TNAG-1001-FCO40-1237-Future-of-the-Dependent-Territories-including--Report-of-the-1981 — Page 90

MR RIDLEY:

Your Excellencies, Ministers, Gentlemen, we meet today to

sign the Report of the Belize Constitutional Conference, a document which incorporates the principles which will be embodied in the Constitution which Belize will take to independence.

May I start by expressing my thanks to the members of the

Belize and UK Delegations who have worked very hard through the past week? I also wish to thank the Vice-Chairman, Mr Hickman; and also the staff of the Conference Secretariat, including the

technicians and supporting staff of Marlborough House, who have

worked efficiently and unobtrusively in the background to ensure

that all the administrative arrangements of the Conference worked

well.

The basic Conference document was the White Paper prepared by the Belize Government, which had also served as the basis for

widespread consultation with the Belizean people undertaken by

the Joint Select Committee of the National Assembly beforehand.

It is a matter for regret that the Belizean Opposition who were

invited to take part in the Select Committee's work, and also to

attend this Conference, chose, in the event, not to do so. I understand that Opposition spokesmen did in fact give evidence to the Select Committee and their views clearly had an influence on

some of the Select Committee's recommendations. The presence of the Opposition at this Conference would of course have enabled them to ensure for themselves that any further points on which their views differed from those of the Government were fully aired and

taken into consideration. In these circumstances it has been

particularly useful that we have had a number of written submissions, some commenting in a very detailed way on the White Paper, from organisations in Belize such as the Chamber of Commerce and the

Public Service Union.

These papers were all tabled and I may say without exaggeration that they stimulated a great deal of discussion. The organisations concerned will note when reading the Conference Report that a

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