ANNEX A
CONFIDENTIAL
t
TALKS WITH DUTCH ON CARIBBEAN 11 MAY
1. Ambassador Daniels asked if I could tell him about the Anglo/US/Canadian talks on the Caribbean that had been held
in Washington the previous week. I gave a brief description of these talks, commented that the Americans seemed excessively preoccupied with the Cuban threat and said that agreement had been reached on the need for a further meeting when we and the Canadians were in a better position to discuss Caribbean policy. It had also been decided that we should aim for more regular meetings of intelligence experts which could well be extended to include the Dutch and French. Indeed, I said, I had come to The llague with a formal proposal from the participants in the Washington talks that the Dutch should join us in more frequent intelligence meetings of this kind.
2.
The Dutch reacted unfavourably to this suggestion explaining that for constitutional reasons this was a very sensitive matter for them. They would consider it and let, us have a reply but meanwhile their reaction was that while they might perhaps agree to more regular liaison meetings of the kind already held with us and the French, extended possibly to include the Americans and Canadians, they could certainly not agree to anything on a formal basis. I asked if this meant that the Dutch would be unwilling to co-operate with us and perhaps the French on security and defence in the area. They confirmed that their objections would apply even more strongly to such co-operation.
3. Mr Van Hasselt gave an outline of the Dutch Aid Programme in. the Antilles. He said that the Netherlands had made available 80 million - 100 million guilders a year (about £25 million), all in project aid, but there was a big backlog. He thought it quite probable that after independence the Dutch would have to increase their aid to the Antilles considerably, perhaps even triple it. At present the island of Curaçao was almost bankrupt and was being kept going by Dutch loans.
•
4. I asked Mr Van Hasselt if he could tell us something about plans for the independence of the Dutch Antilles. I commented that when I had visited Curaçao, local officials had complained to me that over 90% of the population wanted to remain Dutch and that independence was being thrust upon them willy nilly. Mr Van Hasselt confirmed that this was virtually the case although he explained that constitutionally it was not possible for the Netherlands to give independence to the Antilles in view of their status as Realms of the Kingdom; it was, however, open to the latter to ask for independence from the Netherlands. There was a feeling in Holland dating from the 1969 riots in Curaçao,
/when