III FUTURE PROSPECTS
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6. Of the 12 dependent territories considered in this paper none falls into the traditional pattern of countries where substantial populations, numbering at least 100,000, are eager for independence, and have reason for confidence that they could sustain it. The prospects for all of the dependent territories in question are qualified by one or more of the following:-
(a)
(b)
territorial disputes, international treaty arrangements, or claims by third powers: Montserrat, British Antarctic Territory, South Georgia and South Sandwich,
BIOT (4 territories);
lack of economic resources, and/or of larger populations
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Pitcairn has 58 people the most populated dependent territory considered, except for Bermuda, has 12,500 (Cayman Islands) : Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands Group, St Helena, St Helena Dependencies, Turks and Caicos Islands (8
territories);
(c) no permanent populations at all : BAT, British Indian Ocean Territory, South Georgia and South Sandwich (but see 6(a)),
(3 territories);
(d) reluctance to seek independence : all populated territories
listed above except possibly Bermuda, in which interest in independence has again been recently expressed, although the draft independence Referendum Bill was soundly defeated in
the Senate. (8 territories).
7. There are also a number of new factors which need to be taken
into account in the new climate of 1986:-
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