§ The Lord President of the Council (Lord Soames)My Lords, I thought it my duty as Leader of the House to inform your Lordships that I shall shortly be leaving for a trip, this time to Zimbabwe, not Southern Rhodesia. I shall be away for about a week, for the international aid donors' conference, which will be taking place there. Therefore, I hope that your Lordships will excuse me if I am not with you during the course of next week.
§ Lord PeartMy Lords, I wish to thank the noble Lord for that announcement. I am sure that the whole House joins with me in wishing him a good voyage and in hoping that it will be useful in many ways. We shall miss the noble Lord, but we recognise that he will be doing something positive.
§ Lord ByersMy Lords, we should like to thank the noble Lord for his statement. We shall do our best to carry on the business of the House in his absence for a week. We cannot guarantee that everything will run as smoothly as it normally does. We hope that the noble Lord will have a very successful mission—successful in the sense that as a result Zimbabwe will be much better off.