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(11)
Guita
reaction of H.K. Chiese
were made feare?
CONFIDENTIAL
honoure are accepted in all the territories;
There is likely to be less objection in those
territories to their citizens sitting in the
'Imperial' Parliament than there would be in
independent countries to their citizens sitting in
another country's legislature;
(111) The United Kingdom Parliament has a legitimate over-
sesing role in respect of the dependent territories;
(v) Nomination would be clearly in the hands of the
British Prime Minister with the need for only infor-
mal consultation with the authorities in the
OBJECTIONS
dependent territories.
5. Despite the preceding paragraph, there are nevertheless
a number of objections to any scheme for peers from the
dependent territories:
(1) The basic principle in the selection of peers is
that they are chosen on individual merit and not
as representatives or delegates of a particular
area, organisation or interest;
none
(11) It would be difficult to discriminate between the
territories and, to avoid unacceptable jealousies,
it would have to be virtually all or noting"; and
larger territories, say Hong Kong, might reasonably
olaim to have more 'representatives' than the
smaller ones, such as the Seychelles;
(111) It would be difficult to discriminate between
different political or racial interests within a
dependent territory; thus, for example, it would
probably be necessary to have a Fijian Indian
peer as well as a Fijian native one. And a change
of government in the territory could provoke a
justifiable demand for increased 're resentation'
in the House of Lords to reflect the change;
CONFIDENTIAL
(iv) Peers