TNAG-0832-FCO40-1040-Future-of-the-Dependent-Territories-1979 — Page 8

SUBMISSION

PS/Mr Ridley

Mr Stratton

SEMINAR ON THE FUTURE OF THE BRITISH DEPENDENT TERRITORIES: 24-26PTEMBER

1.

1 attach a summary of the discussions during the five working sessions of the seminar held at the Institute of Levelopment Studies from 24-26 September.

2. In general, as the Minister will be aware from the part of the seminar that he attended, the discussions were fairly diffure and it is not easy to draw conclusions. but three significant oints did cuerge:

that

(i, Luc e was a very strong belief shared by virtually all Licipants that we should be actively seeking to civest ourselves of our remaining colonies, and not jus 1ving it for them to decide whether or not they want to become independent;

(ii) there was much concern about the effect on the Caribbea region of the creation of a large number of independent micro-tates; this was a particular preoccupation of those with direct connections with the region, such as ururant and Lord Pitt, who both came back again and again to the need for regional consultation and cooperation;

(iii) there was a general suspicion that we were too hide- bound in our attitudes towards small territories, and that we tended to see their problems as no more than scaled-down versions of the problems of the bigger territories that we had already brought to independence and therefore sought solutions which, though they might have worked with the bigger territories, were inappro-

priate to the ones we are now left with.