SAAD
3/ Mr Garel-Jones PS/ Lord Caithness
PS/PUS Sir J Coles
FCS/91/145
DEFENCE SECRETARY
Mr Broomfiel Sir A Watts Mr Beamish Mr Goulden
Mr Burns
1.
NPOD HKO WIAD
CONFIDENTIAL
(95
нків 063/1
14/
25 JUN1991
Mr Sony or
Ms
GF 25. Coghi BAR
News Deck
Special hongers
Dame
1816
HMS Endurance
Thank you for your minute of 11 June about
MA
istn'
HMS Endurance. I have also seen Stephen Wall's letter of
14 June recording the Prime Minister's misgivings about scrapping Endurance.
2.
There are, of course, a number of elements in the
defence of our Dependent Territories of which Endurance
is one.
Others are the garrison and Royal Naval presence in Hong Kong and arrangements for the defence of the five
Caribbean Dependent Territories. I hope that we will
have an opportunity to discuss these defence issues in which we have a particularly strong foreign policy interest as a whole.
3. In the meantime, I share the Prime Minister's concern
about the political cost of scrapping Endurance. The islanders and the Antarctic lobby have been assured in
the past that Endurance will continue its work until the middle of this decade and then be replaced. Despite the changed security circumstances, Endurance has important
symbolic significance to the Falklanders and the
Argentines alike. Both would see the withdrawal of
Endurance as a reduction of the British commitment to the
South Atlantic. We have also seen in the last week that
the pro-Endurance lobby is vocal and active.
CONFIDENTIAL