File
154
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
Dr Peter Lyon
Institute of Commonwealth Studies
University of London
27 Russell Square
LONDON WC 1B 4DS
13 November 1979
HKG.025/4
По му пуго Nor
Das De Lyon,
SEMINAR ON THE FUTURE OF THE DEPENDENT TERRITORIES
I am sorry that you were not in the end able to participate in the Seminar at the Institute of Development Studies in September. Somewhat belatedly, we have now put together a summary of the discussions, and as Tony Clarke promised, I am now sending you a copy.
As this summary shows, the discussions were inevitably diffuse, and it would perhaps be an overstatement to say that we were able to draw positive conclusions. But we on the official side did find the Seminar enlightening, and I believe that it provided a valuable contribution to our current reconsideration of what official policy should be towards the remaining British dependencies a reconsideration that is not, however, likely to lead to any dramatic changes in policy.
I should also like to take this opportunity to thank you for your help in identifying suitable participants. In the event, we were able to assemble a well-balanced group almost all of whom, from their different viewpoints, made constructive contributions. Having started out with doubts about whether we should be able to find enough to talk about to last the full two days, we ended up by having to cut the discussions short well before everybody had had their full say.
yous sicers
Bill Chantill
WE Quantrill
Hong Kong and General Department
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