Commonwealth documents from 1978 released to the public

Historic Commonwealth records released to the public today under the 30-year rule include documents covering small states and the first-ever Commonwealth Heads of Government Regional Meeting (CHOGRM).

The 176 documents date from 1978 and earlier when a ‘small state’ was defined as having a population of less than 200,000. As decolonisation continued through the 1970s, island states of this size made up the majority of new members to the Commonwealth. The issue of how to address their specific and often unique developmental needs, as well as enabling their pursuit of national interest on an international front, became a priority for the Commonwealth Secretariat and was encapsulated in their publication The Commonwealth: its special responsibilities to Small States the following year.

It was also addressed at the first-ever Regional CHOGM held in Sydney, Australia in 1978. Attended by Asian as well as Pacific leaders, delegates considered how best to ensure equality of representation for small states at such meetings. In his closing comments Michael Somare, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea commented:

“During the exchanges that have taken place, there have been no divisions and no fragmentation into sub-groups – this is unusual nowadays. Even the classic division between developed and developing countries has not been evident.”

Today, 32 of the Commonwealth’s 53 member countries are small states, mostly with populations of 1.5 million or less.

The archived papers also contain 20 files from the office of the then Secretary-General Sir Shridath Ramphal, comprising speeches and discussions with officials from his visits to member countries.