(17865) Dd.145178 400m 5/73 G.W.B.Ltd. Gp.863
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
CONFIDENTIAL
On
our present posture of non-participation.
the other hand, if our main objective is to gain
as much credit as possible within the Committee
and the UN in general from adopting a co-operative
attitude towards the Committee, we should be
prepared to incur some rough passages in the
Committee in order to put ourselves in a better
general position. Given the Committee's overriding
interest in Southern African problems, agreement
to include Rhodesia among the dependent territories
we are prepared to discuss would gain us considerably
more credit than an agreement to participate
only over the smaller territories.
19. Mr Richard concludes that the right,course
of action is to agree to participate in Committee
discussion on Rhodesia, but to limit our inter-
ventions as much as possible and make clear the
practical limitations to our ability both to
supply information and to implement policy.
recommendations. This conclusion seems right.
I recommend that we should agree.
Visiting Missions (Paragraph 7(a) of Letter)
20. Mr Richard recommends that we should be
forthcoming about visiting missions from the
Committee of 24 to our smaller dependent terri-
tories.
21. The attitude of previous governments to
Committee of 24 visiting missions is described
in the annex (paragraph). The previous Labour
Government adopted a cautious approach. In
general, they did not favour visiting missions
CONFIDENTIAL
/but were