TNAG-1461-FCO40-1987-Future-of-the-Dependent-Territories-Hong-Kong--Gibraltar-and-1986 — Page 70

CONFIDENTIAL

(St Helena) has ever sought integration with the UK. Future abandonment by the UK for political, economic or military reasons could not be ruled out, but the UK's moral position would be more defensible and withdrawal made less painful if the islanders were

granted free access to the UK. The overall principle might be that scattered settlements of UK citizens would exist and would have

their own local governments but the territories in which they were settled were, if expedient, disposable.

-

24. UN Trusteeship Chapter XII of the UN Charter establishes an

international trusteeship system. This system is not available to

independent States, but it is arguably open to the UK as

administering power to place populated territories under the system.

However, if the UK remained the administering authority the costs to

the UK would remain much the same. A UN administering authority

would be likely to be opposed by a substantial majority of UN

members, including Western countries, on the grounds of financial

implications for UN members especially in the light of the current

financial crisis of the UN.

25. The UN has only acted as an administering authority (as a

temporary measure) in the case of West Irian in 1962: following an

agreement between the Netherlands and Indonesia in August 1962, the

Netherlands transferred the administration of the territory to a

United Nations Temporary Executive Authority (UNTEA) which was

established to administer the territory until sovereignty was

transferred to Indonesia in May 1963. UNTEA, thus became the

Government of the territory for the period of its administration and was assisted by a UN Security Force (UNSF) in the task of

maintaining law and order.

26. Other attempts to get the UN to act as Administering Authority

on behalf of Trieste and Jerusalem were made in 1947. Both

arrangements were meant to be permanent and envisaged the

appointment of UN Governors to administer the territory and city but

were never implemented. The League of Nations was responsible for

CONFIDENTIAL

17

-