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CONFIDENTIAL
SOUTH ARABIA THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S DRAFT CONSTITUTI ON
The Committee considered a memorandum by the Foreign Secretary (OPD(67) 43) about the Federal Government's draft constitution for South
Arabia.
X
THE FOREIGN SECRETARY said that the present cumbrous and obstructive
constitution of South Arabia must be replaced before she became independent at the end of this year. The Federal Government were pressing us to agree
to a new constitution which was based on the report by Sir Gawain Bell,
formerly Governor of Northern Nigeria, and Sir Ralph Hone, formerly Governor
of North Borneo and a well-known constitutional lawyer, though with some
modifications to meet our wishes in such matters as qualification for
nationality and the spirit of the United Nations resolutions. The
constitution would cover the 16 Protected States of the Federation and Aden
Colony but not those of the East Aden Protectorate which had as yet shown no
willingness to become part of the new state. The constitution would be
modern in form with provision for a national assembly, a President, a Prime
Minister and a Council of Ministers; there would be universal suffrage and
provision for human rights, which the Protected States had never had before.
So far as the Protected States were concerned, the Federal Government could,
with their consent, make whatever constitutional arrangements they chose, but since Aden itself was a colony our consent was necessary to any arrangements made for its future. By agreeing to the proposed
constitution we should be criticised for accepting arrangements which would
bind Aden Colony, as the capital territory of the new state, more closely
to the rest of South Arabia without putting these arrangements to the
prior democratic test in Aden itself; we should also be said to have pre-
empted the constitutional ground covered by the United Nations resolutions.
Nevertheless the situation in South Arabia was not such that we could
afford to delay making constitutional arrangements or do other than accept
the proposals of the Federal Government, subject to seeking essential
modifications. There was no time between now and the end of this year in
which to go through the normal decolonisation process in Aden Colony and, in any event, the internal security situation there ruled out any attempt to
do this. We must seek to strengthen the Federal Government and improve its
prospects and the introduction of a constitution, which would reduce the
powers of the State Rulers, was an essential part of this process. We
should however press for some changes in the constitutional arrangements
proposed by the Federal Government. In particular it must be possible
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