TNAG-0429-FCO40-494-Programme-Analysis-and-Review-(PAR)-Future-of-Dependent-Terr-1974 — Page 136

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near future; with the others, we may not have to

make up our minds until the end of the decade.

But it would be useful to have more information

about the resource potential of these colonies.

6. It is not possible to draw firm conclusions

for British policy until more detailed surveys

have been made of the geological and fishery

resources in the EEZ of those in paragraph 5. But

the following tentative conclusions have already

emerged:

(i) The EEZ of at least some of our Dependent

Territories are likely to be commercially

important. It will therefore be worth

exerting ourselves at the Law of the Sea

Conference to ensure that dependencies

(ii)

acquire the same rights over EEZ's as

sovereign states.

The EEZ factor was a major determinant of

the case made in the PAR for retaining

sovereignty over the Falkland Islands

Dependencies; it also strengthens the case

for retaining St Helena/Ascension, BIOT

and one or more of the Gilbert and Ellice

Islands. It could even alter the balance

of advantage in favour of retaining the

Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Montserrat,

Turks and Caicos Islands and Seychelles.

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/(ii)