§ Lord BROCKWAYMy 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 what action they have taken to fulfil the request of the Decolonisation Committee of the United Nations that a tripartite conference should be held representing the administrative power in Brunei, the Sultan of Brunei and the People's Party of Brunei, with a view to fixing a date for the independence of the territory.
§ The PARLIAMENTARY UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE, FOREIGN and COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (Lord Goronwy-Roberts)My Lords, Brunei is a sovereign State. We cannot therefore participate in a conference relating to constitutional development, since we have no responsibility for this, and we have so informed the Secretary-General. Our responsibilities, which are limited ones relating to defence and external affairs, arise out of treaties which are still in force.
§ Lord BROCKWAYMy Lords, I thank the noble Lord the Minister. Is it possible for him to say what has happened at the United Nations regarding this request, in view of the fact that Brunei, an old Commonwealth country, is still largely under the control of a Sultan, including the ownership of the oil 1790 revenues? May I further ask him whether we should not seek to influence Brunei at a democratic conference?
§ Lord GORONWY-ROBERTSMy Lords, as I said, Brunei has never been a Colony. It is a sovereign State and its internal policies and arrangements are entirely for it to decide. The Fourth Committee has formally invited the United Kingdom to participate in its discussions on the future of Brunei. We have replied that as we have absolutely no control over its internal affairs, and as it is a sovereign country and has never been a Colony, we do not consider that we have any information which we could properly transmit to the Fourth Committee, formally, under Article 73E of the Charter. We co-operate informally with the Committee, but I repeat that it would be quite wrong for us to be formally a member of the kind of conference which the noble Lord has in mind. As to the conduct of affairs within Brunei, we may all have our views, this way or that, about them, but I repeat that we cannot interfere in the internal affairs of a sovereign State.
§ Baroness GAITSKELLMy Lords, may I ask the Minister whether it is not very difficult for us to influence this Fourth Committee—a Committee which has been consistantly hostile to us for years, and which has made the work of the United Nations and our work there much more difficult than it need have been?
§ Lord GORONWY-ROBERTSMy Lords, my noble friend speaks with authority and experience, and I would not dissent from the central point that she has made. We have informed the Secretary-General that we do not regard it as appropriate or efficacious for us formally to be a member of a conference which the Fourth Committee has proposed. As to the motives of the Fourth Committee, or of certain members of it, in making this request to us when they must know that it is inappropriate for us, after the Agreement of 1971, to take part, I should not like to comment today.