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Stubbs offers alternative view on independence

Bermuda's leaders have too narrow a view of Independence -- a "pretentious and impractical'' view that would be costly for the Island, says a Government MP.

The standard model of Independence included high commissioners in Commonwealth capitals, ambassadors in London, Washington, and Ottawa, and an ambassador to the United Nations in New York, the Hon. John Stubbs told The Royal Gazette .

"What a tragic waste this would be,'' he said. "Governments don't deal with each other through embassies anymore. For this reason we should avoid at all costs having any permanent Bermudian overseas representation.'' Instead, Dr. Stubbs favoured agreements with the United Kingdom, United States and Canada that would allow the Island to be "very specific'' about where and how it expressed Bermuda's interests internationally.

For instance, he felt Bermuda should remain tied to Britain on judicial matters, so the final appeal from a Bermuda court would remain the Privy Council. But on other matters, Bermuda could cast its lot with Americans or Canadians, he said.

He felt Bermuda could negotiate arrangements by which upon Independence all three countries would endorse a Bermudian passport "and agree to have embassies and consulates come to Bermudians' aid through some contractual relationship which would absolve them of any expense''.

Rather than setting up embassies or high commissions elsewhere, Bermuda could contribute toward those three countries maintaining diplomatic presences on the Island, he said.

That would assure an effective liaison existed with all three countries, he said.

"We could have the best of both worlds.'' Instead of facing annual costs for foreign representation, costs would vary depending on what Bermuda wanted to achieve in a given year. "That's the way to get a big bang for the buck,'' he said.

While he strongly opposed UN membership for Bermuda, the Island would want to join certain other international bodies, he said.

"Unfortunately, our Premier and the Leader of the Opposition both go with the standard model,'' Dr. Stubbs said. "They would appear to date to show no interest in even wanting to consider any imaginative alternative.'' While he opposed Government's plans for a referendum on the issue, Dr. Stubbs said he had long favoured sovereign Independence for Bermuda, and felt it was ridiculous that Island leaders had to negotiate constitutional changes in the UK.

But he felt that Bermuda should reach agreements with the UK, US, and Canada before going it alone.

"Would you want to jump off a cliff with a hang glider and assemble it on the way down?'' he asked. "This is where I part company with the Premier.'' Asked if the UK would allow a dependent territory to negotiate such agreements, Dr. Stubbs said: "If we worked it out properly, I think they would.

"Maybe this isn't attainable, but it makes practical sense for Bermuda.'' Government should "make out a wish list and then go for it''.

The UK, US and Canada were the three countries "with whom we've had cultural, educational, and commercial ties that have been dominant in shaping our Island culture,'' he said.

He also favoured stronger ties with Commonwealth countries in the Caribbean, he said. But unless a new Caribbean Federation was formed, he did not envision formal agreements with those countries.

Dr. Stubbs said several incidents in his political career brought him to his present view.

His participation in United Nations Law of the Sea conferences in the 1970s "demonstrated the total impracticality of attempted involvement by tiny nation states in the full range of deliberations and technical considerations'' on the international stage, he said.

And at the conference, "the British delegation was resisting our entreaties to include more vigorous pollution control,'' he said. Bermuda "would have been better served appended to a Canadian delegation''.

In the 1980s, at the International Telecommunications Union conference in Geneva where Bermuda was granted two satellite slots, it was Bermuda's informal ties to the American delegation that proved most beneficial, he said.

In 1978, then Premier the Hon. Sir David Gibbons sent Dr. Stubbs to the UK, where he successfully helped negotiate a large reduction in the huge troops bill Bermuda received for British assistance at the end of the 1977 riots.

He remembered lawyer Mr. Arnold Francis asking if his job would not have been easier if there was a Bermudian High Commissioner in London. "The honest answer is no,'' he said. "A bureaucrat like that would only get in the way.

"I'm firmly of the impression that the traditional pattern of foreign representation via embassies and high commissions has a negative worth. In other words, it's expensive and provides us with nothing of assistance.'' Done properly, Bermuda's standard of living could improve under Independence, he said.

"Failure to move in that direction, and particularly failure to prepare for it, is a gross dereliction of our responsibilities,'' he said. Until Independence was achieved under a novel model like the one he suggested, politicians "for emotional reasons and reasons of personal aggrandisement will try and lure a misguided public down the expensive and destructive path of traditional Independence''.

The Hon. John Stubbs.