CONFIDENTIAL
40
PUS
во прета
27/7
Mr Stratton is relaxed at the fact that the attached submission did not produce any comments before he went off to his seminar. He quite realised in any case that Ministerial preoccupations make it unlikely that this despatch will receive immediate attention.
2.
a)
b)
c)
I have seen four difficulties in the despatch:
Paragraph 1: the pencilled amendments are designed to remove references to the policy of previous governments. Presumably what we shall wish to discuss in this despatch is the policy of the present government.
Paragraph 2: I felt that the reference to minimum
reserved powers was somewhat sweeping and that you might at least wish to have a more detailed indication both of the range of power involved and the particular pitfalls we have encountered or can envisage. The minuting at Flag A discusses this but does not suggest that the despatch should be any more detailed on this point.
"
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Paragraph 6: The draft says that our policy will continue to be that the reasonable needs of the dependent territories will continue to be a first call on our aid programme. While the paragraph no doubt rightly expresses past policy and the policy we would hope to continue I do not see how we could be so categoric in advance of the conclusions of the aid review, though I note that the department in the minute at Flag A do acknowledge the need to combine positive Language with the avoidance of any actual commitment. I am easy also however about the bland statement that our principal objective will be to create a political and economic climate in the dependent territories that will make independence a realistic and attractive alternative to continuing dependency.
27 September 1979
по
HKG 02511
25 OCT 1979
Takan
Ruda
RA Burns