TNAG-0715-FCO40-911-Future-of-the-Dependent-Territories-4 — Page 93

CONFIDENTIAL

5. I should also be grateful for your advice on certain other points which ought to be covered in the Despatch, though for lack of the necessary information I have not included them in the attached draft:

i.

-ii.

Reserved Powers

As you will see, I am suggesting that, in those territories where it is accepted by both sides that indepenence is not an immediate prospect, it should be clearly understood that certain powers should not be transferred to local govern- ments. I should be grateful if you could advise exactly which powers you believe should be retained.

Aid Policy

I find the sections on aid in the 1975 paper extremely confused, mainly because of the reluctance to arrive at any firm conclusions; but to the extent that I can under- stand what was being said, it seems to me that it was suggested that a distinction might be drawn between those countries which were likely to become independent, (where we should be cautious about setting up an economic and social infrastructure that was beyond the capability of the territory concerned to sustain) and those countries where independence does not seem to be in prospect (in which we might consider going for higher standards even though we know that the countries concerned could never afford to pay for them). I should be grateful to know whether this distinction has turned out to mean anything in practice; and I should welcome your advice on what should be said about aid policy in the revised paper. My own inclination is to go for something clear and straightforward on the following lines:

(a) Dependent Territories are first charge on our

aid resources;

(b) we should aim to use our aid as far as possible to

create the conditions in which political independence will become possible;

(c)

J

since political independence need not mean economic independence, it should not be seen as entailing any immediate reduction in our willingness to provide aid, and we should not be deterred from creating decent living conditions by the fear that unduly high stan- dards would be a deterrent to independence;

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/(d)