§ Mr. Dalyellasked the Secretary of State for Defence what arrangements he is making for the return of Servicemen's bodies from Aden.
§ Mr. Fisherasked the Secretary of State for Defence whether he will make 59W arrangements for the bodies of British Servicemen killed in action in Aden to be flown to the United Kingdom for burial.
§ Mr. ReynoldsThe arrangements under which the bodies of British Servicemen are returned to this country were described by my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for the Royal Air Force on 14th March. I much regret that, because of the numbers involved, the facilities that were available locally were not sufficient to allow repatriation in the case of those Servicemen who were killed at the time of the recent mutiny in Aden. These Servicemen were buried with full military honours. I am hopeful that local conditions will allow their next-of-kin to visit the graves in Aden as part of the arrangements that my hon. Friend described; and my Department will be writing to them about this. I am as an alternative arrangement to this examining the possibility, subject to local laws and conditions, of repatriating these bodies at a later date.