TNAG-0714-FCO40-910-Future-of-the-Dependent-Territories-1978 — Page 43

dəsmagamaani mtamutianas en estan inte upphlets, MTUME MUSSARE độ nhkan cintarinendused in cutii in jou tandis

could not be the only or ultimate principle for determining the territ

ory's future. He then laid down what he held to be the right principle

governing such cases, i.e. one must distinguish between two types of

possessions, those "originally occupied for settlement" which we ruled

for the benefit of the population in them, and those "originally

occupied for purely belligerent purposes" which were held in order to

contribute to the defence of the Empire as a whole. In the former,

"local considerations occupy the place of paramount importance" and the

"veto of the population ought to be of enormous weight"; in the latter,

Imperial considerations must be of paramount importance and local

opinion must be subordinate to these, and the inhabitants "cannot

complain of injustice...if this is so". If the principle of local

opinion alone were to be applied, he went on, it would be fatal to our

Imperial interests and, if carried to the point of a plebiscite, it would

in effect come to determining Imperial policy by such local votes.

Rosebery, for the Opposition, disclaimed any suggestion of a

plebiscite but reasserted that the opinion of the inhabitants of any

part of the Empire to be severed off should not be "so absolutely

disregarded" as appeared to be the case here; the people"should not be`

handed over like chattels to a foreign Power". Lord Granville espec-

ially attacked the Govt's repeated claim to have reason to believe the Heligolanders were satisfied without consulting them, or giving

Parliament any grounds for the belief. He admitted however that'reason of state' might justify the policy but in return HG were under a great

obligation to provide the maximum safeguards for the inhabitants and

he instanced the position of the yet unborn children of those islanders

who opted for British nationality.

The Colonial Secretary defended the case mainly on the basis of the guarantees, especially regabding nationality, conscription, native

law and custom and tariffs. Summing up, the Prime Minister replied that the only real way to know the inhabitants' opinions was in fact a pleb-

iscite which was alien to our traditions and fraught with dangers as a precedent. He had good reason for thinking the Heligolanders satis-

fied with the transfer and the terms of the Agreement but his cource

of information was confidential. He repeated with great emphasis his doctrine of the two types of possession given above, and declared that the doctrine of local consent urged by the critics would go far beyond

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