CONFIDENTIAL
dependent territories.
21. The attitude of previous governments to Committee of 24 visiting missions is described in the annex (paragraph 7). The previous Labour Government adopted a cautious approach. In general, they did not favour visiting missions, but were prepared to allow them in exceptional cases. The visiting
mission to Aden in 1967 is the only one to have taken place, and its results illustrated clearly the considerable dangers
inherent in such visits. The Labour Government also invited
the Committee to send a mission to observe a referendum in
Gibraltar, but this was refused because of the Committee's support for Spain's claim. The Labour Government's public position (as described, for example, in refusing the Committee's request for a mission to Fiji) was that while they had no
objection in principle to visiting missions, they had a duty as an Administering Power to decide whether any visit would
serve a useful purpose, and that in reaching this decision the
views of the local government would be a major consideration.
22. As Mr Richard recommends, there may now be scope for
accepting rather more visiting missions. Several of our terri-
tories would not present any targets for such missions as long
as the members were objective. On the other hand, there are still several territories which would be likely to provoke
criticism. Mr Richard mentions the Seychelles as one case (though this may possibly change). But there are others: the New Hebrides, Bermuda, British Antarctid Territory, BIOT, Cayman Islands, and Ascension Island (as well as Belize, the
CONFIDENTIAL
/Falkland Islands