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PARLIAMENTARY QUESTION
for WRITTEN answer on
16 December 1978
Gib + Gen Dept.
The draft reply should reach the Parliamentary Office through your Under-Secretary by
Noon, Friday
.......
17 December 1976
Mr Bruce Grocott (Lichfield and Tamworth): To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will publish a list of the remaining British overseas dependencies, indicating which ones he expects ultimately to achieve independence, which ones may satisfactorily sek associations with neighbouring states, and which ones he sees as being permanently dependent on Great Britain.
The remaining British overseas Dependencies are: Belize, Bermuda, British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands and Dependencies, Gibraltar, Gilbert Islands, Hong Kong, Montserrat, New Hebrides (Anglo- French Condominium), Pitcairn Islands Group, St Helena and Dependencies, Solomon Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, and Tuvalu.
It has been the policy of successive British Governments to promote self-government and independence in the Dependent Territories in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants and the provisions of the United Nations Charter. The Seychelles achieved independence earlier this year and an Independence Conference for the Solomon Islands is planned for next year. The Gilberts and Tuvalu are expected to achieve independence before the end of this decade and, with the possible exception of one or two territories which have special problems or an exiguous or transient population, none are expected to remain permanently dependent. It is of course open to individual territories to seek association with neighbouring states or to form regional groupings if that be the wish of their peoples.
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