§ Mr. Newensasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the circumstances in which three British officers seconded to the service of the Sultan of Oman were killed recently.
§ Mr. Mason :I regret that Captain W. M. Marshall, Royal Marines, and Captain M. G. A. Shipley, Royal Anglians, volunteers serving on loan with the Sultan of Oman's Armed Forces, were killed in the Dhofar province of Oman on 8th March. The helicopter in which they were travelling was shot down by rebel small-arms fire. The third person killed in the incident was not a member of Her Majesty's Forces although he had previously served in the Royal Air Force.