Falklands anyone?

[Marcantilan]

Courtney, are you aware of the Nootka Sound Convention (UK - Spain 1790)?

The sixth article of the convention states:

It is further agreed with respect to the eastern and western coasts of South America and the islands adjacent, that the respective subjects shall not form in the future any establishment on the parts of the coast situated to the south of the parts of the same coast and of the islands adjacent already occupied by Spain; it being understood that the said respective subjects shall retain the liberty of landing on the coasts and islands so situated for objects connected with their fishery and of erecting thereon huts and other temporary structures serving only those objects.

Look at the opinion of some (past) british leaders about the islands:

• Duke of Wellington, Prime Minister (1834): "I have reviewed all the papers relating to the Falklands. Is unclear that we've ever been holders of the sovereignty of these islands."

• Sidney Spicer, head of the Americas Department at the Foreign Office in 1910 "... the Argentine government's attitude is not entirely unjustified and our action has been somewhat despotic"

• R. Campbell, assistant secretary of the Foreign Office (1911): "Who had the best right while we are attaching the islands. I think the government of Buenos Aires [...] We can not easily make a good claim and we have done a wisely effort to avoid discussing the issue in Argentina. "

• Sir Malcolm A.Robertson, the British ambassador in Buenos Aires in 1928 "Argentine claims to the Falkland Islands in any way are unfounded" and insisted in another document that "English case is not strong enough to face a public controversy."

• George Fitzmaurice, counsel to the British Foreign Office in 1936: "Our case has a certain fragility" and advised it finally came: "Sitting on the islands hard to avoid discussing, in a policy to drop the case."

• John Troutbeck, a senior British Foreign Office in 1936: "... our taking of the Falkland Islands in 1833 [...] was so arbitrary that it is not so easy to explain our position without showing us themselves as international outlaws. "

Or ask the Foreign Office about the S17111 (AS – 5728/311/2) document.

Or, for a different opinion, read this column in The Telegraph: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/expat/t...the-falklands/

Is a complex matter, after all.

Happy Easter to all.