§ 86. Sir F. Bennettasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, in how many overseas dependencies of the United Kingdom not recognised by the United Kingdom as lawfully constitutted and administered States do foreign countries maintain diplomatic, consular or trade missions not accredited to some lawfully constituted British executive authority.
§ Mr. M. StewartI assume that the hon. Member wishes to raise further questions relating to Southern Rhodesia. Only Diplomatic representatives, but not consular or trade missions, are accredited. As I said in answer to the Question from the hon. Member on 8th December, the accrediting of diplomatic representatives is a matter between States, and the question does not therefore arise in relation to Southern Rhodesia or any dependent territory. The position remains that of the 18 countries with consular missions in Rhodesia at the time of i.d.i., five have withdrawn their consular representatives completely, three have down-graded their missions, and of the remainder, three have only honorary consuls. The presence of consular representatives does not, of course, imply recognition.—[Vol. 793, c. 20–2.]