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15. Mr Clements pointed out that we should seek to establish a specific procedure to cover any emergency. Mr Dalton observed that it was essential first to clarify the extent of the UK's responsibility towards the DTs, in particular the US authorities, whether as in the case of the Union Derek, a sovereign state could expect HMG to provide the funds to honour a guarantee, given on behalf of a DT. Mr Hendry said his understanding of the Union Derek incident was that Mr Eggar had agreed that a Second Secretary in Washington should sign a guarantee on behalf of the BVI Government. In principle, BVI was responsible if the quarantee were to be enforced. Mr Clements suggested that discussion with the Treasury of possible solutions might be helpful at some stage. WIAD might ask the Deputy Head of Finance Department for the name of a relevant Treasury contact. Mr Hendry proposed that WIAD should first write to Governors asking for details of what contingency plans they already had in hand.
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Resource Implications of International Treaty
Item 5 Cbligations
16.
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Dalton reported that Mr Hendry had redrafted MAED's paper. UND and WIAD had commented. It had been circulated
The paper
to all other members of the liaison group. addressed a central problem of HMG's policy towards the DTs and the extent to which the UK Government was responsible for ensuring that the DTS fulfilled their international (including regional) treaty obligations.
17.
Mrs Britton recounted UND's comments on Mr Hendry's draft. UND favoured the addition of a recommendation that the present principle should be maintained whereby any financial obligations (eg subscriptions to international organisations) are assessed on the UK alone and that there should be no additional subscription for DTS. UND also wished for an outline recommendation addressing the problem of regional agreements in which the UK Government has no direct interest, where we would wish the DTs to bear the cost of subscription. Mr Dalton endorsed these points and invited other members to submit their comments within two weeks.
18. Mr Hendry pointed out that paragraph 12, regarding payment of contributions under regional treaties, needed more work. WIAD had noted that Caribbean DTs paid their own contributions to the OECS. Mr Hendry considered that the UK Government's dilemma with regard to the DTs, in this connection, was largely self-inflicted. We too often lacked the will to compel the DTS to comply with international obligations applicable to them. He referred to the example of Gibraltar and the EC.
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