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2.
EMERGENCY PLANNING IN AFRICA
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The Committee considered a memorandum by the Minister of State for Commonwealth Affairs (CPD(67) 12) on emergency planning for the protection
of United Kingdom communities in Africa, with particular reference to the
position of Asian United Kingdom citizens.
THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS (MR. THOMAS) said
that plans for the protection of British nationals in all African countries
had recently been revised and brought up to date. This process had led
to further consideration of the position of the large numbers of United
Kingdom citizens of Asian origin domiciled in East and Central African
Commonwealth countries. These totalled some 270,000, compared with some 95,000 people of United Kingdom origin. In January 1965 Ministers had
directed that protection should be provided for all African communities of United Kingdom citizens, Asian as well as European. Detailed con-
sideration showed however that it was not now practicable to provide the
same protection for Asian United Kingdom citizens as for those of United
Kingdom origin. Not only were the social and economic circumstances of
the Asian communities such that detailed plans for helping them in the same way as Europeans were impracticable (and even an attempt to provide advance
arrangements would become widely known and endanger the position of the Asians further), but also the numbers of Asians involved, especially in Kenya (where there were over 200,000) made such measures beyond our physical resources, particularly if trouble developed in two or more countries simultaneously. In devising plans it would be wrong to enter into com-
mitments which we should be unable to fulfil. There was however a real
danger of the need for the protection of Asian United Kingdom citizens arising; our High Commissioner in Kenya had warned that African feeling
against Asians there was bitter, universal and rising. While it would be
impracticable to make plans for Asiens on the same basis as for Europeans
we must plan to give to Asians the best protection we could provide within
the limits imposed by the nature of the problem and the resources available.
He therefore proposed to instruct our High Commissioners in the countries
concerned to frame emergency plans separately for the community of United
Kingdom origin and for the Asian community; to plan on the basis that
"last resort" physical assistance with British troops and officially
assisted evacuation to the United Kingdom would be offered only to the
United Kingdom community and not to the Asians; and to plan the most
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