Not very many hon. Members have been to the Gambia, but those who have will hold this oldest Colony in West Africa, with so long a history and so loyal for so many centuries, in great affection.

I do not want to add very much to what my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Kirkdale (Mr. N. Pannell) has said. The only point I want to emphasise is that I rather dislike the attitude which the Secretary of State took when he kind of threw the blame on to the then Government of the country, headed as it was then by Mr. N'Jie.

This, as my hon. Friend said, does not seem to be right or relevant. This is, and was then, a colonial administration. These are matters which fall in the main, as I understand it, within the province of the colonial Government and the colonial Governor. If we are to establish this Colony on the road to democracy, we must ensure, as my hon. Friend said, that the Government are elected on a duly constituted franchise and a duly constituted register.

I must say that the action that my right hon. Friend has taken so far is right and proper and, indeed, inevitable in the circumstances, but we have to clear the decks for a different approach in the future. I hope that my hon. Friend will find it possible to withdraw in the main the suggestion that the then party in power was in any way responsible for what happened.