real lack of interest in their problems.
bconomic Points
The provision of additional employment
vouchers for residents of the smaller
dependencies is of fur greater economic
importance to these territories than is the
provision of a similer number of vouchers to
residents of the major independent Commonwealth
countries. Thus, the population of India is
now 500 million' uno is rising at a rate of
over 10 million per annum. An alloc. tion of
Gs many s 1000 vouchers per annua for
India would thus be equivalent to only about
0.01% of even the annual increase in
popul tion, an. wold thus have a negligible
impact on the Indian economy. Similarly, the
popul tion of Pakiston is over 100 million and
is rising by over 2 million per annum. 1000
vouchers per annum would thus be equivalent to
0.05% of the annual increase in popul: tion.
In contrast to this, the population of
the Seychelles is under 50,000 with an annual
growth of 1,400 (of whom 700 are males). In
a territory with very limited resources and
poor growth prospects in the immediate future,
the provision of even, say, 100 vouchers per
annum could be of some help. This is also
true of even caller territories such as St.
Helena with a population of under 5,000, an
annual growth of about 70, and even poorer
natural resources.
his argument has, however, less
application to Hong Kong (population nearly
4