Lieutenant-Colonel Mitchell (Public Relations Officers)

HC Deb 05 December 1967 vol 755 cc279-80W

Mr. Clark Hutchison

asked the Secretary of State for Defence what was the purpose of a civilian from his Department being present at Lyneham on 27th November when Lieutenant-Colonel Colin Campbell Mitchell, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, spoke to the Press on his arrival

Mr. Healey

As is normal practice when the Press visit a Service Establishment, Public Relations officers—in this case from Scottish and Southern Com- mands—were in attendance in order to help Lieutenant-Colonel Mitchell with the exceptionally large number of journalists and radio and television correspondents who wished to interview him and members of his battalion on their return to the United Kingdom.