TNAG-0658-FCO40-807-Policy-of-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-1977 — Page 231

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1 MARCH 1977

Foreign Affairs

[Mr. Tapsell | need to establish machinery which can provide for an orderly transler of power ; thirdly, there should be international co- operation to end guerrilla warfare so that genuine elections and an orderly transfer of power may take place.

Nobody who examines the situation in Rhodesia can take other than a sombre view of the prospects. The risks are real, but so are the prizes that could be won. We have a clear moral and historical responsibility to bring our imperial rôle in Africa to an orderly and constitutional conclusion We have a pledge of self- determmation to fulfil to the African

We have people

an obligation of humanity and consanguinity to the Furo- peans in Rhodesia to provide them with an alternative of peaceful withdrawal with compensation, or continued resi- dence a Zinibabwe launched with constitutional propriety into democratic nationhood These are the glittering prizes that we should be straining every nerve of our fibre to win.

In

9.34 p.ni

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Mr. Edward

Rowlands): This has been a wide-ranging debate. In my previous incarnation at the Welsh Office I used to respond to debates on Welsh affairs by moving from the Menai Bridge to Monmouth, but in this foreign affairs debate we have grappled with much wider geographical subjects.

Obviously it will be impossible to respond to every point put by a large number of hon. Members in this debate, We have discussed the Middle East, detente, direct elections, human rights, the Falkland Islands and Hong Kong. My hon. Friend the Member for ford, Fast (Mr. Allaun) even mentioned Joe Haines' book. It is impossible for me to respond in detail to all these speci- fic points. We shall examine the debate tomorrow in the Official Report and follow up a large number of the points which have been mentioned.

Mr. Frank Allaun: Will the Minister give way?

Mr. Rowlands: No My hon. Friend must realise that I have to respond to two major points

Mr. Frank Allaum: If the Munster is not going to confirm or deny what Mr.

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Foreign Affairs

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Haines sald, I must assume that it is corect.

Mr. Rowlands: No such assumption should be made. Mr. Haines' book might be a mine of information, but it is also a minefield for any junior Minister to walk into,

I should like to concentrate on two issues, because most hon. Members have concentrated on issues as well as rang- ing widely. The first is the Falkland Islands, from which I have just returned. The islands have been mentioned by number of hon Members. I also want to respond to the speech of the Opposi- tion spokesman about Southern Africa and Rhodesia I shall deal with the Falkland Islands first because I have just returned from an exhausting and haustive range of consultations. I foci us if I was 6 ft. 2 in. tall when I went out there and I have been reduced in the process、

ex-

Just before he died. Tony Crosland asked me to go to the Falkland Islands and to Argentina. The reason for my visit was the statement he made on 2nd February, when he described the Govern- ment's attitude to the economic and

+

political problems facing the 1,900 islanders. He spoke of the limited pros pects that he saw for them without some, form of political and economic co-opera- tion with Argentina. He contrasted that with the considerable potential of the area that was identified in the Shackleton Report and that could be the salvation of the island.

The object of my visit was to discuss with the islanders and the Argentine Government whether А broad climate existed for discussing the future of the Falkland Islands. Mr. Crosland also said that any such discussions would

ship between Britain, Argentina and the inevitably raise the fundamental relation-

Falklands.

I had five days in the Falkland Islands and four days of full and close consulta- tions with the Governor, the joint councils and people in all walks of life. In a score or so meetings I met and talked with an

islanders many

as 1 think it Wils physically possible for me to meet during the time available to me. Their numbers ran into several hundred. I talked to individual groups in their homes. I had meetings in the wool sheds and in the

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