BRITAIN’S FIRM VIEW

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26693, 12 February 1948, Page 7

BRITAIN’S FIRM VIEW

SOVEREIGNTY OF FALKLAND ISLANDS CLAIMED BY ARGENTINA N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent Rec. 8 p.m. LONDON, Feb. 11. The Foreign Office is at present considering the Argentinian suggestion that a conference to decide the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands should be held in Buenos Aires, but although, as the Manchester Guardian puts it “Mr Bevin does not want to quarrel with his butcher,” it is considered most unlikely that Britain will depart from her present stand, which is that if the matter is to be considered at all it should go before the International Court of Justice at The Hague. As General Juan Peron, President of Argentina, has refused to agree to this, a virtual deadlock exists.

It is pointed out by the British press that the majority of settlers in the Falklands are British nationals, and that Britain has continuously administered the islands for 40 years. Moreover. the British claims go much further back than that. They rest on the discovery of the islands in 1594 and upon the assertion of sovereignty in 1771.

Against this the Argentine has made only spasmodic claims, resting chiefly upon the landing of a small contingent of soldiers in 1833. These were withdrawn as a result of a British protest.

To-day the Falkland Islands Dependencies are a British colony, and as such, it is considered most unlikely that the Foreign Office will agree to go further than its present offer to refer the matter to the International Court.