Page 36 - Arabia the Gulf and the West

The Abandonment of Aden 2-9

autumn of 1966 the British ambassador to the United Nations, Lord Caradon,
himself a veteran campaigner in the anti-colonial crusade, informed the
General Assembly that his government now accepted the resolution of
November 1965 in toto, and that it would be grateful if the General Assembly
would consent to dispatch a mission to South Arabia to help effect the transi­
tion to independence. The mission, after a certain amount of delay, was duly
appointed. It consisted of a Venezuelan, an Afghan, and a delegate from Mali,
none of whom enjoyed a personal reputation for impartiality on the subject of
European colonial rule. The proceedings of the mission brought some comic
relief to the grim drama being played out in South Arabia. Arriving in Aden at
the beginning of April 1967, the trio announced that they would not talk to the
federal ministers but only to the nationalists, i.e. to the NLF and FLOSY.
The latter, in their turn, refused to talk to the commissioners unless a number
of impossible conditions were first met. FLOSY organized a general strike to
make things more uncomfortable for the trio from the UN, and when the latter
visited NLF and FLOSY terrorists held in Mansura prison, the terrorists
heaped abuse upon them. Finally, when they were refused permission to
broadcast over Aden radio and television a speech reviling the federation and
refusing to recognize the legitimacy of the federal government, the commis­
sioners departed in a huff for Geneva, five days after their arrival. Even this
opera bouffe episode, however, failed to deter the British government from
continuing to solicit the mission’s advice and assistance in the months to come.
Bereft of all ideas, the Cabinet sent Lord Shackleton, a minister without
portfolio, out to Aden in the second week of April 1967 to seek enlightenment
on the spot. He returned with the highly original suggestion that an effort
should be made to bring the federal rulers, the moderate Adenis and the
nationalist organizations together to work out an agreed programme for
the peaceful attainment of independence. As the high commissioner and
governor, Sir Richard Turnbull, who had succeeded Trevaskis some two
years previously, refused to accept that such co-operation was possible,
believing that the only practicable as well as proper alternative left was for
Britain to throw her weight behind the federal government, it was decided to
replace him.
The man chosen as his successor was a recently retired diplomatist, Sir
Humphrey Trevelyan, whose service abroad had included spells as ambassa­
dor to Cairo, Baghdad and Moscow. Trevelyan arrived in Aden on 21 May and
immediately issued a statement explaining how he viewed the task before him.
The principal points he had to make were these:

Our purpose is to withdraw our military forces, as we have undertaken to do, and to
bring into being an independent state with a stable and secure government.

We start from a position of support for the Federal Government which is the legal
government of South Arabia and with which we shall work in close co-operation.