HC Deb 05 December 1960 vol 631 cc113-4W
71. Mr. Fell

asked the Lord Privy Seal if he will make a statement on the recent detention by United Nations troops in the Congo of Captain John Roberts, a British subject.

Mr. Heath

Captain Roberts was taken into custody in late October by United Nations troops in the Southern part of the Kasai Province of the Congo and held at Luluabourg. It was claimed that he had been leading a band of African soldiers on a punitive raid in an area in which the United Nations force had imposed a truce. As a result of representations by Her Majesty's Government, the United Nations authorities agreed that Captain Roberts should be released and returned to this country. He was brought back here by a United Nations aircraft and arrived in the early hours of the morning of 28th November.