§ 2.42 p.m.
LORD ST. OSWALDMy 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 how they interpret the dismissal of the remaining British experts serving with the South Yemen Armed Forces; to what they attribute these dismissals; and what consequences they anticipate.]
§ LORD CHALFONTMy Lords, to avoid the embarrassment which might have arisen if British personnel, whose recruitment we had facilitated, had been used in North Yemen, where British policy is non-involvement, Her Majesty's Ambassador in Aden requested that the British pilots under contract for service in the Southern Yemeni Air Force should not be used outside the Southern Yemen. Her Majesty's Government regret that the Southern Yemen Government felt it necessary, apparently as a result, to dismiss contract personnel The relationship was, however, a contractual one between the personnel themselves and the Southern Yemen Government, and the latter obviously had the right to terminate their services. Her Majesty's Government do not expect any particular consequences, except that the efficiency of the Southern Yemen forces has no doubt been reduced, but the Ambassador has protested against a hostile statement made by the Southern Yemeni Defence Minister over the dismissals.
LORD ST. OSWALDMy Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for that reply. I should like to ask him two supplementary questions. First, did the contract of these personnel include an obligation to fight outside South Yemen territory?—because if it did not then they were fulfilling their contract without going outside South Yemen territory. The other question is: has the noble Lord any reason to suppose that these officers will be replaced by Russians, as was suggested as a possibility by the B.B.C. in a broadcast on, I think, February 27.
§ LORD CHALFONTMy Lords, I am not aware of the exact terms of the contracts that were signed between those 935 pilots and the South Yemen Government, but we were disturbed lest they might be used outside the area and, indeed, used in Northern Yemen. For that reason we made it clear to the South Yemen Government that we should object to this, and as a result of that the dismissals took place. So far as the replacement by Russian personnel is concerned, I have no first-hand information about this. It is of course entirely up to the Government of the South Yemen, which is an independent Government, to make contracts with whomever it pleases, but I have no clear or firm information about this matter.
LORD ST. OSWALDMy Lords, may I suggest that one of the consequences which I had in mind in asking the Question, was the replacement of these officers by Russian personnel? Does the noble Lord, even though he knows nothing about their actual replacement, or of plans to replace them with Russian personnel, know anything of Russian planes landing in the South Yemen, or of a Russian military mission visiting the South Yemen, which might give a pointer to the replacement plans of the South Yemen Government?
§ LORD CHALFONTMy Lords, as I said, I have no information that would lead me to suppose that these contract pilots are being found from the Soviet Union. I am not entirely at one with the noble Lord in thinking that the indicators that he suggested would necessarily point to that. They may point to a number of other conclusions as well.