PM cwc....

Speaking to my father tonight about Mugabi and what I said earlier. Father said a great deal of dealing with Africa at the time was different and bizarrely religous. Uncle was very Christian in his approach, so they kind of got on with him diplomatically. Anyway, my point is I don't believe he was nice in anyway. Father sent me this from someone at the time about Uncle, I think you and Maurice would understand each other.

I had occasion to visit Nigeria many times in the mid-1950s and I witnessed in the north, at Jos and Kano, incidents involving Hausas, Fulanis and Ibos which were not very pleasant . . . Yet at the same time as there was this friction, this abrasiveness, between the tribes, the Ibos were working and forging the constitution of Nigeria. It was the Ibos, with the northerners, who formed the government at the time of Independence.

Foley became immersed in the politics of a country with which we had links for over a hundred years and where 16,000 British people were working in investment and trade.

Another area where Foley rendered great service was when he introduced the Tanzania Bill on 11 June 1969. He really cared about what was going to happen in Africa.

Opposition and the difficulties of the Labour Party persuaded him to leave the Commons for a post near his heart as Deputy Director General of DG8 (the Directorate General for Development, Commission of the European Communities), where he was to remain from 1973 to 1986. George Galloway MP, who was at that time the young General Secretary of War on Want, remembers going to Foley in Brussels and finding that "he had a tremendous grasp on world affairs. He could be a bit crusty but I sensed that underneath beat a stout Labour heart".

Posted By: DrDublin, Sep 6, 22:24:27