TNAG-1117-FCO40-1391-Future-of-the-Dependent-Territories-1982 — Page 170

CONFIDENTIAL

9

DSR 11C

ii)

a regional group. The scope may not be great, but it

might find some support among both old and new

Commonwealth members: Australia has been keen on regional

meetings of Asian and Pacific countries; and Jamaica

was disappointed that more progress towards regionalism

was not made at Melbourne.

Shorter and possibly less frequent meetings. CHGM might

last for five or six days rather than the national

eight; and might meet every three years instead of every

AN necessarily attend for other year; the Prime Minister might

not all of each meeting. Commonwealth Finance Ministers

(CFMS) might meet every other year; and agriculture,

health, education and law Ministers every four years.

CFMS might also be held in the same place as the IMF

and World Bank meetings, even if this were not in the

Commonwealth, rather than in a separate Commonwealth

capital.

iii) For all meetings a return to the informality and privacy

of earlier Commonwealth meetings, in order to encourage a

genuine exchange of views on topics of interest.

iv)

The CHGM communiqué might be much shorter, and refer to

the topics discussed, without going into details. If

there were one or two topics on which Heads of Government

wanted to make a clear statement, this could, as with

the Melbourne Declaration, be issued separately.

To consider reducing the financial cost of the Common-

wealth to Britain, eg. by reducing our percentage

contribution to the Commonwealth Secretariat's expenses

(though it might be better to play this card only if we

were faced with an unacceptable escalation in the

Secretariat budget).