Commons discussion ends in uproar

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32775, 27 November 1971, Page 17

Commons discussion ends in uproar

(By MICHAEL ROBSON. N.Z.P.A. staff correspondent)

LONDON, November 26.

lhe 1 louse of Commons discussion ended in an uproar over Rhodesia yesterday and it is now clear that this will be another partisan issue dividing the Conservative and Labour parties.

The direct cause of the uproar was a remark by the Shadow Foreign Secretary, Mr Denis Healey. Earlier, the Foreign Secretary (Sir Alec Douglas-Home) had accused Mr Healey of being gullible.

“It scarcely becomes the Foreign Secretary with his record of gullibility in 1938 . . .” said Mr Healey but he was never allowed to finish this reference to Sir Alec Douglas-Home’s part in the Munich settlement. The Conservative benches erupted as one man. Mi Heath looked extremely disapproving and the Foreign Secretary looked hurt. For a full minute the shouting lasted and when the speaker (Mr Selwyn Lloyd) restored order, he decided that Mr Healey’s remark had been a debating point and not a question and ruled that the business of the House should proceed, with Rhodesia being left aside until next Wednesday when a full day has been allocated for discussion.

It was apparent from the atmosphere in the House to-

! day that most, if not all,: , Conservatives welcomed the broad outline of the settle1 ment Sir Alec Douglas-Home ’ brought back from his meet-! Sings with the Rhodesian ■ Prime Minister (Mr lan! ilSmith). | . When the Foreign Secretary entered the House he I was given a loud round of! “hear, hears” from the Tory : side and when he rose to| s read his statement, some of! > the bank-benchers behind! 1 him could not restrain them-i > selves from waving their l r order papers in the air. 1 For the most part, Labour I members listened in silence! s while the Foreign Secretary! t spoke. But when he reached! ! the section dealing with the ) Land Tenure Act and the fact 1 that not all political detainees i would be released there were 5 some cries of “shame, ) shame” and “get him an 1 umbrella.” 1 Mr Healey, in his initial! t reply, was fairly restrained; 5 and said that because of the! 1 complexity of the proposals) ; he would make no judgment! - on the floor but said that they! s would be studied with an . extremely critical eye. i The former Commonwealth - Secretary, Mr Duncan

Sandys. summed up one strand of Conservative thinking on the matter when he said that faced with the choice between orderly progress toward majority rule which this agreement at least held the hope of and advance Iby bloodshed, there was i little argument which was preferable, while other (speakers on the Government ! side drew attention to the I fact that the settlement had 1 arrested Rhodesia’s seemingly irreversible slide to(ward apartheid. ) Neither of these ideas appealed much to the Labour [members. Each paean of (praise and congratulation offered the Foreign Secretary by his colleagues made the Opposition more suspicious and in no time at all impassioned talk about “the sell-out of the interests of five million AfriI cans” and "capitulation to I white oligarchies” could be ! heard echoing around the j chamber. The leader of the House (Mr William Whitelaw) soon ! began anxiously to look at | the clock, the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Wilson), left to get his notes for his major speech on Ulster and when Mr Healey provoked his eruption, Mr Lloyd called time.

There is little doubt that the debate next Wednesday will be a heated, and if today is any indication, acrimonious affair.

It is unlikely that Sir Alec Douglas-Home could have brought anything home with him short of Mr Smith’s resignation and African rule the day after tomorrow which would have really satisfied the Opposition.

It is also however a testimony to the widening gulf between the two parties which has been proceeding apace since the beginning of the session, that the Rhodesian confrontation should have been so angry and illtempered.