andMr. McQuillan asked the Minister for External Affairs whether the Irish delegate supported the most recent motion condemning apartheid in South Africa in the United Nations General Assembly's Special Political Committee.
21.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Racial Discrimination in South Africa.
20.
andMr. McQuillan asked the Minister for External Affairs whether it is the Government's intention to support the call by Asian members of U.N.O. for separate and collective action against South Africa to bring about the abandonment of racial discrimination in South Africa.
22.
andMr. McQuillan asked the Minister for External Affairs whether it is the intention of the Irish delegate to support the appeal at U.N.O. for trade sanctions to be applied against South Africa in an attempt to force the South African Government to alter its discriminatory race laws.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take these three questions together.
The Irish Delegation to the United Nations has continued to support resolutions and clauses of resolutions condemning apartheid. We voted for the Asian resolution referred to in Question No. 21. We voted for all the paragraphs of the twenty-fivepower resolution with the exception of paragraphs 5 and 6 which called for the breaking off of diplomatic relations with the Union of South Africa and the imposition of trade sanctions. We voted against these two paragraphs in the Special Political Committee and as they were carried we were compelled to vote against the resolution as a whole. When this resolution is brought before the Plenary Session of the General Assembly we shall again oppose these two paragraphs and if they are deleted we shall vote for the resolution. If they are not deleted we shall vote against the resolution.
Would the Minister not agree that in deciding matters such as trade sanctions and the withdrawal of diplomatic services, he would be in better company voting with the Afro-Asian countries than with the Americans and the British as he appears to have been in this connection?
I would remind the Deputy we are not a part of the Afro-Asian bloc or any other bloc and as an independent member of the United Nations it is our duty as well as our right to make an independent judgment on these matters. We try to give to these various complicated and difficult matters as much attention as we can in order to arrive at a conclusion which will help towards a solution and not make the situation worse.
Independents are always best. They have better judgment.
May I remind the Minister that at one time he supported a ban on British goods in our campaign against colonialism here? Is it not a fact also that in relation to the imposition of sanctions and the withdrawal of diplomatic association, this policy has the support both of the Government in exile and the South African leaders who are free in South Africa at the moment and that they are the best judges of what should be done?
I do not agree with that. We have to make our own best judgment in these matters. In the belief of the Government, the application of sanctions at the present time would hinder rather than help the ending of apartheid.