!
time when with political and economic development
beginning to get under way the need for qualified staff
is growing. Development is indeed already being
prejudiced and it is a short step from there to
discontent. The Commonwealth Office and the Ministry
of Overseas Development are examining ways of meeting
this problem, which has now become extremely urgent.
14. Conclusion
The pressures of the fifties for decolonisation,
which came so strongly from within our own larger
colonies, and from the United Nations, represented an
inevitable stage in the historical evolution of the
Commonwealth. It may be that they forced a pace which
was too fast to allow successive British Governments to
establish the essential preconditions for successful
post-independence political and social development.
now seems clear that by the early 1970s the process of
granting independence will have gone as far as we can
responsibly contemplate for the time being.
It
The territories which will then remain are either
very poor, or held back by special problems, or both.
They will continue to throw up problems for us and for
some no fundamental change may be possible.
It follows
that we must fully accept our responsibilities to
those who will remain wholly dependent on us; and that
we must not bow to further decolonisation sloganising
from the Committee of 24.
Dependent Territories Division,
Commonwealth Office,
S.W.1.
2nd March, 1967.
--7-
CONFIDENTIAL
J.H.
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