TNAG-0832-FCO40-1040-Future-of-the-Dependent-Territories-1979 — Page 156

CONFIDENTIAL

2

RECOMMENDED POLICY: Our problems with Anguilla in the past have been caused as much by local economic frustration as by the difficulties stemming from the territory's constitutional status. Our short term objective remains Anguilla's separ- ation from St Kitts/Nevis, followed almost certainly by reversion to the status of a dependent territory. It will then be more straightforward to create the practical condi- tions for independence: more infrastructural aid, more encouragement of private investment, improvements to structure and standard of the Civil Service, etc. The political will for independence may or may not develop as a

result.

CONFIDENTIAL