TNAG-2239-FCO40-3218-Future-of-Hong-Kong-Royal-Navy-presence-1991 — Page 104

CONFIDENTIAL

DEFENCE SECRETARY

HMS ENDURANCE AND DEFENCE OF DEPENDENT TERRITORIES

1.

Thank you for your minute of 11 June.

2. I agree with you that HMS ENDURANCE has a special

place in the hearts of the Falkland Islanders and I

accept that the security situation on the Falklands is

now entirely different from that of 10 years ago.

But we have to bear in mind that 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.

At the

3. I am less sanguine than you about the Argentine reaction: the Argentines are biding their time. first opportunity they will raise the issue of sovereignty over the Falklands. Indeed, only last week at their instigation the Organisation of American States

called for talks on sovereignty. The Argentines will see

the withdrawal of ENDURANCE, rightly, as a reduction of the British commitment to the South Atlantic. They will be encouraged to think that the tide of history is again beginning to run for them.

4.

However, in considering the future of HMS ENDURANCE, the key point is that we have territory in Antarctica virtually all of which is claimed by Chile and Argentina. Our claim was made before the others. In pursuing their

CONFIDENTIAL