Mr Anthony Crosland: The right hon. Gentleman always speaks in a very well-informed manner about this subject, but perhaps I may correct him on one matter. He said that we were explicitly backing the Patriotic Front. We have repeatedly made clear that if the Geneva conference or any other conference reconvened we should not be content with only the Patriotic Front representing the nationalists, but would, on the...
Mr Anthony Crosland: I shall not comment on the question of dual standards, though there is a good deal that might be said about it. Nor shall I comment on the monopoly of moral virtue which has been adopted by a number of right hon. and hon. Members today, though much that was said about their monopoly of virtue had a very strong whiff of hypocrisy about it. I want to answer one or two specific questions which...
Mr Anthony Crosland: I last had talks with the Czechoslovak Foreign Minister when he visited London from 13th to 16th September last year. I have no present plans to go to Prague.
Mr Anthony Crosland: There can be no doubt about the feelings on all sides of the House on the issue of Charter '77 and its declaration. The Government share the views expressed by the hon. Member, and we have conveyed to the Czechoslovak regime our profound concern about the treatment now being meted out to certain of the signatories of Charter '77. Our commitment to human rights remains absolutely firm and...
Mr Anthony Crosland: I agree entirely. There is no question of left, right or centre on an issue of this kind. There is absolute unanimity in the House that this kind of suppression of human rights and free speech—and this is not the only recent example from Eastern Europe but is probably the most dramatic of them—is not tolerable and acceptable to Western opinion and that, if this sort of thing continues,...
Mr Anthony Crosland: I think that the whole House will deplore the tactics being used against the signatories of Charter '77. They are also being used against certain British citizens, including two former ambassadors who have been grotesquely accused of acting as British spies—an accusation in which, I need hardly say, there is not an ounce of truth.
Mr Anthony Crosland: No, Sir.
Mr Anthony Crosland: I would refer the hon. Members to my statement of 25th January.
Mr Anthony Crosland: I prefer not to give a definite answer to that because Mr. Ivor Richard has arrived back only today and I want to hear his personal and detailed report. I have had conversations this morning with Ambassador Andrew Young, who is due to go to South Africa tonight. I prefer not to make a statement about new initiatives until I have had time, as I said a week or two ago, to make a cool and...
Mr Anthony Crosland: The immediate factor which is condemning Rhodesia to a further and probably aggravated period of guerrilla warfare is Mr. Smith's rejection even of the proposals that we put to him as the basis for further discussion.
Mr Anthony Crosland: I think that the Western world has made it abundantly clear again and again—not merely the British Government, but the Nine in their declaration issued on Monday and the new United States Administration in its statement last week—that it stands unequivocally for majority rule in Rhodesia. It is no good ignoring the existence of the South African Government. That Government are a factor in...
Mr Anthony Crosland: Mr. Smith appears to have accepted the principle but to have rejected any possible means whereby that principle might have been achieved. As for dilatoriness, as I said in answer to the right hon. Gentleman a few days ago it is absurd to suppose that a problem which has baffled successive Governments for 11 years could conceivably be settled in a matter of weeks, or even months. It is bound...
Mr Anthony Crosland: We shall certainly seek to keep in contact with the nationalist leaders. They should also seek to keep in contact with us, however. It was not particularly helpful for Mr. Nkomo and Mr. Mugabe to decline to meet Mr. Richard a few days ago. There must be a sensible give and take on this issue. We do not have the power to dictate to South Africa what its policy should be. I merely reiterate...
Mr Anthony Crosland: To call Sir Seretse Khama's State a totalitarian State is hardly an accurate description of the Botswana regime. We have had two totally contradictory accounts of this matter, one from Sir Seretse Khama's Government and the other from the Rhodesian Government. I have no intention of making an approach to anybody until we discover which of these is true. There have, of course, been innumerable...
Mr Anthony Crosland: I agree on the second part of the right hon. Gentleman's question. On the first part, British Government policy, while it may not be accepted by the Opposition, is fully in line with the policy of the American Administration and, as Monday's statement demonstrated, with that of the other eight members of the European Community.
Mr Anthony Crosland: Vice-President Mondale had a meeting with my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on 27th January, which I attended. Discussion covered matters of mutual concern to the United States and the United Kingdom, in particular the world economic situation and the possibility of a summit meeting of the main industrialised countries. Views were also changed on Rhodesia, Cyprus, the Middle East,...
Mr Anthony Crosland: We raised the question of Concorde, and made plain the importance that we attach to it and to the ruling that is due on 10th February. I understand that the French Government took the same view when Vice-President Mondale visited Paris and that the French raised the matter in a very positive manner.
Mr Anthony Crosland: This subject naturally played a major part in our discussions. We underlined the view, which is held not merely by the British Government but by the OECD, that the critical factor in the world economic situation at the moment is the need for some acceleration of growth in the United States, Germany and Japan. No final decisions were taken or could have been taken at a meeting of this kind,...
Mr Anthony Crosland: I cannot believe that this was the widespread view of the discussions that we had about Rhodesia with Vice-President Mondale. So far as I know, there has been no Press speculation about the content of these discussions. As to the substance of the right hon. Gentleman's question, I have said again and again what is surely an obvious truth, that any spread of Soviet influence in Southern Africa...
Mr Anthony Crosland: I expect to meet my EEC colleagues at the Foreign Affairs Council on 8th February.
