SHEIKHS MAKE OFFER TO U.K.

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31584, 23 January 1968, Page 11

SHEIKHS MAKE OFFER TO U.K.

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LONDON, January 22. Oil sheikhs in Persian Gulf states have offered to pay Britain £2sm a year to maintain her forces, according to British press reports.

A correspondent of “The Times,” reporting from Abu Dhabi, says Sheikh Zaid Bin Sultan, of Abu Dhabi, and other rulers have offered Britain the money not to withdraw her troops from the area. The “Daily Express” correspondent, also reporting from Abu Dhabi, says the £2sm a year would cover the entire support costs of British troops in the Gulf, even allowing for a doubled fighting strength since Britain's withdrawal from Aden. A British Foreign Office spokesman would neither confirm nor deny the repot He would say only that the future security of the Trucial States was discussed by Mr Goronwy Roberts, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, when he visited the Persian Gulf area earlier this month. When the British Prime Minister (Mr Harold Wilson) announced defence and economy cuts last week, he said Britain would withdraw her troops from the Persian Gulf by 1971. Since Britain’s departure from Aden, British forces

have increased in the Persian Gulf area. There are about 3500 Army and Air Force men in Bahrein and about 2500 in Sharjah.