It was not my intention to devote myself to the past history of the Central African Federation, but in view of what the right hon. Member for Thirsk and Malton (Mr. Turton) said, I must say something in fairness to myself and my right hon. Friends. Many hon. Members were not here in 1950 and 1951 and, therefore, I wish to draw their attention to the record. I hope that I do not sound too personal, but I think that I am entitled to say this after what the right hon. Member said.
All that I have said and done, and the attitude I have taken on this matter from the beginning, are on the record. All is to be found in the columns of HANSARD. For my discussions, both in private and in public, I make one claim which, I believe, all the leaders in Central Africa, whether European or African, will bear out. It is that I never made a pledge in private which I repudiated in public. As the First Secretary will have found out, they do not say that about my successors in the post of Secretary of State for the Colonies.
But I say it now, and I would invite Sir Roy Welensky to confirm it. Sir Roy is by far the biggest man Central Africa has produced. He could have—I wish he had—given Central Africa the right leadership, but he missed it. Compared with him the rest of them are—well, I will not mention what I think. I will merely say that Sir Roy is the biggest man to come out of Central Africa.
Mr. Douglas Brown, of the Sunday Telegraph, who is no great friend of this side of the House, mentioned in an article recently from Salisbury that the white people and even the civil servants out there were nostalgically thinking of the days of my right hon. Friend the Member for Smethwick (Mr. Gordon Walker) and myself because whatever we said we meant. I would never have referred to this, but the right hon. Member for Thirsk and Malton provoked me.
The right hon. Gentleman referred to the fact that when we were considering this matter my right hon. Friend the Member for Smethwick, who was then Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, and I decided that we would not instruct the civil servants to explain the proposal for federation to the African people. We undertook to do that ourselves. That was not because of fear, although the right hon. Gentleman says that it was. Fear had nothing to do with it. It was a deliberate act of policy. I said as much then, and I say so now.
However, my successor instructed the civil servants to do this explaining, and from that moment the relationship between the civil servants and the African people deteriorated. Can anyone deny that? In other words, the civil servants became the vehicles of party propaganda, which was a very grave disservice to themselves and to the Federation. Even at that time they distorted the situation by quoting only a bit of a speech made in this House by Lord Attlee. That, too, was a grave disservice.
I join with the right hon. Member for Thirsk and Malton in saying to the Government that they must care for these civil servants but I hope that most of them at least will stay on in Central Africa. Their skill, knowledge and, in particular, their administrative energy will be very much required in future. I hope they will stay, but that is for them to decide. Many of these Federal civil servants—a large proportion—were compulsorily seconded with the approval of Her Majesty's Government. Therefore, the right hon. Gentleman cannot get out of this. Many of them were compulsorily seconded from the territorial service to the Federal service, even if they did not want to go.
The Government must take responsibility for all civil servants, but they have a special responsibility for civil servants who, they agreed, should be compulsorily seconded to the Federal Civil Service, and which is now to be disbanded. For those reasons, I join the right hon. Member for Thirsk and Malton in saying to the Government and to the First Secretary that in this matter these men, who have done a very good job—although I protest that in Central Africa they were asked to do a job which was not theirs—should not only be treated by us in a fair and just manner but in a generous manner, because many of them are reaching an age when the beginning of a new career is very difficult indeed.
Mr. Turton This is where, I think, the right hon. Gentleman and I disagree on this. The right hon. Gentleman said that I
