HL Deb 01 August 1962 vol 243 cc258-9

2.52 p.m.

LORD KENNET

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

[The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the plan for our defence against Iraqi armour in the Kuwait operation in view of our numerical inferiority in armour.]

LORD CARRINGTON

My Lords, it would not be in the national interest to disclose the details of our military dispositions. I can assure the noble Lord that the defence preparations were fully adequate to meet the known threat.

LORD KENNET

My Lords, while thanking the noble Lord for his Answer, and appreciating that one must be careful of the national interest in such cases, may I ask: assuming that there was a superiority of armour on the other side, and assuming that our plan was to hold it up by air-to-ground action, what sort of plan could there have been to deal with the fact that the Iraqi "Migs" have a higher speed than our own aircraft?

LORD CARRINGTON

My Lords, that seems to one to contain too many assumptions for me to deal with it on this sort of Question.