TNAG-0597-FCO40-744-Future-of-Dependent-Territories-territorial-studies-1977 — Page 171

CONF, DENTIAL

the United Nations would imply accountability to Parliament as well. This would inevitably draw us back into intervention in the Islands' internal affairs. It would also tend to discourage other potential aid donors, eg, the Canadians, Americans, IBRD, etc, from contributing to the Islands, and possibly complicate their admission into Caribbean regional organisations.

The United Nations has recognised three ways of achieving "self-government" (Resolution 1541 (XV) of 15 December 1960):-

4.

(a) emergence as a sovereign independent state;

(b) integration with an independent state;

(c) free association with an independent state.

(c) seems the most relevant. But the only two examples of this I can find in UN history are Puerto Rico (United States) in 1953 and the Cook Islands (New Zealand) in 1965. I believe that in both cases the arrangements would be too close to integration to be practicable for our purposes. It is significant that the United Nations has not accepted the West Indian Associated States (WIAS) as "self-governing" in terms of this doctrine, which has meant that we have been unable to escape some liability to be called to account for them, domestically and internationally. The probable explanation of this is that the United Nations attaches greater importance to the more extreme Resolution 1514(XV) of 14 December 1960 which in effect proposes "complete independence and freedom" as the only acceptable objective.

5. Against this background, I think it doubtful whether we can. develop a constitutional status containing a link with Britain that is loose enough to relieve us of United Nations accountability and firm enough to attract the Islands that shun independence. There is a risk that if we go down this road we shall end up with another variant of Associated Statehood at least as troublesome for us as the WIAS arrangements, and even more difficult to remove, because we should have proposed it as an alternative to independence. We might also encourage backsliding in Bermuda and even in the Pacific, and there could be complications with some of the disputed territories like Gibraltar and the Falklands. The final result might therefore be worse than our present position, as described in the attached note.

6. We need to clarify our policy objectives in the Caribbean Island colonies fairly quickly. We have undertaken to report further on these policies to Ministers. The conclusions Mr Duff and I drew from our tour in February have left us in a planning limbo. The United Nations Visiting Mission to the Cayman Islands is due in London during May for a first exchange of views on their experiences, and we have been warned that we may need to be ready by the autumn with a policy statement in the United

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CONFIDENTIAL