Orders of the Day — Central African Federation

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 24 March 1953.

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Photo of Sir Frank Soskice Sir Frank Soskice , Sheffield Neepsend 12:00, 24 March 1953

At any rate, as I said, that particular issue does not sway the argument one way or another. The offer came to nothing and it was withdrawn. The net result was that after the Victoria Falls Conference, even with that very effective and stringent safeguard for African interests, it was not acceptable to any section of African opinion in the three territories concerned.

That was the position in September, 1951. Then came the conference in April and May, 1952, at which the first draft of the actual constitution was prepared. When that draft came to light, the thing which one immediately noticed about it was that the Minister had gone. The Cabinet Minister, with his excelling position in the Cabinet, right at the heart of affairs, had been taken out of the scheme with a stroke of the pen. Whose suggestion that was, we did not know. We did not know, but it was suspected that it was largely because of Southern Rhodesian influence, but we are told now by the Minister of State that it was actually Her Majesty's Government which suggested that the Minister should be dropped. That was what we learned in the debate today. At any rate, he went.

What was substituted for him was, as we were told, an independent chairman to be appointed by the Governor-General with the consent of the United Kingdom Government. The Secretaries for Native Affairs also went, but still there remained an independent African Affairs Board consisting of seven members nominated by the Government of each territory outside the legislature. As I understood his argument, the Secretary of State today said that the disappearance of the Minister meant that the African Affairs Board was virtually stillborn, that it would have very little to do. That was not his view when he spoke in this House in July last year. He then said that he recognised that a most important change was the elimination of the Minister, but he also said: I think that will improve the Board. The members of the Board will be elected from outside the legislatures of any of the Territories concerned."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 24th July, 1952; Vol. 504, c. 792.] In other words, what the Secretary of State was saying last July was, "Do not take the disappearance of the Minister too tragically. African opinion should not be too worried about that. True, he has gone, but there is in his place an independent chairman, and there is, after all, a completely independent Board." As I have just pointed out, the right hon. Gentleman has today resiled completely from that position. He said that, once the Minister had gone, the Board was no good. Those two arguments are completely inconsistent. I do not know to which one he adheres.