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colleagues in other departments of the Division. In other departments of the Division we have heard the criticism that Gibraltar and General department tend to put together papers on general Dependent Territories subjects by asking for contributions rather than drafting a paper themselves and seeking comments.
7. Nor have the department played any real part in the coordination of FCO aid policy for the Dependent Territories. Annexes A and B list details of the aid provided which is an essential element in the government's programme of accelerated decolonisation. The Secretary of State's despatch of 13 June 1975 on the future of the Dependent Territories qualified the statement that it is in our own interests to encourage most territories to seek independence with the comment that:
"The interests and wishes of the inhabitants themselves
may dictate that we should not try to persuade them into independence before laying the foundations of
a viable social political and economic infrastructure which they have some hope of sustaining after independence."
The FCO as the Department primarily concerned with the policy of accelerated decolonisation have therefore a special interest in an aid programme which will cost some £47 million in the financial year 1976/77 but which represents a relatively small element in the ODM's overall aid budget and does not accord with other aid priorities. Gibraltar and General department, as the department of the Dependent Territories Division generally responsible for coordinating policy, should also have a clearly defined responsibility for coordinating aid policy and should take over the executive role hitherto filled by the Dependent Territories Economists Unit leaving the latter free to concentrate on its proper advisory role.
8. We recommend that the Head of department should be given a clear formal responsibility for
(a) formulating as well as coordinating policy (including personnel and financial policy)
affecting the Dependent Territories as a whole;
(b) coordinating Dependent Territories aid policy.
3.
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/Future Structure