Biafra: the lie direct
is frequently alleged that the present oreign Secretary is merely a creature of s officials, dutifully reading out the efs the Foreign Office provides for him. is seems unfair—unfair both to Mr ,,wart and to his permanent advisers.
en if his policies are those of his offi- als, it must be presumed that his lies e his own.
This week the fertility of his powers of vention was displayed to the full. It is e that, unprecedentedly, he felt obliged make a statement in the House of ,mmons on Tuesday grudgingly retract- g one of his mendacious answers to estions on Biafra the previous day, ding that if he had 'inadvertently' mis- d the House he was sorry. But it is hard see this as some belated attack of ruple: Mr Stewart had simply made the ctical error of lying about the Ameri- ns, instead of (as he usually does) con- ing himself to the Anguillans. Biafrans d any other dusky victims of his licies.
According to Mr Stewart in the House of mons on Monday, 'Colonel Ojukwu iected [to the Nigerian government's ms for daylight air relief] on grounds • t it would involve him in some military k and said that he wanted a third party arantee. Such a guarantee was provided the United States, but Colonel Ojukwu Il refuses to accept'. 'There is the fur- r point which I have already men- ned', he reiterated when probed by Sir ec Douglas-Home, 'that there would be guarantee from the United States gov- ment that this [daylight air relief] uld be done in a manner which would give military advantage to the Niger- Rovernment.'
he truth of the matter is plain ugh: it was set out by Mr Rogers. the Secretary of State, last week. The eral Nigerian government gave its urance to America's roving Ambassa- Mr Ferguson, that it would not ex- It any daylight relief flights for mili- purposes, and Mr Ferguson trans- ted this message to the Biafran gov- ment, which expressed scepticism. But re never has been any 'American rantee' of any kind whatever.
Foreign Secretary concluded his lies to questions on the Nigerian war this homily: 'I hope that anyone has any access to Colonel Ojukwu WU on him two things : first. that he titularly now that he has the third party guarantee for which he asked. Second, that he should be prepared to enter into talks without preconditions.' Mr Stewart has already had to admit that the 'third party guarantee' was a figment of his con- venient imagination: but in fact the second of his two points is equally mis- chievous. The Biafrans have long made known their preparedness to enter into talks without preconditions. It is Lagos that, with one exception, has always re- fused this, insisting on Biafra first re- nouncing secession. That one exception was at the time of the OAU meeting earlier this year, when General Gowon made his one and only offer of talks without pre- conditions. But as soon as General Ojukwu accepted this. Lagos back- pedalled furiously and nothing more was heard. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the Nigerian war, this is plain, un- challengeable fact.
Again, Mr Stewart based his whole case on the premise (and the same point was made by Mr Wilson in his Guildhall speech earlier this month) that Biafra had refused to countenance daylight relief flights of any kind. That this is completely false the International Red Cross in Geneva can testify. General Ojukwu in fact accepted the Red Cross's proposals for daylight relief in August. and backed down only when Lagos added the stipula- tions that, inter alia, any such flights (which would replace all night relief flights) must be conducted 'without pre- judice to Nigeria's military offensive against Biafra' and that Nigeria must have the right to veto or recall any flight.
In short, it is abundantly clear that Parliament cannot believe a word the Foreign Secretary says. But for Mr Stewart it is everyone else who is out of step. Since the war began. well over two years ago, only one British government emissary has set foot in Biafra—Group- Captain Leonard Cheshire. When he re- turned and reported faithfully what he had seen and heard. Mr Stewart chose to ignore him, preferring to believe 'hat he had been brainwashed by General Ojukwu. The Canadian and Swedish governments are actively supporting Joint Church Aid, the only organisation at present ferrying relief supplies into both Nigeria and Biafra. But, according to Mr Stewart, for Britain to give any help whatever to the (for once) un't perately urgent errand of mercy would he grossly improper. Indeed, for the Foreign Secretary the only thing that is 'proper' is for Britain to increase still further the lion's share that this country already provides of Nigeria's military supplies for the war on the ground.
Mr Stewart's positive eagerness to supply ever more arms surprised even Sir Alec Douglas-Home. when he ques- tioned the Foreign Secretary on the pos- sibility of securing an international arms embargo to both sides through the United Nations. Previously. Mr Stewart had at least gone through the motions of favour- ing this course, but had argued that France and Russia would not agree. This week, however, pressed by both Sir Alec and Mr Jeremy Thorpe to put it to the test, Mr Stewart complained that even to try and raise the issue of an arms embar- go at the UN would deeply offend 'Afri- can states'--and that, anyway, an arms embargo would have to depend on a cease-fire (which in turn, of course. al- though Mr Stewart omitted to state this. can only be secured with the approval of Lagos. which is not forthcoming). even though the whole point of an arms em- bargo is to bring about a cease-fire In shirt, Mr Stewart's (and the Govern- ment's) alleged devotion to the idea of a UN arms embargo turns out to be as big a sham as everything else.
Mr Stewart is plainly beyond redemp- tion. And so is the rest of the Govern- ment. so long as it blindly accepts his murderous lead. But none of this con- dones the behaviour of the Opposition About the only thing that can be said about the position of the Conservative leadership on Nigeria is that it has stead- fastly refused to allow considerations of electoral advantage (for a substantial section of the electorate. particularly among the young 'new voters' of whom there will be a record number at the next election. are increasingly concerned about Biafra) to deter it from suppoiting the present government to the hilt. But what- ever its views about General Ojukwu (and why does not Mr Heath send a persona' emissary to Biafra to provide him wit!, an on-the-spot report?) there must he limit to the number of Mr Stewart's n-. and evasions that even the Shadow Czth-- net is prepared to swallow. And let the Tory leadership ask itself this: if that limit was no reach
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