In discussing this Bill we are undertaking the melancholy task of burying a federation which was in its concept and in its outlook one of the most statesman-like and imaginative acts of policy which have been undertaken in Africa in the post-war era. Federation failed because it was based on noble ideals—noble ideals of the richer nations helping the poorer nations and the concept of partnership between black men and white men—noble ideals which never came to life during the past 10 years under the guidance of the Federal Government.
I know that it is very easy for us who do not live in those countries to criticise what goes on there. Heaven knows we have our own failures in policies for which we have been responsible in Africa. I certainly give all the praise that is due, without any reservation at all, to what has been achieved in the Federation, particularly in economic and material terms. Whilst it might be resented that we criticise from a distance, it would be inexcusable folly for Southern Rhodesia not at last after all these years to learn the lesson which now stares her in the face—that she must match her material achievements with a resurrection of the spirit of partnership which is now more necessary than ever before.
- 6.42 p.m.
Mrs. Eirene White (Flint, East) It gives me very great pleasure to follow the noble Lord the Member for Hertford (Lord Balniel), who made an admirable speech. I am glad, in a sense, that such a speech has come from his side of the House, because perhaps it will persuade those in Southern Rhodesia who might otherwise be so misguided as to persist in their previous mistaken course more than a speech from this side. Therefore, the whole House should be grateful to the noble Lord, not only for the point of view he has expressed but also for the fact that he has expressed it with such clarity and eloquence. I have heard him speak on a number of occasions. I do not think I have ever heard him make a better speech.
The Chief Secretary is a man of many parts. He has recently been doubling the rôle of undertaker and family solicitor. He has brought the heirs round the coffin and they have agreed upon the order of the funeral service. That is set out for us in the White Paper. What we still do not know is what will happen when they come to the reading of the will. We shall not know that until the committees which are to be set up under the Agreement get together and put their proposals before the parties concerned. I will not go into all the legal niceties of this analogy. I think that it is a fair one.
I do not want to go too far into the past. I am glad that I have caught your eye, Mr. Deputy-Speaker, because no one in the House was more persistent or energetic than I in opposing federation when it was before us 10 years ago. I have in my hand just one of the HANSARDS of that time—that for 4th May, 1953—recording the speeches of my right hon. Friend the Member for Llanelly (Mr. J. Griffiths), one or two other Members who are present in the House today, and my own. All that has happened since 1953 has confirmed those of us who opposed the Federation on principle, the principle being that we were trying to join together three territories 1484 which are politically unequal. However attractive the prospects were from the economic point of view—I grant everything that my right hon. Friend the Member for Llanelly said on that score—we felt that it was clear and obvious at that time that such a federation could not be expected to succeed.
It is a melancholy fact that our fears were completely confirmed. They might not have been. It is just conceivable that we might have been mistaken in our assessment of the people concerned. It is conceivable that Sir Roy Welensky, for example, might have given a very different lead in the earlier years. It is conceivable that the move towards what is far from racial integration in Southern Rhodesia, but even the mitigation of discrimination, might have come many years before it did. All these things were at least conceivable, but they were not probable.
Those of us who at that time studied the matter with the closest possible attention came to the conclusion that on the whole the scales were weighted so heavily against success that the Government at that time were taking a gamble which they were not justified in taking. The political situation has changed enormously within the last few years. It has
