HC Deb 28 June 1967 vol 749 cc514-6
Mr. Speaker

The Clerk will now proceed to read the Orders of the Day.

Dame Irene Ward (Tynemouth) rose—

Mr. Speaker

Order. I paused to give the hon. Lady her chance. We have passed the stage when she can do what she now seeks to do. However, she may do it.

Dame Irene Ward

Mr. Speaker, I wrote you a very polite little note suggesting that I would wait for you to call me, but perhaps I should not have put it in that form. I am very sorry. I am grateful for your indulgence.

Mr. Speaker

All correspondence between us will remain confidential.

Dame Irene Ward

I beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House, under Standing Order No. 9 for the purpose of discussing a definite matter of urgent public importance, namely, the recent disturbing military happenings in the Crater area of Aden and all that this implies. I need not emphasise that this is a definite matter. Public importance attaches to the fact that a full and frank statement should be made about the instructions as to the use of weapons given to the Services in Aden, by whom and when.

Last Monday, in answer to a Question about Aden, the Foreign Secretary said: I should be very willing to answer on that matter if somebody would wish me to do so."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 26th June, 1967; Vol. 749, c. 106.] I wish him to do so, as, apart from other units in the Crater area of Aden, the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers were heavily involved.

In seeking to move the Adjournment, I am giving the Foreign Secretary an opportunity, which I hope he will take, of redeeming his pledge. Pledges on matters of this kind—

Mr. Speaker

The hon. Lady is going into the merits of what she wants to say if her Motion is accepted. She must argue for the Adjournment of the House.

Dame Irene Ward

I suggest merely that the Foreign Secretary might wish to redeem his pledge, or, alternatively, that the Minister of Defence could take his place.

It is rather significant that in this great House of Commons there seems to be no opportunity of dealing with a matter in- volving men's lives in such disturbing circumstances in Aden. Therefore, I have to take the opportunity of seeking to move the Adjournment of the House. I think that it is important that I should do so, and I look to the Government to redeem the pledges which were given on this matter.

Mr. Speaker

The hon. Lady will bring her Motion to me.

(Copy of Motion handed in.)

The hon. Lady asks leave to move the Adjournment of the House under Standing Order No. 9 for the purpose of discussing a definite matter of urgent public importance, namely, the recent disturbing military happenings in the Crater area of Aden and all that this implies.

May I say at the outset that I fully appreciate the hon. Lady's anxiety. It is the anxiety which is shared by every hon. Member of the House about what is happening to British soldiers in Aden. Unfortunately, however, I am bound to observe the rules governing the occasions on which this Standing Order can be invoked. Among the rules governing the acceptance or otherwise of an application under Standing Order No. 9 is that which prescribes that the matter must be raised without delay and that, if the matter is not raised at the earliest opportunity, it fails to comply with the condition of urgency.

In these circumstances, I cannot allow the application to move the Adjournment under Standing Order No. 9 today, because this is not the first opportunity of bringing the matter to the notice of the House.