CONFIDENTIAL
B
TERRITORIES WHICH ARE DIFFICULT FOR OTHER REASONS
BRITISH INDIAN OCEAN TERRITORY (BIOT)
15.1 Consists of a number of islands and island groups, all
close together, including Egmont (para 6 above). Because of the
remoteness of BIOT as a whole it is difficult to see how a station
anywhere in the Territory could be serviced except through Diego
Garcia, which is no more than 100 miles from any BIOT island and
contains the only harbour and landing strip.
15.2 An NSS on any of the islands of BIOT could detect seismic
signals not recorded by NTM only if the source was within tens of
kilometres.
GIBRALTAR
16.
Tiny, densely populated. Probably no objection to NSS
from Gibraltar Government, but strong objections from Spanish
Government to installing an NSS on "Spanish soil". This would be
unhelpful in the context of current exchanges with Spain over
Gibraltar's future.
PITCAIRN DEPENDENCIES
17.
Island.
Pitcairn has uninhabited dependencies including Henderson
Considerations are the same as for Pitcairn itself (see
para 9 above).
BRITISH ANTARCTIC TERRITORY (BAT)
18.
British Antarctic Survey operate a seismic station at Faraday
(Argentine Islands). The British claim to BAT is not recognised
by the US or the Soviet Union and much of it is disputed by
Argentina and Chile; all might object to NSS there. Moreover,
nuclear explosions are prohibited under the Antarctic Treaty to which
the UK, US and USSR are parties. It could therefore be said to be
CONFIDENTIAL
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