§ 76. Mr. J. Johnsonasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he will make a statement upon his visit to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, with particular reference to his consultation of African opinion in Northern Rhodesia regarding constitutional changes for the elections due to be held in 1958.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydI welcome this opportunity to express publicly my thanks to the Federal Government, the three territorial Governments and to all those in Central Africa who gave me such a generous welcome. In particular, despite the fact that he was seriously ill throughout my visit, the late Lord Llewellin, the Governor-General, did all that he could to make my tour a happy and, I hope, a helpful one.
It was no part of the purpose of my visit to engage in negotiations of any kind. I did, however, take the opportunity to make it clear that it is the view of Her Majesty's Government that federation is 55W in the best interests of all the inhabitants of Central Africa and has come to stay. I also made it clear that Her Majesty's Government fully shared the view recently expressed both by Lord Malvern and by Sir Roy Welensky that the right form of government for Central Africa is a federal and not a unitary form of government.
It is not, of course, for me to make statements about the status of the federation. I was careful, however, to tell people what my attitude was to my own responsibilities as Secretary of State for the Colonies in relation to the two Northern Territories. I made it clear that Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom had no desire, purely for reasons of prestige or anything of that kind, to retain their present responsibilities for the Northern Territories longer than was necessary and that I hoped that the Africans in each of the Northern Territories would increasingly look to the Federation and to their own territorial capitals with the same confidence with which they looked to Whitehall and Westminster. I added, however, that Her Majesty's Government could not abandon their ultimate responsibility until they were satisfied that a transfer of loyalties of this kind had been made.
During my visit to the two Northern Territories I was able to hear the views of all concerned about the next steps in constitutional development in each territory. In due course each of the two Governors will hold local consultations on this matter and will inform me of the views they form as a result of these consultations regarding the constitutional developments if any which should take place at the end of the life of the present Legislative Councils.
I was much struck at the large number of men and women in the Federation who are working with real good will to find sensible solutions of the various problems of race relations with which the Federation is faced. If this good work continues—as I am sure it will—and if we in London are careful to do and say nothing which makes more difficult the task of those who are engaged in it, then I am sure that all the inhabitants of the Federation can look forward to a happy and prosperous future.