Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 19 February 1979.
On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. Have you received no request from the Government for them to make a statement in view of the serious disturbances that have occurred in a Crown colony—Ocean Island or Banaba? I ask this bearing in mind that the Government still have a residual responsibility for law and order there and that there has been a serious riot for the first time in the long and protracted history of that unfortunate territory, which is the subject of a great deal of injustice. I ask bearing in mind also that, ironically, the Bill for the independence of the Gilbert Islands—a controversial measure, as the House will discover—is being introduced this day, I think in constitutional impropriety, in another place rather than this. That Bill bears upon the future of the territory to which I am referring.