TNAG-0128-FCO40-164-Development-aid-1969 — Page 5

CONFIDENTIAL

figures are, if anything, low and one result of Lord Shepherd's tour may be that we shall have some further views to put forward on this. The £0.5 m. general aid has so far been thought of as being primarily for the dependencies in 1970/71. The plain fact, therefore, is that these items alone are likely to consume a considerable part of your proposed £1 m.

i

(v) You say that you would hope that the £1 m. would cover "pretty well all that is required in the Caribbean, Gibraltar and the Seychelles". But, in the case of Gibraltar alone, I would point out that our colleagues in the respective geographical departments are already engaged in discussing a development plan which envisages the provision by H.M.G. of capital aid, both grant and loan, to the tune of some £6.5 m. over the period 1970/73.

(vi) You may also be aware that as a result of a recent conversation between your Minister and my Fermanent Secretary, Porter has initiated informal discussions with Holland about possible additional aid for the dependencies. Holland has already had a preliminary discussion with Ovens but for our purposes in the frame- work exercise and on a very rough and ready survey of the field, we think that sums of the order of £2.5 m. annually could be spent to mect real and readily identifiable needs in the dependencies; action has already been put in hand to enable the extra £0.5 m. for the Caribbean to be spent in 1970/71, largely in the dependencies. For the rest it would of course take time for expenditure to build up, especially given the nature of the projects, and we think it would be sufficient to allow for £0.5 n. additional expenditure in 1970/71.

(vii) To sum up, it would appear that the dependencies "share" of the 1970/71 aid programme will need to be of the following order: -

Existing provision

Gibraltar (say, 1/3 x £6 m.)

Caribbean Police (say)

) para. Caribbean general aid) above

(most of)

4

Additional aid for other territories (para. 6 above)

2

CONFIDENTIAL

14.2.

2.0 m.

0.25 .

0.5 m.

0.5 m.

€17.45m.