Britain Kept Secret Nuclear
Weapons In Singapore & Cyprus
By Tom Rhodes
Britain kept nuclear weapons at bases in Cyprus and Singapore
during the cold war without telling the governments of the two
countries, according to a study to be published this week.
Tactical nuclear weapons were deployed at RAF Akrotiri in southern
Cyprus as early as 1960. Two years later Harold Macmillan, then
prime minister, personally authorised the storage of nuclear
weapons at RAF Tengah in Singapore.
"There are a number of people in those countries who will be none
too thrilled to discover what the British government was up to at
the time," said Stephen Schwartz, publisher of the Chicago-based
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which will publish the report.
"If this information had been available to the public in Cyprus and
Singapore, I don't think these operations would ever have been
carried out."
While the Foreign Office told its diplomats of strategic
deployments, neither Tunku Abdul Rahman, then prime minister of
Malaysia (of which Singapore was part), nor Archbishop Makarios,
the Cypriot leader, were party to Whitehall's decision to keep the
weapons on their soil.
The account is based on recently declassified British government
documents showing that America was not the only country to have
taken the controversial and secretive measure of deploying its
nuclear weapons abroad.
The documents not only describe various British deployments but
also the lengths to which London went to keep its allies unaware of
covert weapon movements.
In one declassified 1960 memorandum, an official in the Air
Ministry insists that all those involved maintain their silence.
"All possible measures should be taken in Cyprus to conceal the
arrival and storage of nuclear bombs," wrote the official, "whether
they be inert or drill or the real McCoy."
Deployment to the Mediterranean island was seen by military
planners as an inexpensive contribution to the region in the event
of nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the western
allies.
As early as 1956 discussions had started about developing the
British base at Akrotiri as a permanent home for Canberras, light
aircraft that were able to drop nuclear bombs.
By 1960 part of the base had been prepared for 16 Red Beard
tactical nuclear weapons. The following year permanent storage
facilities for 32 of these weapons was opened nearby at Cape
Gata.
Richard Moore, a historian of Britain's nuclear defences and author
of the new study, said last week that by the end of 1962 facilities
had been upgraded to handle heavier nuclear bombers. "We can assume
that Britain had a full low-altitude nuclear bombing capability in
Cyprus by that stage," said Moore.
Vulcan nuclear bombers remained on the island until 1975. Whitehall
officials also advocated the deployment of nuclear weapons in the
Far East, saying they would have to be used in the event of a war
between China and the West or a war against Britain's regional
allies such as Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines
and Thailand.
By 1960 the RAF was involved in nuclear planning for the region,
drawing up targets and making plans to move 48 Red Beards to
Tengah, an RAF base in Singapore, two years later. It was planned
that Vulcans and Canberras would be based there. In 1960 a dummy
Red Beard was flown for the first time by RAF transport aircraft to
Singapore via Libya, Yemen and the Maldives.
The political problems inherent in moving nuclear weapons to the
Far East were already clear. Duncan Sandys, minister of defence
between 1957 and 1959, caused widespread controversy when he
suggested nuclear weapons might be stored in Malaysia and
Singapore.
In 1961 Lord Selkirk, British high commissioner to Singapore,
advised that the presence even of dummy weapons in the region would
be politically sensitive.
This did not prevent Macmillan from issuing his directive a year
later, however, resulting in the deployment of Vulcans. The
squadron at Tengah began low-altitude nuclear bombing exercises at
the end of 1963 and remained in the region until 1970 - although it
is still not known for how long it remained equipped with nuclear
weapons.
From:
http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2000/12/31/stinwenws02015.html
Wonder if there's any truth to it...
