HC Deb 19 October 1971 vol 823 cc113-4W
Mr. Edward Taylor

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the circumstances in which Major Walsworth-Bell was dismissed from his position as an observer for Her Majesty's Government in Nigeria during the time of the civil war in that country.

Sir Alec Douglas-Home

Major Walsworth-Bell was appointed in March, 1969, as Assistant to the British Representative on the International Observer Team set up at the invitation of the Federal Government to observe the conduct of the civil war in Nigeria. His appointment was temporary and terminable at The Queen's pleasure.

Soon after Major Walsworth-Bell arrived in Nigeria it came to the notice of the British High Commission that he was claiming that he had special and confidential instructions to advise the Federal military authorities on the conduct of the war and that in addition to his overt duties as a member of the Observer Team he had some kind of special intelligence brief for Her Majesty's Government, unknown to the major part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office or to the High Commission. Neither of these claims was true.

Since it was obviously essential that members of the Observer Team should be and be seen to be objective and impartial, the Minister at the High Commission in Lagos instructed Major Walsworth-Bell on 20th May, 1969, to confine himself to supporting the Chief British Observer in the Team. These instructions were repeated by the hon. Member for West Bromwich (Mr. Foley)—then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office—both orally on 4th June, 1969, when he met Major Walsworth-Bell in Nigeria and in a letter on 17th June, 1969. Major Walsworth-Bell was again instructed by a senior official at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 26th August, 1969, to confine himself to the job to which he was appointed.

Major Walsworth-Bell did not comply with these clear, specific and repeated instructions. His appointment was accordingly terminated on 30th September, 1969.