Page 86 - Arabia the Gulf and the West

The Retreat from the Gulf 83

Conservative party conference the previous week, the prime minister, Edward
Heath, had resoundingly proclaimed to the assembled delegates.

Wc were returned to office to change the course of history of this nation — nothing less.
Overseas, we face the limitations of the broken pledges of the last six years and above
all of defeatist attitudes after continuing retreat. ... We are leaving behind the years of

retreat - we are determined to establish the reputation of Britain once again, a reputa­
tion as the firm defender of her own interests and the skilful and persistent partner of all
those working for a lasting peace.
The foreign secretary also addressed the conference on the theme of resolute­
ness in discharging Britain’s responsibilities in the world. ‘It is nor Britain’s

way to stay the course only when we are in a clear lead, and this government has
no intention of dropping out’, he informed his audience.

We do not propose to reap the benefits of a peace kept by others without making such
contribution as we can afford to make ourselves. Limited resources we have; but those
resources can be used to good effect. We shall, therefore, use them in areas which
Britain knows and where we have had experience.

It would be natural to assume that, if Heath’s and Home’s remarks had any
substance to them, if they had any applicability anywhere in the world, they
applied above all to the Gulf. Yet it is far from certain that either minister
intended his statement to be construed in this sense. So far as the Gulf was
concerned, Home in particular was given to pronouncements of a truly

Delphic kind, though whether he deliberately intended them to be so it is
impossible to say. In any case, the test of the sincerity of his and Heath’s
declarations to the Conservative party is the action they took subsequently.
Lord Carrington, the secretary of state for defence, had made no reference to
the Gulf in his speech on defence policy at the party conference. On 28 October
his junior minister, Lord Balniel, placed before the Commons the

government’s interim statement on defence and the supplementary estimates
of defence expenditure (Cmnd 4515 and Cmnd 4521). These laid down,
categorically and specifically, the intended expenditure upon defence for the
next four financial years. There was no provision in them for the upkeep of
British forces in the Gulf beyond the current financial year. Asked in the House
to state what percentage of the defence budget was earmarked for use in the

Gulf beyond 1971, Balniel replied: ‘No decision has yet been taken about our
future policy in the Persian Gulf, but the costs will be met within the
framework of Cmnd Paper 4515.’ His own ministry, however, was in no doubt
about the situation, for in mid-November, when the resident infantry battalion
stationed at Sharjah on the Trucial Coast, the 1st Battalion Scots Guards,
completed its tour of duty, the ministry of defence stated publicly that the
battalion would not be replaced. Instead, two companies from the only infan­
try battalion left in the Gulf, the 2nd Battalion, Royal Irish Rangers stationed

on Bahrain, were to be assigned to Sharjah on rotation.