sometimes months and sometimes years before.
Since 1959, when we converted the Prime Minister and the present Government to the Opposition's policy of accepting winds of change in Africa, the real difference between the Government and the Opposition on these matters has been somewhat unusual. It was described with accuracy and authority the other day by the High Commissioner for the territories, Sir Albert Robinson, in what I gather was his farewell speech in this country. He said: "The Socialists publicly and openly stated this to be their policy"—" that is disengagement from the Federation— "while the Conservative leadership never admitted their purpose particularly in so far as the multi-racial areas of Africa were concerned…The Conservative technique was to give private and informal undertakings while taking actions and decisions entirely contrary to these undertakings." It seems an odd reflection on Tory morality that Mr. Profumo's lies to the House of Commons about his mistress should have outraged Conservatives to the point of demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister, whereas the Government's own lies to Sir Roy Welensky about high State policy in Africa should have outraged only such rare individuals as the right hon. Member for Thirsk and Malton (Mr. Turton) and some of his hon. Friends.
I want to turn from the dismal and really rather messy past to the future. We are glad to see that the First Secretary has begun to clean up this situation with his customary skill, and occasionally with his customary grin towards the Opposition about the earlier errors of his colleagues. Everyone will wish him well in his efforts to bring about a smooth dissolution and to replace the federal 1540 structure by other constructive forms of co-operation.
Nobody, least of all the right hon. Gentleman, will underestimate the difficulties of his task. He made it plain to the House earlier today that there was a lot of hard negotiating and hard bargaining ahead. It might have been easier if he had been able to accept the suggestions which I gather from the White Paper were made by the Northern Rhodesian delegation about the appointment of a Commission to take over from the Federal Government and conduct the winding up. This method was used last year with the West Indies Federation and it worked very well. I wonder whether we might be told why the same methods could not be applied in Central Africa.
About the arrangements themselves, we on this side of the House would certainly want to underline the importance of what has been said by a number of hon. Members on both sides of the House about looking after the interests of federal civil servants. Over the West Indies dissolution the Government had some experience of the misunderstandings that can be caused by lack of adequate consultation with public servants at the earliest stages. I remember raising this matter many times on the Floor of the House last year, and I hope that the Government will avoid that happening this time.
The First Secretary said that there are 35,000 Federal public servants. They include doctors, engineers and teachers whose administrative and other skills are vitally necessary to the three territories, particularly now that they have to pursue separate courses. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Llanelly made clear, numbers of them were originally compulsorily seconded from the territorial service to the federal service and we therefore have a moral obligation to them. They committed their careers more than most Central Africans to the assurances rashly given by the Tory Ministers of 1953, which have inevitably been broken by Tory Ministers of 1963. Whoever is to blame for this ill-fated and ill-conceived experiment in federation, it is not these public servants. Everything should be done, both in their interests and in the interests of the territories, to preserve their good will and confidence.
I do not altogether like the arrangements which the right hon. Gentleman described for the disposal of the federal forces. I am thinking particularly of the fact that the federal air force, which I always understood was considered part of the general strategic Commonwealth defence for the region, is to go over to Southern Rhodesia. The hon. Member for Devon, North raised pertinent questions about this matter. Since Southern Rhodesia is properly concerned about her share of the burden of federal liabilities, I suggest that it would be worth while for Britain to consider offering to take over the considerable expense of the federal air force as part of our own strategic reserve.
