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CONFIDENTIAL & PERSONAL
about their future. This is very much in our minds. As the paper itself makes it clear, we expect in any case that several territories will remain dependent indefinitely. Hong Kong is the most obvious example; over 90% of the expatriate officers serving in Dependent Territories are there. For practical reasons some other territories are likely to remain dependent for a consider-
able time in the future; one of the purposes of the individual Territory Studies recommended in the paper is to identify these territories. However, some territories are already moving quickly towards independence and others will follow. Expatriate officers serving in these territories on contract can rely on HMG to ensure that the terms of service will not be changed to their
detriment during the currency of their contracts. Permanent and Pensionable HMOCS officers (of whom only a comparatively small number are still serving outside Hong Kong) remain covered by the formal assurances which are embodied in "The Reorganisation of the Colonial Service" (Colonial No 306 of 1954). That is, Limited and General Compensation Schemes will, as in the past, be intro- duced to compensate permanent and pensionable officers for loss of career attributable to the introduction of localisation schemes,
constitutional change and the devolution of the Secretary of State's responsibility for them to local governments on the brink of independence.
Aid Policy
7. With the premise that our aid policy must be consistent with the defined political objectives for each territory, the paper identifies two possible courses of action: first to seek where possible by means of our aid policies to establish an economic and social infrastructure which a territory can ultimately, though not necessarily immediately, sustain from its own resources. Alternatively we could aim, at least in the poorest territories, at a somewhat higher standard than the dependency itself could hope to support, accepting the implication that this may involve us in indefinitely continued and rising financial assistance, including perhaps even indefinite budgetary aid.
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18. Here
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