693
Written Answers
23 MAY 1975
Community for the agricultural exports of the 46 African Caribbean and Pacific signatory countries:
(g).agreement has been secured on a significant extension of the coverage of the Community's Scheme of Generalised Preferences in respect of processed agricultural products.
Further details are set out in para- graphs 80-90 of the White Paper on British Membership of the European Community (Cmnd 6003).
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH
AFFAIRS
Rhodesia
Mr. Leslie Huckfield asked the Secre- tary of State for Foreign and Common- wealth Affairs whether he will make a further statement on British policy to- wards the illegal régime in Rhodesia.
Miss Joan Lestor: I have nothing to add to the reply my right hon. Friend gave to the hon. Member for Epping Forest (Mr. Biggs-Davison) on 21st May.
—[Vol. 892, c. 1408-10.]
Mr. Faulds asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what information he has about the arrest of Mr. Percy Mkudu, Mr. John Mutasa, Mr. M. Nyagumbo and Mr. M. Mahachi by the illegal régime in Rhodesia; and whether he will make a statement.
Miss Joan Lestor: I understand that some 21 Africans in all, including those named by my hon. Friend, have been arrested since early April when the Rhodesian authorities announced that they had discovered a group in the Unitali area engaged in recruiting Africans for guerrilla training and taking them over The border into Mozambique. The charge
of
44
recruiting, or assisting in the recruitment of guerrillas
under the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act as amended in 1974 carries a man- datory death sentence. I understand that several of the accused. including Mr. Mkudu,have been remanded on bail.
In our view, all exccutions in Rhodesia are illegal. They are particularly repug- nant when they are a result of the man- datory death sentence provisions to which
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694
I have referred. Quite apart from these considerations, however, further execu- tions under the above Act would also be a clear infringement of the spirit of the Lusaka Agreement to which the régime was a party last December. They can only make progress towards a negotiated settlement which Mr. Smith has repeatedly said he wants-immeasurably more difficult. For all these reasons it is the Government's earnest hope that the Rhodesian régime will make it clear that there will be no more such executions.
Hong Kong
Sir P. Bryan asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much the Hong Kong social welfare department is going to spend on cash aid for the needy in the current year; and how this compares with the previous year.
Miss Joan Lestor: The amount spent will depend on the actual demand for such assistance. HK$219 million has been provisionally earmarked for the current financial year. Total expenditure last year was HK$168 million.
Sir P. Bryan asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many people will benefit from disability and infirmity allowances in Hong Kong in the current year; and how this compares with previous years.
Miss Joan Lestor: About 70,000. These allowances were introduced in April 1973; in the first year of opera- tion the number of cases reached 42.540 and at the end of the second year 56,381.
Vietnamese Refugees
Sir Frederic Bennett asked the Secre- tary of State for Foreign and Common- wealth Affairs if he will instruct the United Kingdom representative at the United Nations to raise the matter of the Vietnamese refugees with a view to initiating an appeal by the UN High Com- missioner for Refugees for member States to consider applications on an individual basis from those in need of refuge in con- sequence of the events in Vietnam, along the same lines as were adopted in the case of Chile.
Miss Joan Lester: The United Nations Commissioner for Refugees
High
(-1.00
6m 44/17.
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