Foreign Affairs

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 16 June 1964.

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Photo of Mr Charles Loughlin Mr Charles Loughlin , Gloucestershire West 12:00, 16 June 1964

My information is that the political adviser sent for the headsmen of the Radfan tribe to tell them that they were to come into the Protectorate under the Emir of Dhala. They said that they would be prepared to participate in the Protectorate as they were, under the seven beadsmen, but were not prepared to be subject to the Emir of Dhala. They were told that they were going in under the Emir. This is why they are in revolt, and this is why the Radfan tribesmen have been bombed and why women and children have been killed.

The London conference is a conference of the sheiks and nominated members of the Federal Legislature representing no one but themselves, and yet the one political organisation in the Colony of Aden which has the support of the majority of people is excluded from the conference and not recognised by the British Government.

What is the good of setting up another huge constitutional conference to determine that we shall not have any further general elections; that we shall produce a system of elections which does not involve the franchise at all? What is the use of holding a conference in London to try to solve the problem in that area when the only people who, in the end, will constitute the Government of Aden and the Protectorates are excluded from it and are hounded daily by what have now become the secret police in Aden? There is only one solution to the Aden problem. I think that in the end there will be a linking up of South Arabia with the Yemen. I do not think that the Canute-like attitude of the British Government can stop that tide rolling on, no matter what happens.

We have to try to safeguard the interests of the British people, and at the same time give the people of Aden and the Protectorates the opportunity of evolving their own political democratic organisations in the proper way. We have a responsibility to these people. We have been in control of their destinies for 125 or 130 years. We have a responsibility to make good some of the deficiencies which have existed for far too long. We have a responsibility to try to bring to this part of the world social services, education, and decent housing. When I was out there I saw houses which made me ashamed to think that we had been associated with this part of the world for so long. I was ashamed to see the conditions under which some people were living. We have a responsibility, not to the sheiks and sultans, not to the oil companies, but to the people of Aden and the Protectorates, and it is about time that the Government faced it.