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DSR 11C
over Namibia at Melbourne.
Health Ministers meetings precede WHO
conference and help to keep them freer from confrontation than theey
might otherwise be. The Attorney-General considered the last Law
Ministers' meeting worthwhile; Finance Ministers meetings have often
been useful. Recent Education and Agriculture Ministers meetings
have been of less value.
10. One problem with Commonwealth meetings, particularly CHGMS, is
that they take up more of Ministers' and Senior Officials' time than
might be desirable. Another is that, particularly on North/South
issues, we often tend to be in a minority of one. We are isolated
from our natural Allies (EC partners, the USA, Japan) and cannot always
expect support from Canada and Australia who share important
economic interests with the developing countries. The pressure under
which we find ourselves in, for instance, UN fora, to subscribe to
unwelcome formulations can, therefore, be correspondingly greater at
Commonwealth gatherings.
11. The various Commonwealth bodies to which we belong for the most
part provide us with useful, though not by any means essential,
contacts.
In the case of the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux, we
derive particular benefit. The Commonwealth aid programmes do a modest
amount of good; they are cost effective and our participation in them
brings us a certain amount of political credit.
12. Our bilateral relations with Commonwealth countries are
influenced to a far greater extent by historical ties, of which the
Commonwealth is an expression, than by the Commonwealth organisation
itself. But the Commonwealth usefully reinforces them. Our
political and economic relations with most Commonwealth countries
are good; and though our share of Commonwealth markets inevitably
declines after countries become independent we remain among the
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