DSR 11C
STATEMENT ON COMMONWEALTH HEADS OF GOVERNMENT MEETING, NASSAU AND VISIT TO NEW YORK
I will, with permission, Mr Speaker, make a statement
on my visits to Nassau for the Commonwealth Heads of
Government meeting from 16-22 October, and to New York
on 23-24 October for the 40th Anniversary of the United
Nations. My Rt Hon Friend the Foreign Secretary accompanied me to
I have arranged for copies of the communique from
the Commonwealth Meeting to be placed in the Library of
the House.
Nassau.
We devoted much of our time at that meeting to the
problems of South Africa. Heads of Government were
unanimous in their abhorrence of apartheid; in their wish
to see fundamental peaceful change in South Africa at an
early date; and in their determination to find practical
ways in which the Commonwealth could help achieve this goal
My Rt Hon Friend the Foreign Secretary has already
given the House an account of the united position we
achieved. This is set out in the Commonwealth Accord on
Southern Africa. I wish to emphasise three points:
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First, we agreed on the urgent need to initiate a
dialogue,across the lines of colour, politics and
religion. We placed this firmly in the context of
the renunciation of violence by all sides. This is
a key point, on which all Commonwealth leaders are
now agreed. Dialogue is not likely to make progress
in an atmosphere of violence.
Second, we agreed to set up a group of eminent
Commonwealth persons to encourage and carry forward
that dialogue.
/Third