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DR Thomas Esq
SED
FCO
London SW1
Date
12 September 1983
Dear Rager,
ANDORRA
GC. Miss Mitts hi
Mis Priest HUD My Jenkinson MAED
Because of the ad hoc
1. Thank you for your letter of 4 July. nature of our Confidential bag service, I have not yet seen the enclosures which have been held by Madrid pending a courier run, but expect them soon.
2. During my last visit to Andorra, Sr. Ribas, the head of govern- ment (incidentally with reference to Wilson's letter WSA/191/1 of 14 July, for example, he should be described informally by his patronym as Sr. Oscar Ribas, not as Sr. Reig, the latter in Spanish style only used in context of the full name, Sr. Oscar Ribas Reig), told me that they were thinking of re-submitting their application for membership to the ITU early in the new year. The French Viguier expected another application would be made, but I had the impression that the French, unenthusiastic, would do what they could to play it long and were advising its delay. The French had not much liked Sr. Ribas and his representatives hectic and personal lobbying of ambassadors in Paris and Madrid and direct correspondence with heads of state which did not observe the propriety of using their own Andorran Head of State channels, but, on the Andorran side, there is inevitably some feeling that the French diplomatic machine did not do what it could on Andorran service in pursuing the application with governments. Nevertheless, as the Episcopal Viguier told me, the Andorrans have learned a lot from this essay into international affairs, and it was salutary for them to see that the world did not revolve' completely around Andorra.
3. It is however a matter of faith to Andorrans that the Co-Princes are Andorrans when exercising their functions. To the independent Andorran identity of the Ecclesiastical Co-Prince in particular, the Andorrans attribute the maintenance of their independence as a state through the vicissitudes of centuries of French/Spanish border conflict. If he had been nominated by the Spanish govern- ment or if Spanish Heads of State had been Co-Prince, the Andorrans feel certain that either the French or the Spanish would have won Andorra by Peace Treaty or agreed to partition it, however impractical geographically that might be, in one of their wars, on the lines of the division of the valley of the Cerdanya in the 17th century. They see the Ecclesiastical Co-Prince as the protector of their identity against Spanish and French pressures for cultural predominance in their society they react sharply if one suggests in any way that he represents the interests of Andorra of the Spanish state in a way comparable to the French Co-Prince.
/His
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