CAB148-30-Defence and Oversea Policy Committee Meetings Relating to 1967 Disturbances-1967 — Page 227

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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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