Interview with Stephen Peter Day

British administrator in Aden Protectorate and Federation of South Arabia, 1960-1967

REEL 1 Recollections of period as administrator with Colonial Administrative Service in Aden Protectorate and Federation of South Arabia, 1960-1967: background to joining Colonial Administrative Service; preparations for move Aden; his allocation to Western Aden Protectorate; initial posting as assistant advisor to Ja'ar in the Abiyan Delta, Lower Yaya Sultanate; physical conditions in Abiyan Delta; dedication of superior Godfrey Meynell; monitoring pass amongst tribal area; quality of intelligence; surveying and rationalisation of Sultan's land in Abiyan Delta; origins of Abiyan Delta cotton cultivation project; introduction of criminal law instead of civil law for murder; occasion when police refused to carry out execution of sultanic family members; his attitude towards system of blood money; problems of imposing untraditional ideas on tribal areas; importance of accommodating sense of tribal honour; role of local rulers. REEL 2 Continues: role of Egyptian Government in Yemen Civil War including anti-colonial slant taken; mercenary interest tribes had in situation; question of anti-British feeling in Aden; his barring of British Army troops from his district; ambush on his house in which British engineer was killed; Sultan's reaction to civil service strike organised by National Liberation Front (NLF); question of western ideologies among Aden population; differences between Aden colony and sultanates; contrast in philosophies behind Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen (FLOSSY) and National Liberation Front (NLF); political role of army officers; change in British policy towards Aden Protectorate after election in 1964; attitude of Yemanis towards Adenis; insurgent grenade attack at airport; imprisoning of Adeni politicians in Zinjibar Prison; fate of British Parliamentary delegation. REEL 3 Continues: role of Sultan Nasr bin Abdullah; increase in his responsibility for Western Aden Protectorate; outcome of Radfan Campaign; rate of change in British Government policy towards Aden, 1967; question of problems in interpreting British Government policy; his attempt to promote policy of cultivating Federal Government of South Arabia; Egypt President Gamel Nasser's propagating 'big lie' during Six Day War, 6/1967; effects of mutiny amongst Federal Regular Army; question of failure of Lieutenant-Colonel Colin Mitchell commanding officer of 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's) to understand situation in Aden; reasons for breakdown of talks between Federal Government of South Arabia and George Thomson; end of Federal Government of South Arabia and how he came to leave, 1967. REEL 4 Continues: what he attempted to achieve in his last days of Aden, 1967; his attitude towards leaving Aden, 1967; fate of his personal bodyguard; character of Communist regime in Yemen, 1967-1994; role in evacuation of Soviets from Yemen, 1980s; visits to Yemen, post-1967; question of future of Yemen; attitude of Yemenis to GB, 2000.