Central Africa

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 22 July 1959.

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Photo of Mr Alan Lennox-Boyd Mr Alan Lennox-Boyd , Mid Bedfordshire 12:00, 22 July 1959

I did not interrupt the hon. Member's speech from start to finish.

The House will remember the constitutional arrangements recently introduced in Northern Rhodesia. They were vehemently attacked by the Opposition here and by many Africans in Northern Rhodesia. One of the reasons for this attack was the suspicion that the 1960 Conference to review the Constitution would result in a plan for the complete independence of the Federation, involving the abandonment of the Protectorate status of Northern Rhodesia, and that a vote of the Legislature after that in favour of that plan would be interpreted as fulfilling the pledge in the Federal Constitution that the Protectorate status should be maintained so long as the inhabitants so wished.

I hope that there can be no longer any uncertainty about that, because the Prime Minister yesterday made an emphatic statement that, while the Legislatures of the Northern Territories are constituted in their present state to conduct their ordinary affairs, they would not be more than one element in the machinery which might be devised for the purpose of obtaining the views of the inhabitants. I repeat that today, and I hope that all hon. Members with influence in Africa will see that it really reaches home in the full sense of the word.

We have had much discussion of the Northern Rhodesian Constitution in this House, and time does not allow me now to go into all the details again, though I am very ready to do so on any other occasion. The Leader of the Opposition tried to deal with it. I really wonder whether he has attempted to understand what, I recognise, are the complicated electoral provisions—and this is a complicated problem.

In reply to what the right hon. Gentle man said, there is no limit whatsoever on the number of special voters who can be registered. It is true that the effect of their votes is limited in certain con stituencies, but in the rural areas, and for the two seats reserved for Africans, every special vote counts in full. As Africans qualify and so become entitled to ordinary votes—and in time they are bound to have far greater voting strength than any other race—I am sure that difficulties of the kind envisaged by the right hon. Gentleman will be eliminated——