High Commissioner May Be Replaced

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31366, 11 May 1967, Page 13

High Commissioner May Be Replaced

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

LONDON, May 10.

The British High Commissioner in Aden may be replaced soon for opposing the Labour Government’s plans to withdraw troops from the riot-wracked colony by 1968, according to reports in diplomatic quarters today, the Associated Press reported.

Government officials declined comment on the reports but said the High Commissioner, Sir Richard Turnbull, is in London for talks with the Foreign Secretary, Mr George Brown.

“These talks have now been completed and Sir Richard Turnbull will be returning very shortly to Aden as planned,” a Foreign Office spokesman said. Nevertheless, the diplomatic reports strongly suggested that Sir Richard Turnbull’s days in the job are numbered. He is known to have clashed with Mr Brown on several basic issues of British policy in South Arabia, the A.P. said.

Sir Richard Turnbull, a 57-year-old career diplomat who has been High Commissioner in Aden for the last two years and a half, was reported to have urged the Foreign Secretary to guarantee British protection to a proposed coalition government in South Arabia including Arab nationalists.

Such a course would involve reversing Britain’s firmlystated intention to pull out all but a handful of troops after Aden becomes independent in 1968.

The diplomatic reports said Mr Brown and Sir Richard Turnbull had fierce exchanges

on the issue. The Foreign Secretary has taken the view that a United nations presence would be the best guarantee against possible incursions by supporters of the United Arab Republic. In London, “The Times” said reports that Sir Richard Turnbull was about to be replaced could not be confirmed, but there were good reasons to support them, N.Z.P.A.-Reuter reported. The “Daily Express” reported that he might be replaced within a few days. The “Daily Mirror,” the first to carry the report—in an early edition—said Mr Brown had decided to replace Sir Richard Turnbull.