TNAG-0834-FCO40-1042-Foreign-and-Commonwealth-Office-seminar-on-the-future-of-Bri-1979 — Page 226

1

His Excellency

Dr CH Grant

High Commissioner for Guyana

3 Palace Court

Bayswater Road

LONDON W2

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SW1A 2AH

19 June 1979

HKG 025/4

25 JUN M/Y

17

No

27/7

nys

See (39

PROPOSED SEMINAR ON THE FUTURE OF BRITISH DEPENDENT TERRITORIES

In September of this year, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, in conjunction with the Institute of Development Studies at Falmer, Brighton, are organising a seminar to discuss the future of Britain's remaining Dependent Territories (other than Hong Kong, Belize, Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands, which are subject to political considerations beyond the scope of a meeting of this sort). We are hoping to bring together those in the Foreign and Commonwealth

Office and the Overseas Development Administration responsible for the administration of the territories, interested academics, and others with relevant knowledge and experience. Apart from discussing current policies and possible alternatives to them, we hope to consider such subjects as the special problems facing small island states and the political and economic systems best suited to societies of this kind.

Dr Peter Lyon of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at London University has suggested to us that, as a former Professor of Political Science and the author of a book on Belize, as well as the representative in London of a Caribbean Commonwealth country, you would be able to make a unique contribution to such a seminar. My purpose in writing is therefore to invite you to participate as a guest of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. We hope to have about 20 to 25 participants altogether, about one-third of them from the official side, and although we have not yet fixed a detailed programme, our plan is to convene at the Institute of Development Studies on the afternoon of Monday, 24 September, and begin the seminar after dinner that evening with a paper describing the present situation. Tuesday, 25 September, would be devoted to working sessions, mostly in the form of discussion groups rather than the further formal presentation of papers, and we would conclude with a round-up session on the morning of Wednesday, 26 September, followed by a final lunch.

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