PS to Mr Rowlands
CONFIDENTIAL
wmillen
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p.a.ng
RECEIVED IN
ISTRY No. 74
-4 MAY 1977
HKG 025/
A
Hx 025/301/.
1977
THE CARIBBEAN ISLAND DEPENDENCIES:
CONSTITUTIONAL FUTURE
1. In the interstices of the Anguilla talks on 21 April, Mr Rowlands said that he did not agree with the idea, in my note of 2 March (copy attached), that the small Island Dependencies might be threatened with "re-colonisation" if they refused independence, which I assume remains our first choice. Mr Rowlands thought that, failing independence, we should aim to minimise our involvement in these Islands by devolving still more powers upon them, including internal security, and with- drawing our resident presence. Under such arrangements, if one of the Islands preferred, like Montserrat, to spend its revenue on social services instead of a police force, there would be no (or fewer) British hostages in the event of disorder, which might relieve us of any reinforcement obligations.
2.
Mr Rowlands did not develop his ideas when we were talking, but I have since been thinking how we might implement them. If the new status fell short of independence, we should presumably have to retain titular responsibility for external affairs, which we might limit to the Western Samoa model, and external defence, which we might limit to an undertaking to "consult" in the event of a threat (envisaging that we would sponsor an appeal to the Security Council). We would remove our Governors, Chief Secretaries, etc, and operate our minimum responsibilities through a non-resident Commissioner who could be based in London or in Bridgetown alongside the Dev Div. The Island administrations would consist of local people, the top man to combine the functions of Chief Minister and Chief Executive, with whatever nomenclature suited the Islands without increasing our involvement.
3. Such arrangements would certainly reduce the British presence, though not necessarily extinguish it (Technical Co-operation Officers, non-official residents, etc) and as the Islands are not inherently less capable of managing their affairs than other small independent countries, and we have not regarded independence as a bar to continued aid including budgetary aid, we ought to be able to reduce our involvement in local affairs. But we should not necessarily be relieved thereby of international and domestic accountability. I think that the critical question here is whether we could persuade the United Nations to discharge us from our obligations under Article 73 of the Charter, as elaborated by the Committee of 24. Unless the Islands ceased to be classi- fied as "non-self-governing territories" our accountability to
CONFIDENTIAL
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