Transkei

Oral Answers to Questions — Oral Answers to Questions – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 17 November 1976.

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Photo of Mr John Biggs-Davison Mr John Biggs-Davison , Epping Forest 12:00, 17 November 1976

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what tests Her Majesty's Government applied in considering whether or not the Transkei met the criteria for independence.

Photo of Mr Ted Rowlands Mr Ted Rowlands Minister of State (Foreign and Commonwealth Office)

We tested the evidence available on the Transkei and the process by which it had achieved its purported independence against our legal criteria and in the light of all the relevant circumstances at the time.

Photo of Mr John Biggs-Davison Mr John Biggs-Davison , Epping Forest

When the independence of, for example, the ex-High Commission territories and Malawi was recognised, were not those States at least as dependent as is the Transkei today on the former administering Power, so was not the Government's attitude decided not by objective criteria but by hypocrisy and double standards?

Photo of Mr Ted Rowlands Mr Ted Rowlands Minister of State (Foreign and Commonwealth Office)

It was not decided by hypocrisy or double standards; it was based on an assessment of the case and the process by which the Transkei reached independence. if he compared that with the way in which we brought to independence the other States he mentioned, the hon. Gentleman would find a considerable difference.

Photo of Mr Enoch Powell Mr Enoch Powell , South Down

Do not the Government find it bitterly ironical that, as part of the European Economic Community, the United Kingdom itself is not able to satisfy the legal criteria for recognition as an independent State?

Photo of Mr Ted Rowlands Mr Ted Rowlands Minister of State (Foreign and Commonwealth Office)

I have not noticed any difference in our status in that respect.

Photo of Mr Frank Hooley Mr Frank Hooley , Sheffield, Heeley

Does my hon. Friend agree that by the criterion of acceptability to the world community the Transkei has fallen flat on its face, in the light of the United Nations vote by 135 to nil not to accept it as an independent State?

Photo of Mr Ted Rowlands Mr Ted Rowlands Minister of State (Foreign and Commonwealth Office)

It has been supported neither by any of our EEC partners nor by the United Nations.

Photo of Mr Reginald Maudling Mr Reginald Maudling , Barnet Chipping Barnet

The hon. Gentleman talked about evidence. Will he make available to the House the evidence on which he claims to have acted?

Photo of Mr Ted Rowlands Mr Ted Rowlands Minister of State (Foreign and Commonwealth Office)

The evidence lies in the provisions of the Transkei Act. If the right hon. Gentleman studies them, he will realise that the Act is an extension of the Bantustan policy of South Africa and not the birth of a new nation.