Page:MALAYSIA BILL RHODESIA AND NYASALAND BILL (1) (Hansard, 11 Juli 1963).djvu/2

 and Founders Holiday in the hotel remarked to the manager,"It looks as if something is going on in this hotel and I am going to get in on it." This illustrates the interest of the inhabitants in our proceedings.

Major credit for the success of the conference must go to the Governments concerned. They showed the most co-operative spirit and I must mention them all. First, the generosity of the Federal Government, led by the Federal Prime Minister himself, to whom it is right to pay tribute for his statesmanlike co-operation in the affairs of the conference, a realisation which must, indeed, have been hard for him and his Ministers. Many people may wish to note the example that he has given. Next must be the constructive contribution of the Southern Rhodesia Prime Minister and Ministers; then the readiness of the Northern Rhodesia Ministers to accept the facts of the situation and adjust themselves to the timetable and machinery laid down by the conference. We also had the assistance of some observers from Nyasaland, who were very helpful.

Hon. Members will remember that doubt had persisted right up to within a week or two of the start of the conference as to whether it would be held at all. This was due, in part, to the fact that discussions on the independence of Southern Rhodesia had not been brought to a conclusion. In fact, this position has been left open following on the exchange of letters published in the White Paper of 18th June and from the point of view of Her Majesty's Government it is still one for further consideration.

The Southern Rhodesian Prime Minister showed a considerable sense of the importance of the occasion by deciding to attend the conference and by playing a very full part. The Federal Government accordingly—and they had made a very detailed preparation by way of memoranda for the conference—in the interests of an early dissolution, agreed to come at the same time. Thus, there was general agreement between us that arrangements should be made for the orderly and speedy transfer of Federal responsibilities to the territories.

The House should be aware that it was obvious long before we left England that all the difficult and complex problems this process would involve could not be settled by the conference itself and that one of the main tasks of the conference would be to set up special machinery to deal with these problems. We always envisaged, however, that there would be certain important matters upon which the post-conference machinery would need guidance from the conference. As hon. Members will have seen from the White Paper, this included such vital and difficult problems as those arising in connection with the Federal public service, the apportionment of Federal assets and liabilities, including the public debt, the transfer of money and taxation functions from the Federation to the territories, the question of citizenship and, a further example, the possibility of setting up a common Court of Appeal.

I will say something about each of these, beginning with the Federal public service. Hon. Members will, perhaps, agree that this is the main human problem posed by the dissolution of the Federation. I think that we shall be judged by how we solve it. There are no fewer than 35,000 Federal civil servants of a variety of race—African, Asian and European—and their future lies in our hands. There was general agreement at the conference that as many Federal officers as possible should be absorbed in the territorial public services and that the territories should make an early statement of the opportunities of employment and terms of service which they could offer to Federal officers.

One of our main difficulties concerned the question of the compulsory secondment of Federal officers to the territories for a period while their future and conditions were worked out.

We invited to Victoria Falls the representative of the Federal Public Service Association, and we actually started negotiations on the Federal Public Service before the conference was concluded. The Federal Government reserved their position about the question of compulsory secondment, and it remains to be seen whether any other system, not compulsory, can be worked out by the machinery we are setting up to see that the transfer of these officers from the Federation to the territories is done as smoothly as possible.

It was also decided that the post-conference machinery should work out comprehensive arrangements for Federal