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slow. This is true even in cases where the inhabitants have no
particular desire or actively do not wish to see the UK
relinquish control. None of these considerations, militating
against dependent status, would be decisive if it were to become
clear in relation to a given territory that the only cost effective way of exercising HMG's responsibilities was to close
off the option of independence and/or to resume greater control
on a permanent basis.
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13 There are however a number of general considerations which
in practice limit the scope for loosening the ties with the UK
Para. 2.1.5 has already noted the improbability of finding
another power ready to assume new colonial responsibilities We believe that abandonment has to be ruled out as an option
on moral, legal and political grounds. An alternative to
abandonment would be to offer UK citizenship to the inhabitants of a dependency. This would enable HMG to offer
them the choice of a new life in the UK or going it alone politically more acceptable than straight abandonment even with a large disengagement settlement. However the option could not be used until 1997 because of the danger of pressure building up for similar treatment for the Hong Kong
inhabitants.
The encouragement of regional federations, as a means of severing the ties with the UK, would seem to be particularly applicable in the Caribbean. However the PAR study concluded that "the disruptive effects of local chauvinism and HMG's consequent lack of success with federation in the
past suggest that this sort of effort could be counter productive". Experience since 1973 of the dependencies' desire to retain their separate identities has tended to reinforce this view. It is unlikely that any initiative HMG might now take would make a federal system involving constitutional change any more acceptable in the Caribbean
region.
We question the feasibility of the UN trusteeship option which has in the past been used mainly as a means of crisis management and would almost certainly fail to gain
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