TNAG-0835-FCO40-1043-Foreign-and-Commonwealth-Office-seminar-on-the-future-of-Bri-1979 — Page 82

SUBMISSION

PS/Mr Ridley

W/141

Mr Stratton

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

1. I 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 diffuse and it is not easy to draw conclusions. But three significant points did emerge:

(i) there was a very strong belief shared by virtually all the participants that we should be actively seeking to divest ourselves of our remaining colonies, and not just leaving it for them to decide whether or not they want to become independent;

(ii) there was much concern about the effect on the Caribbean

region of the creation of a large number of independent micro-States; this was a particular preoccupation of those with direct connections with the region, such as Dr Grant 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 amall 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.