6195 1073528 400M 2/74 Cr.P.C. 839/3
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In Confidence
DRAFT Memorandum for OPDC
Type 1 +
To:-
FROM
Telephone No. Ext,
Department
THE FUTURE OF THE DEPENDENT TERRITORIES (Joint Memorandum by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Minister of Overseas
Development)
1.
The attached paper by officials in the FCO and ODM suggests that it would be timely to review our policy towards the remaining 17 dependencies and the 5 Associated States, both in terms of constitutional development and economic aid.
Constitutional Policy
2. The paper concludes that, excepting Hong Kong and four or five other territories which we would want to keep as dependencies, it is generally in HMG's interests to seek to shed our responsibilities for the dependencies, and in effect to adopt a policy of "accelerated decolonisation".
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3. Purely from HMG's point of view we agree with this conclusion. Dependent status is now an anachronism and our traditional policy of devolving power is virtually irreversible. Even when we retain sovereignty, the continuing process of devolution to local governments tends to leave us with responsibility without the effective control necessary to carry it out, and consequently liable to domestic and international embarrassment if we have to use force to maintain law and order. In purely financial terms there is little to choose between the quantifiable cost to us of dependence or of independence: the choice rests on other political grounds. In some cases undue haste in relinquishing our responsibilities might prejudice the chance of handing them on to a well-disposed successor government willing and able to deny the territory to
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