Mr_wilson's Mercenaries

The story published last Sunday in the People claiming that mercenaries were being recruited for the Yemen and ‘any under-developed country in the Middle- East or Africa where military help is needed demands serious investigation. The evidence gathered by the People reporters is quite considerable, and astounding, Captain Richard Pirie, Adjutant of the 2lst Special Air Service (Artist Rifles) Volunteers, a territorial unit in Chelsea, told the reporter that his office was used as a clearing ground for mercenaries. The mercenaries names are passed through Captain Piries, "to a man at a secret address", Before this, the military records of the mercenaries are forwarded, 'through the foreign office' - the mercenaries' wages of £250 per month are paid through the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence, Pirie said that the mercenary's main purpose was to train the regular army of the country they were in. To do this they actually took part in battle to show the local troops how to fight. Most of the recent volunteers, he said, ‘have asked to fight for the Royalists in the Yemen', 'We have to be careful, about this affair', he went on, 'the Government would blow its top if too much news came out about our hiring mercenaries. Why it should be secret I don't know. The Egyptians must know that the Yemenis are being supported by Britons or British Dominion troops. So why keep it under the hat?' Why indeed ! If the recruitment of mercenaries is going on through the Foreign Office, and the evidence strongly indicates that this is the case, then Wilson and Healey certainly don't want it known publicly throughout the Labour Movement. It exposes their whole rotten pretence to be arbiters in world affairs. How can anybody believe the government's claim to have banned Stokely Carmichael from Britain in the interests of good race relation, while they provide a recruiting ground for gangs of racist thugs to reinforce the counter revolution against the colonial struggles. How does this add up with the recent banning of student representatives of North Vietnam who were invited to Britain by the 'Youth for Peace in Vietnam' committee? Labour members of parliament and all socialist should demand an immediate enquiry into the reports of mercenaries being recruited by a department of the army and press for the immediate cessation of recruiting activities by private or government agencies, coupled with a renewed effort to gain entrance for representatives of the NLF, and a campaign against the banning of Stokely Carmichael from Britain,