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Falkland Islands and Gibraltar see below) all present
problems when viewed against the Committee's well-established
policies, and indeed prejudices. (This list is considered
in greater detail in part II of the annex.) In any small
dependency there is always a group who would use a mission to
embarrass the local governments, and many of the governments
would be unlikely to agree to accept a mission. It therefore
seems essential to maintain the right of the Administering Power
to decide whether the mission would be useful, and unwise to
arouse the Committee's expectations that we are prepared to
accept missions as a matter of routine. The right line might
therefore be that maintained by the previous Labour Government
(paragraph 21 of this submission) (which is close to the
attitude of the Australian delegate commended by Mr Richard in
his letter). We should moreover make it quite clear that we
would not agree to a visiting mission if the local government
was opposed to it. At the same time, we could demonstrate our
greater flexibility by making a specific proposal for a visiting
mission in 1974 or 1975. If this recommendation is agreed,
a separate submission will be made suggesting that we should
invite a visiting mission to observe the referendum in the
Ellice Islands later this year.
23. I recommend that we should approve Mr Richard's recommenda-
tion subject to the qualifications in paragraph 22 above.
Associated States and Brunei (Paragraph 7(b) of letter)
24. Mr Richard points out that these territories present
particular problems and call for different treatment. Successive
/UK governments
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