Falklanders Vote 170 Years After Argentina Offer

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-06/falklanders-vote-170-years-after-argentina-offer.html

Print QUEUEQ..Argentina offered to give up its claim to the disputed Falkland Islands in 1843 if Britain would take responsibility for a 1 million-pound loan on which it had defaulted, according to newly released U.K. government records.

The argument over who owns the islands, 300 miles (500 kilometers) off the coast of Argentina and nearly 8,000 miles from Britain, dates back 200 years. It led to war in 1982, when Argentina invaded, leading Margaret Thatcher to send a military task force to recapture the islands at a cost of more than 900 lives on both sides. Islanders will hold a referendum March 10- 11 to demonstrate their desire to stay British.

In May 1982, as the task force was approaching the islands, John Orbell, the archivist at Baring Brothers & Co. Ltd. in London, wrote to the government, enclosing handwritten letters dated 1843 and 1844, from the Argentine government to the merchant bank’s representative, who was trying to secure repayment of an 1824 debt that had been in default for 15 years.

“The letters indicate the willingness of the Argentine government to cede the Falkland Islands to Britain in settlement of these claims,” Orbell wrote, adding that the letters contain “a strong assertion of Argentina’s claim to sovereignty over the islands.”