Documents / Document
This Ministry of Defence file, released through The National Archives and published by The Black Vault, holds the MOD's 2002 handling of Dr David Clarke's requests for UFO documents under the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information. It includes the MOD's 9 December 2002 reply, which covered reports from 1976, 1980, 1993 and 1996 and charged £260. It also contains internal emails and file requisitions, plus Foreign Office and United Nations papers from 1978 on Grenada's proposal for UFO research.
“RAF”60+ pages
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1267 · ' ·. ·unidentified
· [Lord Davies of Leek.]
[LORDS] Flying Objects 1268
unidentified. They may be terrestrial or
celestial. We are asking Governments to
find an answer and that is all that this
debate is about. There is no magic, we
have nothing up our sleeves, but let the
world know what is going on.
This renewed interest poses many
problems and there are many research
organisations which are looking into the I
matter and which know that they exist,
~ut I shall not bore the House by going
mto them now. Let us ask a couple of
questions. How can a flying saucer fly
faster than sound and not create a super-
sonic boom? What is it? Secondly
l1av~ we the_ right to as~ume that we alon~
1
a:e m the umverse? Thts anthropomorphic
vtew of God that some people have built
up does not build for the spirit and does
not, I think, build for true holiness. It
does not build up for real Christian spirit
if it is followed too fully. Therefore, I
should say that we have no right to
assume that we are the only intelligent
beings in the universe. Is the earth the
only planet populated by intelligent
technological life? I do not know and
I do not suppose that we shall be able to
find an answer yet. If in a year of Queen
Elizabeth I had said to someone in
London that I could show him a Dicture
of Philip of Spain in Madrid on a oiece
of glass in his room, I \Vould probably
have been burnt at the stake as a wizard
or as a witch ifl were a woman. However:
we can do that today. We have broken
through. We have the miracle on earth
of teievision, even from the moon.
Are there flying saucers? Can these
objects be explained? There are two
basic facts. First, the scientific examina-
tion of the probability. That is due to
mankind and Governments should look
into it. The second aspect is to fathom
the possibilities of the existence of this
phenomena. Astronomers are now in-
creasing their search for extra-territorial
radio signals, but so far-despite what the
noble Earl, Lord Kimberley, has said-
none has really or truly been discovered.
The billions of stars in the galaxy make
the problem at present too much for us.
Then there is the question of speed.
In a light year a ray of light tt~avels
6 trillion miles, but we do n~t want to
go into that. The questioa of relativity
.. f- -
is interesting. I am not qualified to
argue about it: I never reached that
standard of mathematics. However I
know that Einstein believed that ele~tro
magnetic waves have no mass and are
therefore not ~ffected by his theory.
~owever, he said that as an object-if
1! has . mass-approaches the speed of
hght, Its mass becomes infinite. That
might explain the black holes about which
we talk. We are talking of mysteries
that we never knew anything about.
For a couple of generations now
thousands of magazines and so on have
reported these sightings. We want to
know whether these objects that are
unidentified deserve rea'! research in
depth. . W?ether or n_ot it is true, only
our preJndices can dec1de, and it becomes
more difficult to listen to such weird
experiences from app:uently honest, sane
and unself-seeking men who place their
findings before papers and Governments.
Are we right to call these men liars
hallucinrttors or sensationalists? If on~
human being out cf the tens of thousands
who allege to have seen these phenomena
is telling the truth, then thet:C is a dire
need for us to look into the matt'!r.
Those. 'Yho ~elieve in psychic phenomena
or spmtuahsm and those who believe
in the sy?chronidty of ghosts-as they try
to explam them-should not scofr at the
possibility of these unidentified objects.
We know that poltergeists exist; we know
about tfJeir activities. Therefore, do not
be so ready to scoff at UFOs ·when, in
ar~other mon:ent if I catch you talking, you
wtl~ a¥ree With. m.e that poltergeists exist.
Thts 1s a senous Debate. It deserves
study and understanding.
8.30 p.m.
The Lord Bishop of NORWICH: My
Lords, ~ count it a privilege to follow the
noble VIscount, Lord Oxfuird. and to link
myself with the words of the ·noble Lord
Lo,rd D~vies of Lee~, in c?ngratubting th~
1 noole V:sc(;lUt:.t on ~Is mmden speech. At
the begmnmg of h1s speech I jotted down
that I shvuld like to thank him for his
" down-to-earth rem:1rks ", but when he
got right out to A Centauri I realised that
that phras~ was of no usc anyway. How-
ever, we coEgratulate him and look for-
ward to h-::arin~ his voice again and often.
I am gl::d to be able to follow-with:>ut
of course the Welsh fire or fervour-what
I
1'
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1269
the noble L:
I have a litl
that is wh•
says. I arr
noble E.:trl,
"To call a1
sightings a11d
un.idcntificd i
is a proper
have brou2:
open &nd l
opportunit:
It is righ1
scientiJk j,
objects, n
curicsity, 1
noble E<1rl
because of
reasons of
a time wh
not always
out the fro
we aretod;
a search w
should be
am not SUI
to what ti
says to l'.S
studied, a
to be true.
The int
sn !!2estcd
world its~
in cth:r
ZeC~lanrl s:
to ha,'e
Norfoi:C;
which is a
fair and <
has toid u
I was tal:
tcday in:
was to rir
one of Ol
national
actudest;
spaces sh
whether
this), wh
Norfolk I
importan
say abou
I thin b
fi{m :c:nd
knowkd~
weaiih
erudite
House, ' Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 492 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.