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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
.,. 1287 Unide11ti/ied [LORDS] Flying Objects 1288 [Lord Gainford.] and who have not yet disappeared from receive every possible encouragement to the scene who could make valuable use take part in many debates in the future. of their past experience in establishing My main contribution to this debate is to centres in various districts throughout the assure the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, of country-and I do not suggest that we any support that I can give. If we are start opening up the old observer posts going to have a study group in your in the countryside-to receive and analyse Lordships' House I shall be glad to be a any reported sightings from the public. volunteer to take part whenever I h:we the Such people with a sense of responsibility opportunity. I also thank him and others could, with a little experience, sift the for initiating this debate, and for the genuine reports from the false. pleasure of having such a refreshing subject to discuss in the midst of the present Suggesting that such an organisation period of crices and strikes. be set up, particularly at times like these, can naturally give rise to a protest about I am the lOth person to speak in this the waste of public money; but volunteers debate. I have noticed that so far none of who might be willing to work for a few your Lordships have actually reporteJ a hours are quite prepared to do it for very sighting, so here goes! I am going to stick small remuneration, if any at all. 1 have my neck out, open my big mouth and mentioned the Civil Defence Service, and trust I am not going to put my foot in it! I did not know whether or not I should I saw a UFO a little while ago. It was on declare an interest, but I was a member of 31st December about 8 p.m. All right, it during the 'sixties ancl I was one of my Lords, have a good laugh, it was many who were bitterly disappointed when Hogmanay! Up in Argyll it was a New it had to go into abeyance. I recall Year's Eve party and somebody said there particularly the conrradeship and the was something funny f!yi11g across the sky. sense that we were doing a useful job for Fifteen of us came out to have a look, the community. including some children. They had been drinking soft drinks anyway! The object If I hau the time and opportunity, I was like a bright white ball with a iouch I should enjoy volunteering for working of red followed by a white cone. In fact in a UFO information centre, if that the whole object had the appearance of a ·1 might be a suggested name for the small comet. It was heading eastwards organisation that would be required. I and seemed rather low in the sky, passing I shall be interested to hear the surnmings up in this debate. I can give no explana- over the hills between Loch Sweyne and tion why there should be these phenomena Loch Fyne. The position from which we viewed it was outside the village of Tay- concentr::~ted within p2.rticularly the past 32 years as was confirmed by the nob1e vallich in Argyllshire on the West coast Earl, Lord Clancarty, and these flying of Scotland about the same latitude as saucers in the year 1947 \Vhen the phrase Glasgow. was coined; but I would just accentuate As the ball disappeared into the distance it seemed to divide into two parts. It may have been a comet or a meteorite, but I should like to know what it really was. It would have been very beneficial if there had been some sort of centre to which I could \Vrite or telephone to report such an incident. No doubt setting up such an organisation would be an invita- tion to pranks, but for starting such a centre I suggest that volunteers could readily be found from the ranks of the former Civil Defence Service and/or the Royal Observer Corps. The Royal Ob- server Corps still exists but it has literally, if not metaphorically, gone underground where it is preparing to report and advise on nuclear fallout in the case of war. But there are many who used to serve it -~ what has been said before and add that if they are man-made or some astronomical feature, and provided there is no risk of any security breach, then the public have a righ.t to know about them. 9.20 p.m. The Earl of HALSBURY: My Lords, in common with everyone else who has spoken, I should like to thank the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, for giving us an opportunity to have, as it were, a scamper over the course and exchange views on this very interesting and controversial topic. At the same time, I should like to congratu1ate the noble Viscount O!l his maiden speech, which was obviously a very well thought out and well assemble 1289 set of co for his fu where 1 k At the the noble like to tel the sighti them in beginning an angel. the noble who men was the r the noble is perfec guardian bed. Na a child, I form with This prese initiating gel me in Having r life and a to deny t was there sufficient c I have pu if scientis cannot ex kind of welcome because it it were, sti out somet The ne of World old, and weJIC Zep,. dark into we lived number o I had see Zeppelin cigar-shap looking •~ the pcrsp · on to a interpret i telling m I had see The ne very clos Lord Da Macbeth graphic really ar interpret: H.L. 3 Q
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