HC Deb 02 February 1970 vol 795 cc1-2W
2. Mr. Barnes

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will now seek an invitation for an official of his Department to visit Biafra.

Mr. M. Stewart

The welcome end to the civil war in Nigeria means that the former secessionist area no longer has any kind of separate identity, and the question of a visit to that area, other than as part of a more general visit to Nigeria, does not arise.

36. Mr. Hooley

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will initiate discussions with the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund about their experience of the use of helicopters for relief in Nigeria.

Mr. M. Stewart

No. It is for the Federal Government of Nigeria to discuss this with U.N.I.C.E.F. if they so wish.

57. Mr. James Johnson

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement upon the expulsion of the British Military Attaché, Colonel Robert Scott, from Lagos.

Mr. Foley

The Nigerian Government asked on 12th January that Colonel Scott, Defence Adviser to the British High Commissioner in Lagos, should leave Nigeria the next day, following publication in theSunday Telegraph on 11th January of extracts from a confidential report which he had prepared on the military situation.

Colonel Scott left accordingly.

59. Mr. Cronin

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the relief situation in the Biafran region of Nigeria.

Mr. Foley

I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply given earlier to my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon, South (Mr. Winnick) about Her Majesty's Government's contribution to the relief programme.

I would point out that responsibility for the relief situation in Nigeria rests with the Nigerian Federal Government.

64. Mr. Tilney

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will investigate the unauthorised disclosure to the Press of the report to Her Majesty's Government by the Defence Adviser to the High Commissioner to Nigeria on the civil war; and what action he has taken in regard to their unauthorised disclosure of a secret report.

Mr. Foley

I would refer the hon. Member to the reply given by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary on 19th January to my hon. Friend the Member for Bosworth (Mr. Wyatt).—[Vol. 794; c. 22.]

72. Mr. McMaster

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what requests he has received to supply Skyvans for relief service to Nigeria; and what replies he has sent.

Mr. Foley

My colleagues and I have received a number of suggestions about the possible use of Skyvans for relief purposes in Nigeria. We have replied that we have passed on these suggestions to the Nigerian authorities; that no request for Skyvans has been received from the Federal Government of Nigeria; but that if any such request were to be made, we should do our best to meet it. However, the main need is for road rather than air transport.