RACIAL POLICY

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29177, 11 April 1960, Page 15

RACIAL POLICY

Commons Motion LONDON, April 9. The House of Commons yesterday, without voting, approved a private member’s motion deploring the South African Government’s racial policies. If Britain tried to interfere directly in the domestic affairs of any Commonwealth member she might appear to be trying to reassert her old dominance which the achievement of independence had removed, said the Minister of State for Commonwealth Relations (Mr Cuthbert Alport) during the debate. The Commonwealth was a "symbol of hope, not for people of one race only, but for the many races, black and white, in Africa. “It is our wish as a Government to use our influence in a constructive and helpful way and to carry out the special responsibilities we have in the British territories in Southern Africa for all the people of all the races who dwell in it," Mr Alport said The motion was moved by a Labour member, Mr John Stonehouse, who urged Europeans in South Africa to “recognise the insanity of apartheid,*’ and be prepared to negotiate with African leaders. He told the House that the European should “come to terms with the situation before it is too late.’* Mr Alport said the antidote to the problem was to seek the best way to prevent a situation arising in which South Africa “finds itself in one of the cul de sacs of history from which there can be no escape except through violence and tragedy.” Mr Alport then spoke of what would happen if Britain tried to interfere directly in the domestic affairs of a Commonwealth member. Commonwealth conferences would cease to be acceptable if any Prime Minister could have his Government’s domestic policies criticised and arraigned by his colleagues, he said. However, the Prime Minister (Mr Macmillan) had already said there would be opportunity for South African events to be discussed informally at the forthcoming Prime Ministers* conference in London. The Liberal leader (Mr Jo GYimond) said he did not . think things would ever be the same again in South Africa after the Sharpeville massacre—“a- dividing line in history.”