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3.
FALKLAND ISLANDS: ANGLO-ARGENTINE DISPUTE
(Previous Reference: OPD(67) 12th Meeting, Item 2)
The Committee had before them a memorandum by the Foreign Secretary and the Commonwealth Secretary (OPD (67) 54) containing proposals for the conduct
of further talks with representatives of the Argentine Government about
the Falkland Islands.
THE FOREIGN SECRETARY said that after the previous discussion by the
Committee of our policy towards the dispute with the Argentine over the
Falkland Islands there had been Anglo-Argentine talks at official level
which had yielded no result. He had then discussed the question in New York in June with the Argentinian Foreign Secretary, Dr. Hendez. Dr. Mendez
himself was well disposed towards this country and anxious to reach an
amicable settlement. He had stressed the readiness of the Argentine to give guarantees safeguarding the position of the Falkland islanders in the event of a transfer of sovereignty; however he like other Argentinians
professed not to understand our insistence that we could not yield
sovereignty over the Falkland Islands to the Argentine against the wishes
of the local inhabitants. At the end of this round of discussions it had
been agreed that the United Kingdom Government would seek to devise a
formula for the transfer of sovereignty of the Falklands which would be
acceptable to both sides: in effect this meant a formula which would secure
our point of principle but would not spell it out in a way that made it
grossly unpalatable to the Argentine. If an acceptable formula could be
discovered it would pave the way for the Argentine to reopen communications
with the Falkland Islands and make a specific offer of guarantees so that
the Falkland Islanders might begin to come to terms with the idea of a
change of sovereignty.
The Argentine representative to the United Nations, Dr. Ruda, would
be in London shortly and it was proposed to discuss possible formulae with him ad referendum. To devise a suitable formula was not easy: paragraph 3 of OPD(67) 54 set out various possibilities. The formulation in sub-paragraph (a) which required the change of sovereignty to be acceptable
to the inhabitants of the Falkland Islands, would suit us, and we could offer as a basis for discussion the formulation in sub-paragraph (c), which
provided that the Argentinian guarantees and safeguards should be acceptable to the Islanders. If neither of these formulations was acceptable to the Argentine we should offer the formula set out in sub-paragraph (a),
which expressed our readiness to transfer sovereignty to the
Argentine provided we were satisfied that the Argentine guarantees
and safeguards were acceptable to the Islanders; but in offering this formula we should have to make it clear that it did not imply any alteration in
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