TNAG-0834-FCO40-1042-Foreign-and-Commonwealth-Office-seminar-on-the-future-of-Bri-1979 — Page 72

CODE 18-77

CONFIDENTIAL

Mr Clarke

Hong Kong & General Dept.

Reference

109

NETHERLANDS ANTILLES

1.

2.

As requested, I attach a background note on the above.

According to the West Indian publication INSIGHT of May 1979, the Netherlands Antilles Prime Minister

Mr Rosendal called an election in May after only 18 months in office following tension caused by his failure to resolve a strike by civil servants. M & CD have confirmed with our Embassy at The Hague that elections did in fact take place and that there is now an "acting" Prime Minister,

M A Pourier (the post was unclear as to why Pourier is only acting PM).

3. You may be interested to see Mr Shakespeare's account of his talks at The Hague in May (attached). The Dutch were un- forthcoming about possible future regional consultations with us and showed no interest in constitutional developments in our own territories in the Caribbean. They seem to have turned a blind eye to possible Cuban intervention in the islands.

Please note the final sentence of paragraph 2 (of Mr Shakespeare's note).

HKG.025/4.

$1319 my 20

42 September 1979

Copy to Miss Saunders, WES(RD)

9. A. Peuren

JA PENNEY American Section Research Dept.

I asked for unclassified Lette ho so R.

info!