With the permission of the House, I should like to make a statement on my visit to South Arabia.

I am glad to have this opportunity of fulfilling my promise to the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Preston, North (Mr. J. Amery) that I would report to the House on my visit to South Arabia.

I spent 11 days there. Through the kindness of the Acting High Commissioner, the Commander-in-Chief and the various Governments, whose help and hospitality I wish to acknowledge, I was able to see a great deal of Aden itself and our base there, and to travel extensively in the other States of the Federation of South Arabia and the Eastern Aden Protectorate. I had talks with a wide section of public opinion, including the Rulers, Ministers, political parties and Opposition groups. I also spoke with political detainees.

I visited the Radfan, Mukeiras and Beihan, and saw the conditions under which Federal and British Forces were operating. I should like to pay the highest tribute to them for their courage and devotion. In view of aggression and subversive activities from across the border, I took the opportunity to reaffirm that Her Majesty's Government are determined to carry out to the full its treaty obligations in the area.

I know that the whole House will agree with me in condemning the brutal, senseless, and cowardly terrorism for which my visit was made the occasion. I satisfied myself that everything is being done for the protection of Service men and their families. I made clear that the questions of independence and constitutional advance were essentially matters for free discussion and that Her Majesty's Government would not be deterred from such free discussion by the use of violence, originating either within or outside the Federation.

I also made clear that it remained the policy of Her Majesty's Government that there should be, not later than 1968, an independent Arab State in South Arabia and that the steps towards this end should be worked out in a way which would command the widest measure of support obtainable. I emphasised that Her Majesty's Government would do everything in their power to help in this.

I was encouraged by the fact that on the last day of my visit a joint statement on constitutional objectives was issued by the Federal Supreme Council and the Aden Council of Ministers. This statement, which had my full approval, called for the creation of a unitary state on a sound democratic basis, and for the recognition of human rights. A joint Committee of Ministers of the Federal and Aden State Governments will continue to study the means of giving practical effect to these objectives in preparation for the next conference which we agreed should begin in early March.