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509 Chapter Eleven Economic Viability of the Southern Cameroons: Sir Phillipson’s Report, 1959 Financial, Economic and Administrative Consequences to the Southern Cameroons of Separation from the Federation of Nigeria CHAPTER I-INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL 1. Appointment: original terms of reference.- In June last, I was offered and accepted an appointment as temporary Adviser to the Government of the Southern Cameroons on Financial Problems with the following terms of reference: “To advise the Government of the Southern Cameroons on the likely consequences, financial and economic, of the separation of the Southern Cameroons from the rest of Nigeria, the cost of the provision by the Southern Cameroons Government of services now provided by the Federal Government and the resources available for this purpose.” After spending some four weeks in the United Kingdom on the preparatory study of publications and papers bearing on my subject I arrived in the Southern Cameroons on July 13. Since that date, apart from the time which was taken up by the Mamfe Conference (August 10 and 11) on the plebiscite questions and the plebiscite register, an assignment which involved a good deal of work both before and after the Conference, I have been engaged in further study and in the collection of information, both by correspondence ‘and extensive oral consultations. I have now the honour to present my report (1). 2. Subsequent addition to terms of reference.- Early in my studies it became plain that if I were to confine myself strictly to the financial and economic problems of separation, artificial limits would be placed on such usefulness as my investigation might have not only for the Government of the Southern Cameroons but also for the Government of the Federation of Nigeria, which too, in the event of separation, would have a close practical interest in the process and results of mutual extrication. The financial problems in particular are merely one aspect, not necessari1y the most intractable of the difficulties which inevitably arise when one territory which has for a long time been politca1ly integrated or associated with 510 The Secrets of an Aborted Decolonisation another decides to sever the connection. The administrative problems inherent in such severance clearly cal1 for at least definition and for such consideration as maybe possible at this stage. For the Southern Cameroons the most formidable of these problems will be that of replacing the present substan-tial services given by the Federation by self-contained Southern Cameroons services; but that is by no means the only problem of organisation which will arise. I explained this point of view to the Premier and the Minister of Works and Transport at an interview on July 27 last and they agreed with my suggestion that my report should also attempt to deal with the administra-tive or organizational problems of separation. For the most part these problems are not matters for settlement by the Government of the Southern Cameroons alone; they are in general matters for joint determination by the two Governments directly concerned: Her Majesty’s Government as the Administering Authority also has an important interest in the satisfactory settlement of these problems; I can do little more, therefore, in respect of such joint problems than indicate their nature and suggest methods of approach to them and a machinery for arriving at decisions on them. It follows that, although I am commissioned by my terms of reference to advise the Government of the Southern Cameroons, I cannot escape the necessity, inherent in the nature of the subject, of implicitly offering advice also to the Federal Government of Nigeria and indeed, to some extent, to Her Majesty’s Government. This is particularly true of the problems of administration (all of which have of course their financial facets) which arise in connection with separation. 3. Interpretation of terms of reference.- Although this report is in no way concerned with the political situation in the Southern Cameroons, it is necessary and proper that cognizance should be taken of the fact that the immediate political future of the territory might take one or other of the following forms: (a) the status of a self-governing Region within an independent Federation of Nigeria; (b) separation from the Federation of Nigeria with a further period of Trusteeship; (c) separation from the Federation of Nigeria with the opening of early negotiations with the future Republic of the Cameroons for unification on mutually acceptable terms; (d) separation from the Federation of Nigeria and the assumption of the status of a...

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