CONCLUSION
65. The evidence we have
received shows up a number of difficulties in relations between
the United Kingdom and its Dependent Territories which clearly
need to be addressed in the Review. We hope that our thinking
on these will be helpful to all parties concerned. As long as
the British Government remains responsible for good governance
and external relations - and the British taxpayer in consequence
stands as the ultimate guarantor of the finances of the territory
- there will remain demarcation problems at the margins and also
straight differences of opinion as to the merits of particular
courses of action. Inevitably, these will appear to local politicians
as unreasonable interference in the internal affairs of the territory.
This does not mean that the Government should not make every
effort to minimise the scope for friction and we hope that through
the Review it will do so. It is in how it meets the problems
that we shall judge the Review when we examine it in detail in
our final report.
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