Orders of the Day — Sierra Leone Independence Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 22 March 1961.

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Photo of Commander Sir Peter Agnew Commander Sir Peter Agnew , Worcestershire South 12:00, 22 March 1961

In no part of the House has there been any wish to delay, much less to hinder, the passage of this Bill, which will give the people of Sierra Leone their independence. This is a notable occasion, because it is one on which the smallest number of people so far to achieve independence are attaining a position in which they will have to sail out on the comparatively uncharted sea of management of their own affairs, subject only to the good wishes that we give them at the outset of their voyage.

Having said that the sea is uncharted, I should add that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has sought partially to chart it. He has told the House that there will be inserted in the Constitution, by what he described as entrenched provisions, a kind of standard of political conduct in the relationship between the Government and the people which should guide all those who find themselves, after the passage of the Bill into law, in the position of having to conduct the affairs of the territory and dominion of Sierra Leone.

However, I think it is right to utter a note of caution about entrenched provisions being placed either in this Constitution or in the constitution of any other territory which, in the fullness of time and sooner or later, may be the subject of legislation passed through this House. It is true that in the Second Schedule of the Bill there is a provision which states that Nothing in this Act shall confer on the legislature of Sierra Leone any power to repeal, amend or modify the constitutional provisions otherwise than in such manner as may be provided for in those provisions. We can insert those words in an imperial Measure that we are shortly to pass, but, after we have passed it and independence is achieved, it will be then that the people of Sierra Leone, through their Government, will have unlimited power to change their Constitution as they will, and they will have power to jettison, if foolish enough to do so, the Bill of Rights which is being entrenched into that Constitution by us today and an accumulated code of wisdom such as we have collected together over many hundreds of years of Parliamentary history.

It is right, therefore, that, in taking up their freedom, which is also their burden of responsibility, the people of Sierra Leone should recognise that if they are to make independence a success it is not only independence of the British Government and of Whitehall that they are achieving. If they are to run their Constitution properly, it is the independence and freedom of each individual within the Constitution of Sierra Leone which is at stake. Therefore, we are right in passing this Measure through as quickly as may be, and I think that the Secretary of State has the support of the House in what he has done. In passing the Bill, we hope that in Sierra Leone, in its new-found freedom, there will prevail those counsels of moderation that we have sought to write into the code which we hand to them with our best wishes.

I join other hon. Members in wishing the Government, Parliament and people of Sierra Leone every success in the great experiment which they are shortly to undertake.