HC Deb 22 December 1965 vol 722 cc469-70W
Mr. Harry Howarth

asked the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations if he will now make a statement about help from the British Government to Rhodesian civil servants who suffer because of their loyalty to the Crown.

Mr. Bottomley

The British Government will give help in the following ways to all persons in the Rhodesian public service, including the police, in the Armed Forces, in the judiciary and in the service of the Rhodesian Parliament who resign from their posts on grounds of conscience or who are suspended or dismissed by the present régime in Rhodesia because of their refusal to support it or to carry out unlawful orders.

The British Government will safeguard the accumulated claims to pension of pensionable officers, and other claims of officers on probation or temporary transfer and of officers on contract for a fixed period.

The British Government will pay the salaries of these officers for a period up to six months after they report to a British post outside Rhodesia. Claims to similar salary payments by officers who lose office and remain in Rhodesia will be safeguarded by the British Government when a settlement of Rhodesian affairs is reached.

Officers returning to this country will be helped to find fresh employment. The British Government will consider on their merits individual requests for Rhodesian Service men to join the British Armed Forces.

The British Government will regard any payments made under these arrangements as advances on behalf of the legal government of Rhodesia and will expect to bring them into account when a settlement of Rhodesian affairs is reached.

These arrangements will be administered by the Rhodesian Emergency Unit, Commonwealth Relations Office, Clive House, to whom all applications should be sent.

Provisions will be made in supplementary estimates in due course. In the meantime, any urgent payments will be made by advances from the Civil Contingencies Fund.

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