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13. Finally, what should be said at this stage to Vunibobo and his team when they visit the FCO on 24 May? I am not sure that it would be wise to discuss with them collectively, or even a this early stage privately and off the record with Vunibobo, the degree of self-government which the UN would require. It may be best to give the party (which will include the Secretariat component) your views on ISG without independence, including the argument that constitutions should not advance beyond a certain point if independence is not in sight, and go on to urge them to recommend detailed consideration of minor constitutional change (paragraph 2 of Grand Cayman tel. no. 75 and paragraph 13 of Dalton's letter of 27 April to Duff refer) and leave it at that. They will still want from you a line that they can put into the report on HMG's attitude to the present constitution.
I am speculating, but it might serve your purposes to say, as the Governor did, that the membership system is seen as a transitional stage and not a final resting place. You might add that HMG has noted some local criticisms of certain aspects of it and will be happy to discuss modifications to meet these concerns. Other changes might also be desirable to reflect accurately in the constitution the very real degree of control over their own affairs which the islanders claim and enjoy by virtue of the way successive governors have interpreted what looks at first sight to be a not very progressive constitution.
14. To sum up then, after four years of mutual cooperation with the Committee of 24 we are well placed to take the initiative over the handling by the UN of dependent territories which are unlikely to move to independence. Maybe the time has come for HMG to decide on a policy for each such territory and then to work to see if they can be deleted from the UN list of non-self-governing territories. To do this the Committee of 24 will need to observe an act of self-determination. From the UN angle the two main problems are the nature of the constitution representing the final stage of advance, and the procedures for UN verification. There are good arguments to deploy to support a contention that a given constitution meets the UN's requirement even if it is less than full internal self-government. The crucial question, as in the case of the Caymans, is whether the kind of change short of internal self-government, which
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/would