certainly from the point of view of Her Majesty's Government it would be useful to retain that link and to assist the University with the provision of teachers and the method of examination. But in the end this is a matter, I suggest, for the universities themselves; it is for them to decide.

LORD BROCKWAY

My Lords, in congratulating my noble friend on that very adequate Answer at such brief notice, may I ask him this question—and I do not want to be dogmatic. Acknowledging that there is a marginal case between withdrawing support and continuing support, would he not agree that it is going to be increasingly difficult to maintain an inter-racialist college in an increasingly racialist State, and could he confirm that the illegal Rhodesian Administration has decided to reduce the number of primary school leavers going to secondary schools by 25 per cent.? Will this not mean a dimming out of the inter-racial character of the Rhodesia college by destroying the source from which African students can be made available?

BARONESS WOOTTON OF ABINGER

My Lords, would not my noble friend agree that if there is a multiracial university in a racialist State, that strengthens the argument for supporting that university?

LORD SHEPHERD

My Lords, as I said, it is entirely a question for the universities to decide. London University have announced a decision that they will stop accepting students from Salisbury for their degrees from March, 1971. Birmingham, so far as the medical side is concerned, still have the matter under review. I should not wish to speculate what will be the future of this University College. It is under a Royal Charter, but clearly, if the provisions of the Royal Charter were to be broken by any of the authorities in Rhodesia, then I think it would be open to all of us to decide whether we should support the University or not.

LORD BYERS

My Lords, while I deplore what is happening about secondary education, may I ask whether it is not a fact that this particular suggestion is not at all well founded? If the influence of the British universities is taken away from this University, it will turn them straight into the hands of South Africa, which is playing the very game the Smith régime want.

THE EARL OF LAUDERDALE

My Lords, would the noble Lord say whether the Six Principles as applied to Rhodesia and the philosophy implicit in them are still thought to be of universal application?

LORD SHEPHERD

My Lords, I should have thought that that was entirely a different question and did not arise. So far as the noble Lord, Lord Byers, is concerned, I would agree with him.

LORD BROCKWAY

My Lords, in view of what the noble Lord, Lord Byers, said and his dissent, may I ask my noble friend whether he is aware that some of us are deeply concerned by the evidence in documents taken from Warwick University that members of the Inter-University Council criticised the late Principal of this College because he proposed a greater intake of Africans and because he has criticised the illegal Smith régime? Would my noble friend agree that the courageous attitude of Professor Miller deserves to be acclaimed rather than criticised?

LORD SHEPHERD

My Lords, I would not dissent from what the noble Lord has said; but in the larger field, in terms of University College and the maintenance of multiracial education, if we get unanimous support in this House, in Parliament and in the country as a whole for that to be maintained, perhaps we may have greater success in the future than we have had in the past.