TNAG-0834-FCO40-1042-Foreign-and-Commonwealth-Office-seminar-on-the-future-of-Bri-1979 — Page 177

CODE 18-1

Mr Clarke, HKGD

HKG.025/4

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY NO. 51 31 JUL 1979

DESK OFFICER

INDEX

PA

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REGISTRY

No 10/8/9/20

华

Reference

51

CONFERENCE ON THE FUTURE OF THE BRITISH DEPENDENT TERRITORIES

1.

Thank you for your manuscript note of 27 July enclosing a copy of Percy Selwyn's letter of 23 July. I have four comments:

a)

b)

c)

d)

I remember Mr Brocklebank-Fowler as a member of the Select Committee on Overseas Aid in its discussion of the Caribbean. I found him aggressive and not particularly constructive but those concerned with the Select Committee will have a much more reliable impression of his performance than mine based one one session only;

I do not know Mr McLoughlin but suggest a short telegram to the Governor asking if he is the sort of person who would be likely to contribute or not;

I fully accept the point that we could be criticised for not having some dependent territories representation but I do not think we need take that too tragically since we want to examine options and costs rather than get involved in West Indian politics and this I think will be inevitable if we have too many bright young Caribbean senior students. We certainly could not get through the agenda in the short time available if we have too many professional speakers. Meanwhile it is obviously right that we should send a progress report to Governors on the lines you suggest;

The

I think Duncan Watson was one of my earlier suggestions. case for including him was always a good one and I would much rather have him than some of the fringe academics who have already enrolled. Percy Selwyn is however arguing for his inclusion on unsound logic. The "Colonial Office in the old days" did not go over the sort of issues we are grappling with because they did not exist. If they had, we would have more received wisdom to draw upon.

30 July 1979

per.

P C Duff

West Indian & Atlantic Department