UK Relations

The FCO. When I wrote my previous article of 18 August on the question of the suitability of the FCO to be the intermediary between Anguilla and Britain, I had no idea that there was an extensive existing literature on the subject. A kind person has now sent some of it to me. I have read with great interest a 7-page paper published in The Round Table as long ago as April 2000 by Thomas Russell. Russell was, at the time, the Cayman Islands’ representative in London. He presented this most informative paper to the Institute of Commonwealth Studies Conference. It is available online from the publishers Routledge for the outrageous price of US$31.97, plus tax. I have a copy that I am happy to email to anyone for the asking.

In this paper, Russell argues that there are deficiencies in rule by the FCO that did not exist under the old Colonial Office. I summarise and extract some of his most pertinent points below:

The old Colonial Service had recruited persons expert in the fields of Administration, Medicine, Education, Agriculture, Legal Services, the Judiciary, Audit, and other disciplines. [By contrast, the Foreign Office has no traditional interest in these areas.]

The old Colonial Service had struggled to promote decolonization. This required forward planning, regularly reviewed, to develop the economy, education, medical and social services. There were initiatives to complete manpower planning and localization schemes. The old Colonial Office struggled to establish a Civil Service, free from political control; an independent Judiciary and Audit; an efficient Police Force; and a competent Parliamentary structure. [None of these initiatives is within the purview or competence of the Foreign Office.]

After the break-up of the West Indies Federation in 1962 the British Government made it clear that it would never again countenance being placed in the Associated States type of situation where it still had responsibilities but no longer had power. The official policy is to give the people of the Overseas Territories the ultimate right to choose independence. This policy has developed a momentum of its own. Officially, however, the Constitutions of Overseas Territories are not supposed to advance further than a stage short of full internal self government leading to independence.

Where there was once an important Ministry, the Colonial Office, dealing with Overseas Territory affairs, there is only now a small Department within the Foreign Office. Few of its officers have direct knowledge of administering dependencies. Advisers with long experience in dependencies have long gone and have not been replaced. These included the Inspector-General of Colonial Police and the Auditor General. The old cadres of Colonial Service officers such as Colonial Secretaries and Financial Secretaries, with their own professional links in Whitehall, have long gone. Local officers in these positions, however efficient, have seldom developed the same linkages. Communication between Whitehall and the Overseas Territory is confined in practice to the Governor’s Office.

There is a perception that Governors appointed from the Diplomatic Service inevitably increase control from Whitehall. The Territorial Constitution takes the Governor out of line-management. Targets, outputs, and dates for achieving targets, are set in Whitehall. They may be difficult for the Governor to reconcile with political and legislative programmes. While the FCO wishes to reinforce the Governor’s position and influence, all too often he is seen in the Territory as the fulcrum with the FCO applying the leverage.

While the paper was not designed to promote any alternative UK Government Department as being more relevant than the FCO, the deficiencies are obvious. The history is fascinating in its own right. The points he makes are relevant to the Anguilla of today. More to the point, crunch time for Anguilla in her negotiations for Constitutional advance is nigh! I still think that, as part of the exercise, we ought to be asking whether there is not some other UK Department of Government that is more relevant to Anguilla’s needs in communicating with the UK Government than the FCO is.