TNAG-1461-FCO40-1987-Future-of-the-Dependent-Territories-Hong-Kong--Gibraltar-and-1986 — Page 101

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take control of their own affairs. For this the constitutions

will need to be kept under regular review and possibly adjusted

more than once in the lead up to independence. [Can we way more

at this stage about the process of constitutional change? Can some progressive clauses be introduced into the constitutions so that adjustment becomes automatic thereby avoiding the risk of a negative reaction each time it happens?]

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The question remains of how to approach the dependencies themselves about independence. There are three broad options:

to make no attempt to convince the territories of the

benefits of independence but to give encouragement where this is likely to be well received; i.e. to continue with

our present approach

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to establish an independence timetable for each of the dependencies; and to make it quite clear to the local government that we intend to stick to this regardless of local opinion with the intention of convincing them that cooperation will be better than opposition

to take a middle course using the carrot of increased

economic assistance. Under this approach no territory would

be forced into independence. But the desirability of independence would be spelt out clearly, the population

educated for it and cooperation sought by holding out the prospect of faster economic development.

But

These are essentially questions of political judgement.

of these options we believe that the first is likely to get us

nowhere and that the second will give rise to political

opposition in the UK and, as noted in para 23 above, generate

fierce criticism from the US. The third option would seem the

most appropriate. It would serve both to increase the pressure

on the territories to move to independence while maintaining the

maximum degree of cooperation with them. It would however mark a

shift away from the policy of responding to the wholly

uninfluenced wishes of the inhabitants towards that of seeking, to influence their wishes in the direction of what we regard as

their best interests in the light of HMG's own capabilities and

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