HC Deb 09 December 1959 vol 615 cc496-8
14 and 15. Mr. Emrys Hughes

asked the Secretary of State for War (1) why the Royal Highland Fusiliers are being sent to Aden;

(2) how many of the Royal Highland Fusiliers to be sent to Aden are National Servicemen.

Mr. Soames

This battalion, which includes 130 National Service men, is going to Aden to relieve another infantry unit.

Mr. Hughes

Is the Minister informed about the appalling conditions prevailing in Aden? Are any of these soldiers from the West of Scotland expected to pay £21 in rent for a slum house? Will the right hon. Gentleman examine sympathetically the proposition made by Lady Tedder that ships should be sent out until housing conditions are made better? Will he consult his noble Friend the First Lord of the Admiralty to see that hospital ships go out, led by the hospital ship "Britannia"?

Mr. Soames

I know of no case of any Army personnel paying a rent anything like the figure which the hon. Gentleman has quoted. Indeed, we have a comparatively small number of Army families in Aden who are in private accommodation, fewer than fifty in the whole of the Aden garrison. I have had no complaints from the garrison about accommodation. Of course, Aden is overcrowded. We are proceeding with building there for what we envisage as being the permanent garrison in Aden. Strategic needs force us to keep a rather larger garrison there at present and they must perforce be in temporary accommodation. It is the climate which demands a very high standard of accommodation. It is the great heat and humidity out there. We are building for the permanent garrison.

Sir T. Moore

Apart from all that, as I, unlike the hon. Member for South Ayrshire (Mr. Emrys Hughes), have had the privilege of serving with a component part of this distinguished regiment, may I ask my right hon. Friend whether he is aware that the regiment will be happy to serve the Queen in any of her Dominions to which they are sent?

Mr. Soames

I quite agree with my hon. Friend.

Mr. Paton

Give the hon. Member another medal.

Mr. Strachey

While I do not suggest it is worse for one unit than another to serve there, will not the right hon. Gentleman show more concern about conditions in Aden, unless he can deny all these reports which we have all heard about the extremely unsatisfactory accommodation? Cannot he tell us something about that? Surely air conditioning can be introduced even in temporary accommodation? It is perfectly possible to air condition huts. We should like some reassurance that drastic action of some sort is being taken.

Mr. Soames

Yes. I was asked whether I would do something to improve conditions. There are quite a lot of things I should like to do to improve conditions in Aden, I quite agree, but I cannot do anything about the heat and the humidity. [HON. MEMBERS: "Air conditioning."] As to the accommodation itself, I gave a detailed Answer to one of the right hon. Gentleman's hon. Friends a fortnight ago on the programmes which were going forward and which included a considerable programme for air conditioning of temporary accommodation.

Mr. Ross

As one who has served with the other part of the R.H.F. and has also been to Aden recently, may I ask whether it would not have been far better if the hon. Gentleman the Member for Ayr (Sir T. Moore) had told my hon. Friend that there is no question of anyone of the R.H.F. paying £21 a week for any house because they are not going to be in houses? The actual fact is they are not going to be in houses but are going to be in tents or huts, and no one is going to be housed in a decent fashion befitting either the H.L.I. or the R.H.F. —in that order—until August next year.

Mr. Soames

The hon. Gentleman was referring to some married families, not, I think, to the troops themselves.

Mr. Emrys Hughes

There was a statement made in another place. In view of the unsatisfactory nature of this reply, and as my constituents are so much affected, I give notice that I shall raise the matter on the Adjournment.

Forward to