AT THE ROYAL OVERSEAS LEAGUE,

PARK PLACE, ST JAMES’S, LONDON

The day of this year’s Aden Dinner Club lunch – Saturday, 15^th September – was a fine day, and the Royal OverSeas League was looking as resplendent as usual when I arrived in its front courtyard an hour in advance to set up the lunch.

This being the year (2007) of the fortieth anniversary of the British withdrawal from Aden, we had received many enquiries about our club which had resulted in an increase in membership and reservations for the lunch.

The first people arrived just as the bar opened, and the Hall of India and Pakistan – where our lunch was to take place – very quickly filled.   Many old friends had arranged in advance to meet each other at the lunch, and there was much excited chatter as those people found each other.   Others who came alone, or who were new to the club, were soon absorbed into the crowd.   Many different sections of our membership were represented, from RAF and Army to BP, Government to Aden Airways, Yemenis, the ‘children’ (now grown ups themselves) of Aden expats and others.   A large and varied table of memorabilia stood to the side of the room, and provided a very interesting diversion before and after the meal.

We sat down to lunch at one o’clock – some people in the groups that they had requested, others at tables where they were able to meet up with others of like mind.

A splendid three course meal was followed by coffee, and then the first of our two speakers:

MICHAEL MURDEN spoke first.   Michael served in the RAF as a Technical Officer on No 8 Squadron based at Khormaksar from 1960 to 1962.   Accompanying his talk with some beautifully shot and very evocative slides, he described his travels in Arabia during that posting.   He began by talking about Crater, Slave Island and the building of dhows.   He then talked about a private visit to the Hadhramaut – shortly before such travels were no longer allowed.

He went on to talk about an official visit to Muscat, which was, at that time, a medieval and secretive sultanate.   He showed rare slides taken nine years before Sultan Said was replaced in a palace coup by his son Qaboos.                                                    

Finally he explained the reasons why the UK government built so many new houses for service personnel in 1962.

IVOR LUCAS spoke next.   I had asked Ivor to address our lunch on this, the occasion of the 40^th anniversary of the British withdrawal from Aden, because I knew that he had been a ‘man on the ground’ at the British Embassy in Aden very shortly after independence back in 1967.   Ivor kindly responded by delivering us a speech entitled:  ‘South Arabia:  From Colonialism to Communism’, in which he spoke – in contrast to his former diplomatic colleague, Peter Hinchcliffe, who spoke to us in 2006 about the years leading up to the British withdrawal – about the 18 months immediately following independence.  

But Ivor began his speech by putting Aden into context with the rest of the British empire.   He reminded us that this has also been the year of the 60^th anniversary of partition in the subcontinent, and that, also back in 1947, Palestine was partitioned – on the very same day (29^th November) that Aden was to later achieve its independence.

He went on to describe his arrival in Aden in March 1968, and the challenges that faced him there.   He reminded us that the newly-named People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen soon became the first and – to date – only Marxist regime in the Arab world.  

The new republic was in a state of flux.   There was resentment towards the British, based on the 129 years of colonialist rule as well as the immediate legacy of withdrawal – although, Ivor told us, that the resentment was not shared at popular level.

Talks between the new NLF government and the British about post-independence aid foundered, and so the Aden government committed itself to the Soviet camp.

Ivor was also involved in negotiating the payment of pensions to Adeni officials who had served the colonial administration, a fact that he was reminded of when the controversy arose in August of this year about the Iraqi interpreters – although, fortunately, in the Aden case, the threat was to livelihoods rather than lives.

On the subject of Yemen unity Ivor told us that a common complaint by Arabs in the area and further afield was that it had been the British that had kept the two Yemens apart, on the principle of divide and rule.   But the establishment of the moderate Republican regime in the north in 1962 and the Marxist regime in the south five years later only widened the gap.   It was not until 1993 that Yemen unity finally reached some sort of fruition when P-DRY – by now bereft of its Soviet sponsor – merged into the Yemen Arab Republic, which is how it is known today.   

In conclusion Ivor thought that the withdrawal from Aden in 1967 may have been both less tragic in its circumstances and less significant in its consequences than either of the retreats of 1947.   South Arabia may not have been the greatest monument to imperial endeavour, but the shared experience of living and working there had made a lasting impression on expatriates.   Moreover, many South Yemenis also recall British rule (especially in Aden itself) as a time of comparative economic prosperity and of clean and efficient administration.

So there are positive reasons for celebrating the ties between us in this fortieth anniversary year.

The event lasted well into the afternoon, with people staying on to chat and reminisce.   Indeed, I noticed - as the last person to leave at five o’clock – the Royal OverSeas League staff, who had so kindly waited us out, re-laying our tables like lightning for that evening’s function. 

                                                                        Helen Balkwill-Clark 

(If you are a member of the Aden Dinner Club and would like to join us next year, the proposed date for the annual lunch is Saturday, 13^th September.   If you are not a member, but would like to join the club, please contact me using the address details on the membership page of this site).

THOSE WHO ATTENDED:

ABSENT ON THE DAY:  Penelope Currie, Jennifer Drummond-Harris, Olivia Tulloch                                                                                                                 

APOLOGIES RECEIVED FROM: