Biafra: the Conservative responsibility
long last, after two and a half years of r in which two million Commonwealth liens have died, the House of Commons begun to signify its discontent with a licy which could be seen to have failed hteen months ago. It is no cause for If-congratulation among Members that ev should have been so slow off the ark. Even now, it is possible to find rliamentarians who are unable to accept full extent to which they have been nsistently misled over two and a half rs; that a government which claimed to seeking peace was in fact seeking only a igerian victory; that a British Foreign retary who claimed to be concerned ut the relief situation in Biafra was in deliberately distorting the truth in the terests of the blockaders; that a British me Minister whose main appeal to the torate was in his claim to greater corn- ssion than most should assist and sup- rt such a Foreign Secretary, repeating same distortions about relief and put- g the whole weight of the British govern- ent behind what otherwise might be missed as the unhappy aberrations of a k and frightened man.
Mr Wilson would not have been pted to commit such a blinding error Ionic and truth as to suggest that the frans were to blame for their own Nation if he had not suspected that he uld get away with it in Parliament, and catalogue of Parliament's failures uld be complete without drawing atten- n to the ignoble role of the official oppo- ion. The British constitution provides r an official Opposition party to fulfil a ecise and useful role: that of opposing eh Government actions as are harmful to national interest, or can be seen to be ••strous in the broader perspective of mmon morality. Its weapons are the ess and public opinion to which it should e a lead, rather than allowing itself to led by them. If blame is to be apportioned for tain's share to date in this appalling ster, then the Conservative opposition er the guidance in foreign affairs of Sir ee Douglas-Home must accept its part reason of its sins of omission in exactly same measure as the Labour party in Parliament must accept theirs by reason of committed sins. But at least it is not too late for the Conservative party to dissoci- ate itself from such unthinkable horrors as may yet be in store if the policy is con- tinued.
Mr Heath is to be congratulated on his decision to send a personal representative into Biafra, as we urged in this journal on 22 November. The past few weeks have, indeed, seen a major shift of opinion on this issue within the Conservative ranks. The number of Tory 'rebels' in Tuesday's Nigeria debate is one indication of this— as, too, is the fact that the Opposition de- cided to devote their supply day to a de- bate on this subject in the first place. Even Sir Alec Douglas-Home has become increasingly dissatisfied with Mr Stewart's stiff-necked opposition to all attempts to promote a United Nations arms embargo to both sides, and on Tuesday he put for- ward an imaginative scheme for getting daylight relief to Biafra without threaten- ing Uli airport. the Biafrans' one existing lifeline to the outside world. This issue of the SPECTATOR goes to press before Lord Carrington's findings are known, and we can only await them with some impatience. Lord Carrington is known to us as an in- telligent, articulate and humane man; we hope and pray that he will speak out forcefully on behalf of the common humanity shared by Conservative, Social- ist and Liberal alike.
For it is one of the wretched paradoxes of this affair that while the Conservative leaders in opposition have been aping the manners and outlook of their predecessors in government, the key to a solution may well have lain with them all this time. Part of the Government's case for continuing both the supply of arms to Nigeria and diplomatic support for Nigeria's war aims has been that Russia would take over both these roles if Britain withdrew. Observers in Lagos doubt both these propositions, and doubt even that the Gowon junta would have the stomach to continue the war if these conditions applied. The odium which would attach to General Gowon throughout the entire western world—and the withdrawal of western support—can- not be ignored, even if anyone in Lagos had sufficient confidence in Russian inten- tions to give it a try.
Nevertheless it is this argument, despite its blatant abdication of even the most elementary moral standards, which has most persuaded the Tory leadership to date. What no observer of the political scene can doubt for a moment, however, is that the Labour government will lose all stomach for continuing this disastrous policy very soon after the withdrawal of official Opposition support for it. Already Mr Wilson is acting in defiance of the wishes of his own party. as expressed in a decision passed by the Labour party con- ference for two years in succession. Already, he is acting in defiance of public opinion, as expressed in both Gallup and National Opinion polls throughout the country—the latest showed a repudiation of government policy by more than three to one, with an extraordinarily small pro- portion of 'don't knows'. And Mr Wilson expects his supporters to face the country on the proposition that his government has more life, more soul and more compassion than are possessed by its opponents.
Perhaps Sir Alec Douglas-Home has hitherto been imperfectly aware both of the responsibilities and of the potentialities of his role as chief opposition spokesman on foreign affairs. At least he will now have the benefits of some first hand .in- formation on the matter which he has been content to judge up to now on such second-hand and heavily biased accounts as the Foreign and Commonwealth office provided.
It is sometimes said that it is the mark of a truly great man that he can admit to having been wrong. We neither demand nor expect quite such a standard of great- ness from any of our democratic poli- ticians at this moment of our history. What we do most solemnly urge. however, is that Sir Alec should pause before making any decision in the light of Lord Carrington's report, reflect on the responsibility for settling this problem which circumstances have—as so rarely on an opposition— thrust upon him and his party, and then consult with both Lord Carrington and Mr Reath to find some means of fulfilling that responsibility.
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