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 Mr Martin McLaren Mr Martin McLaren , Bristol North West 12:00, 22 March 1961

I have promised to be very short and I will be. As the right hon. Member for Middlesbrough, East (Mr. Marquand) said, I was a member of the delegation which he led in December to Sierra Leone and of which, I might add, the right hon. Gentleman was a kindly and stimulating leader. It is rather attractive that when so many other parts of Africa are stormy we should be able to turn for a short time to Sierra Leone where independence is coming so smoothly and happily.

It is fortunate that the Prime Minister of Sierra Leone is Sir Milton Margai. Those who know him know how well qualified he is to lead the country into independence. His work as a gynaecologist has made him widely known in the parts of the country where he practised. That has made many people look on him as their friend and feel personal gratitude for him. In that way he has built up a fund of personal good will. It is characteristic of his vitality that even now, when he is in the middle sixties, he is still no mean athlete.

It is excellent news that Sir Maurice Dorman, now the Governor, is to be the first Governor-General. Those who know how closely he and Lady Dorman have identified themselves with the life of the country and who know the warm regard that is felt for them will think that no better choice could have been made.

In recent years the grants which this country has made under the Colonial Development and Welfare Acts have been very valuable, but there is still much that remains to be done to develop the social services, to expand education, to improve the road communications, to which the hon. Member for Bishop Auckland (Mr. Boyden) referred, to build more bridges and to clean up the slums of Freetown. There is no system of social security yet. When people fall out of their employment they have to live off the charity of their relations.

When one travels by boat along Freetown Harbour, one finds a moving sight, the historic stone stairs up which the thousands of slaves climbed to find themselves free men on setting foot in Sierra Leone. That is why the capital is called Freetown. The settlement was started at the end of the eighteenth century by Granville Sharp, who was a friend of William Wilberforce, for rescued slaves and Africans repatriated from the West Indies. He did it as a generous attempt to atone for the horrors of the slave trade. The descendants of those people, the Creoles, are still influential in Freetown.

Here at Westminster, one of the best and most disinterested chapters has been the moral campaign for the abolition of slavery and the slave trade. In a sense, we are today writing the final chapter in that long and honourable story when we welcome Sierra Leone as a fully independent member of the Commonwealth.