Yemen Border

HC Deb 06 March 1957 vol 566 cc58-9W

67. Mr. A. Henderson

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he will make a further statement on the situation on the Aden-Yemen border.

89. Mr. P. Williams

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he will make a further statement on the situation on the borders of Aden.

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

Statements on the situation on the Aden-Yemen border were last made by my right hon. Friend the present Secretary of State for Scotland on 22nd and 23rd January. Since then there has been a further succession of incidents of the same kind in the Dhala and Beihan areas of the Western Aden Protectorate. In particular, there was a heavy attack by Yemeni regulars and others in the Dhala area towards the end of January, in which Yemeni field guns fired across the frontier against Protectorate troops; it is estimated that between 50 or 60 of the invaders were killed or wounded, including about 25 Yemeni regulars. On two occasions in the second half of February, two Yemeni field guns fired on a Government Guard post a few miles south of Beihan. Vigorous protests have been made to the Yemeni Government about these attacks. There have also been Yemeni attacks in the Audhali State, and no area of the Western Aden Protectorate has been free from Yemeni interference or attempted subversion in the past two months. Her Majesty's Government have continued, and will continue, to support the State rulers concerned both against external aggression and against internal subversion fomented by the Yemen.

There were recently reliable reports of a Yemeni plan for a large-scale attack on Dhala in the near future, using dynamite and mines and aiming to cut the road between Dhala and Aden, but owing no doubt to the prompt action taken to deal with the threat, this plan has not developed.

Meanwhile there have been further exchanges of Notes about the proposal that British and Yemeni officers should meet on the frontier to discuss the situation. A note was handed to the Yemeni Chargé d'Affaires in London on 4th March in reply to the Note of 26th February.