Secretary for the work he has put in in trying to make that situation possible and trying to make big, constructive plans for Central Africa in the days to come.
- 6.23 p.m.
Lord Balniel (Hertford) Whatever our various views may be about the need at the present time to dismantle the Federation, I think we all, on both sides of the House, share a certain sense of melancholy that this experiment, which has proceeded for 10 years and which certainly contained in itself the seeds of greatness, is now being brought to an end. But, however sad the occasion may be, it is in fact no more than the recognition of the facts of the situation in Central Africa today.
This Bill is no more than an enabling piece of machinery to bury what is already dead. The concept of the Federation depended for its life, its greatness, its spirit and its vitality on the concept of partnership, and that concept of partnership never took wing under the guidance of the Federal Government. Now it is reasonable to assume that as a result of the Victoria Falls Conference the dissolution of the Federation will proceed in a quiet and orderly manner and meet its end by 31st December this year. But when we turn to the task of the future, the constructive task of laying foundations for a new edifice to replace that which has crumbled and broken away, we shall be faced with a very worrying situation.
At the beginning of the Victoria Falls Conference I read a description by a journalist who was paraphrasing words by Dr. Johnson. He said: "Even if the conferring is not well done, it is somewhat surprising that it is being done at all." When one remembers that only a few days ago the Southern Rhodesian Government were demanding a written guarantee from my right hon. Friend the First Secretary that they should get almost immediate independence as a price for their attendance at this Conference, one finds it an achievement of no small order that the Conference ever took place.
In the event, the conferring was well done. A great deal of credit must go to the chairman of the conference, the First Secretary, and also to Mr. Field, whose hands were tightly tied by the Rhodesian Front Party. I think also some credit must go to the manager of the Victoria Falls Hotel who insisted that the delegates should leave on 5th July in order that he could get on with making some money.
Unlike any other conference on Central Africa which I remember in recent years, this conference went exceedingly well—quite remarkably well. I hope I have not an unduly suspicious mind, but I wish to emphasise my hope that my right hon. Friend did not oil the wheels of this conference by giving any secret undertaking to the Prime Minister of the Southern Rhodesian Government promising them independence before the establishment in their country of majority rule. I think I am right in saying that my right hon. Friend had two meetings with Mr. Field to discuss questions of the future constitution of Southern Rhodesia.
This suspicion passed through my mind for no more than a second and I immediately suppress it, but I feel bound to tell my right hon. Friend that if he 1478 gave any indication of such a course of action—the possibility that independence before majority rule in Southern Rhodesia could be granted—I doubt whether any such undertaking could be honoured. I think it only right to tell my right hon. Friend that there would be many on these benches who, if such legislation were introduced, would fight it Clause by Clause through this House.
There are a great number of hon. Members on both sides of the House who find it quite unacceptable to give independence to a country which has a Parliament elected by 90,000 votes—a trivial percentage of the total population of the country and a percentage which is formed almost entirely by the white minority in that country. It is a travesty to describe the Parliament of Southern Rhodesia as anything more than a parody of democracy. It is no more than a façade, a game of make-believe democracy.
