Page:MALAYSIA BILL ADJOURNMENT (SUMMER) (Hansard, 30 Juli 1963).djvu/5

 breakdown takes place, it will be intolerable for the House to rise until it has had not only a statement from the Government, but an opportunity for discussing the causes of the breakdown. It is because I am hopeful that the Adjournment of the House will not be delayed that I am trying to bring to the attention of the Government the danger points around which the breakdown is likely to take place. I am quoting the Malta Labour Party's case of the conduct of the elections to prove that there is a case to which we must give serious consideration.

There must be a constitution which will ensure that undue influence of any kind is not used during the election and under which the Malta Labour Party will have the right to press its claim that there should be fresh elections in Malta before independence takes place as the United Nations Special Committee drew attention to the controversy which raged about the conduct of the last elections and suggested that the holding of new elections under international observation ought to be considered by the administering Power, which is us.

I am, therefore, asking for some enlightenment on this issue, because my attitude to the Motion would be governed by the reply I got. I would have to oppose the Motion unless I was satisfied that we were to have a statement and that that statement would show that the Government were meeting the legitimate minimum democratic demands of the Malta Labour Party. If they are not, all the statement would tell us would be that there had been a breakdown in the talks and that we were to impose undemocratic solutions on Malta.

I am not prepared to go away for three months and leave the situation like that. That is why my attitude to this Motion will be governed by the sort of answer I get today, and whether we get an assurance that this Government will not say to Malta, "You can have independence, but you cannot have it on the basis of a democratic, modern-type constitution equivalent to that in every other democratic country in the world, and you cannot have fresh elections before independence takes place". If the Government give those answers, the talks will break down, and there will be an imposed solution, a solution which I would not wish the House to accept.

4.10 p.m.

Mr. J. J. Mendelson (Penistone) I shall not support the Motion unless the right hon. Gentleman informs the House of the Government's intentions with regard to the publication of the Denning report. This matter has become all the more urgent and important because of the possibility of an autumn General Election. I know that it will not be very easy for the Leader of the House to let us into the Government's secret on this matter.

Mr. Lipton The right hon. Gentleman has already done that.

Mr. Mendelson If my hon. Friend has that information, good luck to him, but I have to confess ignorance in the matter.

But that is not the issue that I am putting to the Leader of the House. The Government have carefully cleared the decks and made it possible for the House to adjourn without having any business to return to in the autumn. They have made it possible for there to be a General Election during the Recess.

The matter of the Denning report is a very serious one indeed. The method of inquiry was decided on by the Government. As the House knows, there was a good deal of disagreement on the precise form of the inquiry. There were demands for a Select Committee, and also for other types of inquiry. The Government's view prevailed in the end, as it must, but it means that this Report will be submitted to the Prime Minister, and it will be for him to decide the way in which Members of the House, and the general public, should learn what is in it.

It is conceivable that some time during the Recess the report will be sent to the Prime Minister, who will then consider it. The right hon. Gentleman has said that he will supply my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition with a copy of the report, and there will then be discussions between them to decide which parts of the report should be published, and it is here that the first difficulty arises.