560. ***
(Mr Richards) ***
561. ***
(Mr Richards) ***
Sir John Stanley: Thank you.
Chairman: Are there
any more matters? We have now come to a position where I can ask
Sir John as a result of those replies are there matters you would
wish to put in open session?
Sir John Stanley: One
question.
Chairman: Could we
now go into open session for the additional question. Could members
of the public be called back.
Mr Ross: Could you
put the question now otherwise I will object.
Sir John Stanley: Just
to try help people shuttling in and out, the question I would
like to ask in public session is what was the role of the military
intelligence liaison officer who was deployed to which Mr Smith
referred?
(Sir John Kerr) I think it would be far better,
Mr Chairman, if Sir John asked that in private session.
Chairman: Sir John,
are you content with that?
Sir John Stanley
562. Obviously I am all for open Government
and if that is a question that can be asked on a public basis
fair enough, but if our witnesses believe it can only be answered
on a confidential basis obviously we must continue in private.
(Sir John Kerr) The employment of military liaison
officers is something we do not normally discuss on the record
in public.
563. I asked what the role of this particular
military liaison intelligence officer was.
(Sir John Kerr) After a moment of drama the answer
is not a terribly exciting one because his role was to give advice
to the High Commissioner and provide military reporting to the
Ministry of Defence on the situation in Conakry and Sierra Leone.
I am sorry that after saying I would prefer to answer in private
it is not, I agree, a very exciting answer.
564. Are you happy for that question to
be put to you and answered in public?
(Sir John Kerr) If you wish, Sir John.
Mr Illsley: Why is
that question dependent on the three questions you put in the
private session? Why does the public question tie into the answers
you got? Why could you not have asked that bit before we went
into private session?
Sir John Stanley: Because
I did not know the answer.
Mr Illsley: How do
they link in?
Chairman: We are now
in a position of deliberating in the Committee before our witnesses.
May I suggest we now have the re-run of that question in public
and I will then call this morning's session to a close. Please
allow the public to enter so that Sir John can ask his question.
On recommencement of the Public Session:
Chairman: I will now
ask Sir John Stanley to pose a question to the witnesses.
Sir John Stanley
565. Sir John, your colleague, Mr Roland
Smith, referred to the deployment of a military intelligence liaison
officer during the period in which the Sierra Leone government
was in exile. Will you tell us the role given to the officer concerned?
(Sir John Kerr) Yes. He was deployed to Conakry
on 15 February and moved to Sierra Leone from 5 to 17 March, and
his role was to provide military advice to the High Commissioner
and military reporting to the Ministry of Defence on the situation
in Conakry and in Sierra Leone.
Dr Godman
566. Just very quickly, and I promise it
will be a brief one: is the Foreign Secretary of a mind to initiate
a debate on the Floor of the House on Legg before he comes before
this Committee to answer questions on the findings of Legg?
(Sir John Kerr) I have not asked him. I am sorry,
I have not the faintest idea, Dr Godman.
Chairman
567. I am obliged. Sir John, may I thank
you and your colleagues again on behalf of the Committee. We have
made far more progress than we might have anticipated before.
That is in no small measure due to the readiness of yourself to
co-operate with the Committee and I thank you warmly for that.
(Sir John Kerr) Thank you, Mr Chairman.
