ADEN OUTLOOK IS FOR BLOODSHED

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31316, 11 March 1967, Page 13

ADEN OUTLOOK IS FOR BLOODSHED

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) ADEN, March 10. South Arabia’s rocky path to independence seemed headed for increasing bloodshed, violence and terrorism, according to the Associated Press correspondent Dennis Neeld. Neeld writes:

A United Nations mission this month will try to arrest the territory’s slide into rebellion and civil war. If it fails, the entire Middle East may be affected.

Aden, normally a bustling free port and fuelling station, is the hub of a federation made up of 17 semi-feudal sheikhdoms and sultanates. It has been a British military base for 127 years. Independence is promised by 1968; and rival political factions, some backed by foreign allies, are locked in a struggle for power. It is a war of assassination, bombings and street corner shooting. The port and oncethriving commercial life of the city have been paralysed by strikes and intimidation. The British garrison of some 14,000 troops and airmen who buttress the limited forces fo the Federal Government have become a major target of nationalist terrorism. So have their wives and children.

In spite of pleas by the Federal Government for a de fence treaty after independence, Britain seems determined to carry out its plan for a complete military withdrawal.

Families Going

The families of servicemen will start moving cut on May 1 at a rate of 750 a month, and all will be gone by the end of July. Britain is putting its faith in the shaky Federal Government, made up largely of autocratic traditional rulers and their appointees, most of whom have never had to stand for election.

Aden’s 250,000 people politically and economically are

more advanced than the Arabia of the hinterlands Aden has always been a reluctant partner in the federation.

In the remaining months before independence Britain hopes the Federal Government will broaden its political base.

The Federal Army is being doubled to 10 battalions and an air force staffed by mercenary pilots is being created. British officials here charge Egypt with inciting violence, training terrorists in camps in neighbouring Yemen, and

plotting a complete breakdown of order. Egypt has 50,000 troops in Yemen; and some high placed British officials do not rule out the possibility that President Nasser might try to take over Aden. Violence has reached new fever pitch. Grenades and gunfights have claimed many dead or wounded, British and Arab.

Army roadblocks are everywhere. Army wives shop under the watchful eyes of armed sentries, and British children scurry off their school bus ringed with troops. Several Plots The British High Commissioner, Sir Richard Turnbull, has escaped several assassination plots. British officials claim that the outlawed National Liberation Front, which is blamed for most of the terrorism, has a hard core in Aden of no more than 40 strong, but these have been able to intimidate virtually the entire Arab population. It will be the task of the United Nations mission to try

to get rival groups to fii, a compromise formula b; which elections can be held either before or soon after independence, and get politicians to agree on a constitution. It will also make recommendations on United Nations supervision. Many think that President Nasser regards Aden as an essential stepping stone to the Persian Gulf and has eyes on the region's rich oil resources. Britain intends taking pre cautions against the danger. When it leaves Aden its outposts in Bahrein and the Gulf will be reinforced.