TNAG-0834-FCO40-1042-Foreign-and-Commonwealth-Office-seminar-on-the-future-of-Bri-1979 — Page 189

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25 JUL 1979

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Mr E Rowlands MP House of Commons LONDON SWI

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24 July 1979

FROPOLED SEMINAR ON THE FUTURE OF BRITISH DEPENDENT TERRITORIES

To help consider whet options for the future might be open to our remaining dependent territories, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office are planning, in conjunction with the Institute of Levelopment tudies, to hold a seminar at the lnstitute's head- quarters at Falmer, brighton, from 24 to 26 Leptember this year. The seminar will not consider the future of ong dong, Gibraltar, Belize and the Falkland Islands, all of which are subject to special political considerations outside the scope of a meeting of this sort.

The seminar will bring together those in the Foreign and Common- wealth office and the Overseas Development Administration who are responsible for coordinating the administration of the Dependent Territories with people from the universities and elsewhere who arc, or who have been, concerned with Dependencies or other small island states. Apart from discussing current policies and possible alternatives to them, we plan to consider such subjects

the special problems of small island states and the political and economic systems that are most appropriate to societies of this type.

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hy reason for writing to you is to ask whether you would be interested in participating in the seminar. We are hoping to have about 20 to 25 participants, about one-third of whom will be from the official side. The exact programme has not yet been finalised, but our present plan is to assemble on the afternoon of Londay, 24 September, and launch the seminar after dinner that evening with a paper describing the present position. Tuesday, 25 September, will be devoted to working sessions, mostly in the form of discussion groups rather than in the formal presentation of further papers, and the seminar will end with a round-up session on the morning of Wednesday, 26 September, followed by a final lunch. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office will meet the cost of providing food and accommodation at the Institute during the seminar and will pay for participants' rail travel to Falmer from within the United Kingdom.

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