TNAG-0597-FCO40-744-Future-of-Dependent-Territories-territorial-studies-1977 — Page 174

Mr Stewart

Now see 19

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p.a. M.L

THE CARIBBEAN ISLAND DEPENDENCIES:

CONSTITUTIONAL FUTURE

1. You asked me to have a look at Mr Stanley's draft minute to Mr Rowlands. I have no comments of substance on it but "disputed territories" might be a better term than "claimed colonies" (paragraph 5 of Mr Stanley's draft). I think it might also be useful if Mr Stanley were to copy his minute to UND.

2. I may be able to help with the point raised in paragraph 2 of Mr Stanley's covering minute (and dealt with in paragraph 4 of his draft minute) about UN General Assembly Resolution 1541.. My understanding is that this Resolution is much less important in the eyes of the majority at the UN than Resolution 1514,(XMỳ, the "Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples" adopted on 14 December 1960. This Resolution, which was the work of the Russians and the Afro-Asians, amounted to a rewriting of Article 73 of the Charter and did not properly recognise self-government as an ultimate and acceptable stage of constitutional development for a dependent territory. It was on the basis of Resolution 1514 that the Special Committee on the Granting of Independence etc, etc or, as it is known, the Committee of Twenty-Four, was set up. It follows therefore that the Committee of Twenty-Four has always been reluctant to accept any- thing less than independence as an acceptable status for a dependent territory. Resolution 1541, which was adopted a few days after Resolution 1514, was very much the work of the UK delegation and delegations of other Administrating Powers at the time and has never had the same significance in the eyes of the UN as a whole. Id not find it surprising therefore that the UN has declined to ac- cept that the coming into being of the West Indies Associated States (WIAS) should mean the end to our "accountability" to the UN for their affairs.

3. As I recall, it was one of the Colonial Office's objectives in devising the WIAS "model", which was mainly designed, I think, by Mr Douglas Williams (now in the ODMO, to seek to get the territories concerned off the UN's books. The anti-colonial tide of opinion in the UN at the time was, however, too strong to enable this objective to be attained.

27 April 1977

D F Milton

Hong Kong & General Department

RECEIVED N REGISTRY No. 74 2/ APR 1977

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