145. With respect to aid, it remains HMG's policy that the reasonable needs of the dependent
ta itories should be a first charge on the British Aid programme. A greater proportion of British aid is devoted to the development of the social and security services than would normally be the case in our aid
to independent countries; HMG continue to support
the recurrent budgets of those territories which at
present are unable to finance a reasonable level of
services from their own resources. Reviews are
currently being undertaken of each territory to provide a basis for the formulation of aid policies consistent with political objectives. One of the purposes of these studies is to identify those territories likely to remain dependent for some time,
and to determine the level of services in each which
HMG will continue to support.
146. Some of the smaller territories, such as
St Helena, Tristan da Cunha and Pitcairn Island,
cannot be expected, in the foreseeable future, to
become viable independent states, economically or otherwise, The same applies to British Antarctic Territory and British Indian Ocean Territory, which have no permanent population. The difficulties and challenges facing HMG in implementing the
principles of the UN Charter in respect of these
territories are harder to solve than those which
were encountered in guiding larger territories to self-determination and full independence.
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