The Press MONDAY, MAY 9,1966. Britain’s Difficult Role In Aden

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31054, 9 May 1966, Page 14

The Press MONDAY, MAY 9,1966. Britain’s Difficult Role In Aden

The Aden scene, as time moves on towards the day of a British departure, presents all the familiar aspects of “anti-imperialist” intrigue. Terrorism and strike action, presumably organised by extremist Arab factions, are making it difficult for British officials to keep the colony’s administrative machinery functioning. The British are committed to complete withdrawal; sovereignty is to be handed over to an independent South Arabian republic by 1968, but as yet there is no agreement on how the republic is to be constituted. Not all of the 20 Arab States forming the protectorate have approved the proposals for federation, although 17 of them, including Aden, are members of the existing Federation of South Arabia. There is, however, deep-seated unrest in the region, particularly in Aden itself, where the Cairo-backed Nationalist Liberation Front is demanding the “ immediate and complete removal ” of the British base, in terms of a United Nations resolution, and abolition of the state of emergency imposed in December, 1963, because jof increasing terrorism in Yemen. The front also continues to affirm the right of the people of Aden and the federation to “ self-determination and freedom from “ colonial rule

To what extent Aden unrest is the result of conspiracy in Cairo is not known, although the deposed Chief Minister, Mr Mackawee, the bitterly antiBritish former leader of the Aden Opposition, has talked of setting up a “ government-in-exile ” in the Egyptian capital—no doubt under President Nasser’s patronage, since he has said openly that he is prepared to keep Egyptian troops in Yemen for 20 years rather than allow it to come under more moderate influences. President Nasser, moreover, is known to be sympathetic towards a political movement which would like to join Aden and its hinterland to Yemen —with the longer view of extending the hegemony of the United Arab Republic to South Arabia once British protection has been removed.

There are, of course, moderate elements in South Arabia who, while subscribing in some degree to nationalist sentiment, fear that a complete British withdrawal, in the absence of pre-agreed political solidarity among the States, could lead only to political and economic chaos. The South Arabian League, for instance, which is assisted financially by Saudi Arabia, thinks that the British plan for a wider federation, with Aden as the new capital territory, merits careful study. Those of the Arab rulers who take this line will have to make positive efforts to persuade others of the wisdom of the British proposals for the creation of a completely independent federal republic in less than two years. .Mr Wilson’s Government may also need to reconsider its decision not to continue Britain’s defence treaty obligations after 1968. The British Government at present “ does not think it appropriate ” that defence facilities at Aden should be maintained after the granting of independence. If terrorism and political dissension increase—and present signs are that they will—protection of the new republic may well become, for Britain, a matter of necessity rather than appropriateness. Britain may not find it easy, or expedient, merely to quit and cut her losses in Aden, even before 1968, much as she might like to do so.