§ 3.45 p.m.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (THE EARL OF HOME)My Lords, I am not going to reply to the noble Lord, Lord Morrison of Lambeth. I am sure he will forgive me for intervening, and I hope I shall not lower the temperature too much between his speech and the reply which he will get from the Government later on, but I thought the House would like to know of an answer to a Private Notice Question on events in the Yemen which has been made in another place.
At 3 p.m. local time on Saturday, June 22, a party of 44 Servicemen and 22 Service women, officers and other ranks, all from the Headquarters, Middle East Command, set out in the state of Lahej, which is part of the Aden Federation, for an exercise forming part of the normal programme of training. I think your Lordships will see in the newspapers that this is called adventure training". I think that is a little misleading; it is really routine training which takes place from time to time.
Their planned route, if it had been followed, would have kept them well away from the frontier with the Yemen. Unfortunately, while moving along desert tracks during the night they took the wrong turning. This brought them into Yemeni territory at about 9 p.m., where they were fired upon by tribesmen. The party split up and eighteen members, including four women, escaped. The remainder were pinned down by fire and later surrendered. One Royal Marine and three soldiers were killed and two others were slightly wounded.
The four women captured and the bodies of those killed have now been returned, leaving 18 male prisoners in Yemeni hands. Negotiations for the return of these prisoners are continuing.
The Minister of Defence has asked the Commander-in-Chief, Middle East, to carry out a full inquiry into this incident. In the meantime, I know the House will wish to join me in extending sympathy to all the families concerned.
§ EARL ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGHMy Lords, I should like to thank the Foreign Secretary for making the statement, and I am sure all parts of your Lordships' House would like to be associated with the last words of sympathy with the relatives of the men who have lost their lives and also those who are in course of anxiety concerning the present incarceration of the eighteen male prisoners. This apparently is a very unhappy affair. The responsibility upon the Aden Command in such a case is very great. There are surely in the Aden Command quite large sectional maps, pretty responsibly drawn, of an area such as they have under their control, and it seems unbelievable to me that a body of 44 persons should be sent out to do training and not have the necessary instructions to keep the proper distance from the boundary. We have no information at present as to 23 whether they were armed for border warfare or whether they were going on another kind of training in which they would not be armed at all.
Of course we are glad to know that there is to be a full-scale local inquiry into this matter, and we hope the findings of the inquiry will be made known to us and to the country as rapidly as possible. But, in the meantime, I should like to know whether the relatives of the five men who have been killed and certainly the relatives of all those who are still confined to the Yemeni territory have been notified, because it is a time of great anxiety for the relatives of those 44 persons. It is now over 48 hours; we had news of it yesterday. I hope very much something can be done about them. I do not know whether the Foreign Secretary has any information as to when the names of the persons concerned will be published in the Press.
THE EARL OF HOMEMy Lords, I should have made clear at the start that I was making this statement on behalf of my noble friend Lord Carrington, who has to be away to-day. I should not like to pass any judgment on the Aden Command and the arrangements made for the training exercise until we have had more of the facts, and I agree that an inquiry is very necessary into this matter. As to what arms the party was carrying, they were carrying only their personal arms, nothing else. So far as the information to the relatives is concerned, the relatives of those persons who have been named have been informed, and as soon as we get the full information all the relatives will be informed of those people who may be now prisoners in the Yemen.
§ EARL ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGHMy Lords, could we have any information, say within a day or two, as to what representations are being made to the Yemeni authorities with regard to those still being held?
THE EARL OF HOMEMy Lords, I can say that straight away. We have asked the Americans, who, as the noble Earl knows, are represented in the Yemen now and have recognised the Yemeni Republican Government, to make representations on our behalf to the Yemeni authorities, so that they may exercise any influence they have in that area to see 24 that the prisoners are released. I should say that there is no information whatever that the Yemeni troops as such were involved. This was a tribal affair, and I cannot say whether the tribe is one which is loyal to the Yemeni Republicans or one loyal to the Royalists.