CONFIDENTIAL
5
DSR 11C
10.
The difficulties could no doubt be overcome if withdrawal
from the Commonwealth was thought desirable because continued
membership harmed our interests. But does it?
"
Advantages of the Commonwealth to Britain
11.
At a time when the world is tending to organise itself
into blocks of like minded countries (NATO, The European
Community, the Warsaw Pact, the Group of 77, OPEC) the
Commonwealth stands out as a multi-racial organisation which
cuts across the North/South divide. North/South issues are
going to remain a major concern for the West and for Britain,
for the foreseeable future: a challenge to be met or an
irritant to be faced, depending on how one looks at them.
In this connection membership of the Commonwealth, as an
organisation in which countries from both North and South
see value
Pakistan wants to rejoin; nearly all British
colonies join on independence
has an obvious utility.
It is hard to quantify the benefits, but they include the
following:
i)
The Commonwealth has played a useful role in the
solution of three recent problems in which Britain
had an interest:
a) Zimbabwe; a Commonwealth observer groun
played an important role in monitoring
the pre-independence elections;
b)
Uganda: a Commonwealth observør group
monitored the elections of December 1980;
c) Belize: the Commonwealth drummed up
support for Belize in the UN, and the