COMMONWEALTH PARLIAMENTARY ASSOCIATION REGIONAL CONFERENCE REPORT
Part 1
By J. Brock (SARTMA)
A regional conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association began at the Court and Council Chamber of the Town Hall in Stanley, Falkland Islands at 0930hrs on Monday, 16 February 2004. The room was filled to capacity with representatives from Alderney, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Guernsey, the Falkland Islands, Jersey, The Isle of Man, Malta, St. Helena, Scotland, Wales, and the United Kingdom, spouses and partners, as well as other invited guests.
0930 seated guests and delegates, before the Clerk of Council, Mrs Claudette Anderson, then announced the H. E. the Governor Mr. Howard Pearce and the Speaker of the House, Mr. Tim Blake. The Senior Regional Representative on the Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Cllr. the Hon. Mr. Richard Cockwell, greeted the Governor and Speaker and escorted them to the dais. The singing of the National Anthem followed this by Miss Lizzie Newton. Cllr. Cockwell then introduced The Hon. Mr. Tim Blake (TB) to give his introductory speech. (Extracts)
TB: Your Excellency, Secretary General of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Commander British Forces, distinguished guests, Honourable Members, it’s my privilege, with His Excellency, to welcome you to this Conference of the British and Mediterranean Islands Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.. It is just two years since Council, with the concurrency of the Governor, decided that a Speaker should take over the seat of the Chairmanship of the Legislature and I was honoured to be asked to take that seat. Or, I assume I was honoured. There were, at that time, there were three Blakes in the Falklands, known as T. Blake. And, if the Councillors at that stage chose the wrong one, I think they are too embarrassed to actually tell me.
But, as I say, on a more serious note, I am very honoured to be Speaker. I am particularly pleased to be Speaker at this time as it allows me to welcome you all to our Islands. I am delighted to welcome you all. And, may I, on behalf of the Falklands, thank you for giving up so much of your time to come here.
One of the down sides of living at the Bottom end of South America is; of course, it takes an awful long time to get here. It was the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, which gave us our first platform on which to air the sovereignty dispute and our desire for self-determination, with our sovereignty being under threat.
While on holiday in the United Kingdom in 1974, Bill Luxton and I attended a conference on the dispute. Also attending the conference was the then Secretary General of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. In conversation afterwards, he asked us why we hadn’t taken up any of the invitations to attend the CPA Conferences. The reason, of course, was, we weren’t aware that there had been any invitations.
But we were invited to attend in 1975 but because of the scarcity of finances at the time, it was made without cost to the Colony. And, I was privileged to take part. The Conference was in India. I have many memories of that Conference and a slim and young Kenneth Clarke. And also, while we were on the apron at the airport, there was a little man with an umbrella being hoisted by the plane. The use of the umbrella soon became clear as unfortunately the valve where the fuel went in leaked. The friendliness of the staff and delegates made quite an impression on my wife and I, is, I believe, typical of all the Conferences of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.
I think the ability to be able to sit down and talk about mutual problems without the need for high class resolutions is a great advantage, not only for those who sit here but for this fragile and unstable world. In 1975 the Annual Conference was the only forum where we could air our concerns. I see that what was born in 1975 has continued and grown to this day. Originally we were part of the Caribbean, Central and South American Region. They very kindly, the Executive Committee changed that for the Islands in the South Atlantic. The Association has developed and continues to develop. Previously speech making was predominate but now discussion groups are very much in the frame. It is my hope that the CPA will continue to search for common ground to discuss and understand each others necessities and failures.
I hope that the discussions you have in the next two to three days will prove to be interesting and fruitful. But most of all I hope that you, our visitors will enjoy your stay in the Islands and will sample a little of the pleasures of living in this remote and beautiful place.
After the completion of the Hon Mr Blake’s speech, the school choir, under the directorship of Mrs Shirley Adams-Leach, entered and they sang two songs, “Build a Mountain” and “Drop in the Ocean.” H. E. the Governor Mr. Howard Pearce (HP), then addressed the audience. (Full)
HP: Mr. Speaker, Commander British Forces, Secretary General of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Honourable Members of the Parliaments, Assemblies and Councils represented here, Ladies and Gentlemen. I bid you a very warm welcome to the Falkland Islands. Some of you are old friends and it’s a great pleasure to welcome you back again. Others are here for the first time. We are delighted to see you and hope your first visit will not be your last. I congratulate you all on making the long journey here. But I am confident that you will find the effort to have been worthwhile, first in the meetings you will be attending during this week and in the time you will spend outside the conference hall. I hope you will be able to get to know each other and also the Falkland Islands and the people who live here much better during your stay.
It is, perhaps, invidious to pick out any of our visitors for particular mention but if you would forgive me, I would like to say a special welcome to the Honourable Dr. Stefan Bontempo MP and Anna Brincat from Malta. My excuse for doing this is that I had the privilege of serving as British High Commissioner in Malta for three very enjoyable years immediately before taking up my post here in the Falkland Islands.
This is the largest conference, which has ever been staged in the Falkland Islands. I am sure it will give us the confidence to host more like it. I should like to pay a special tribute to Councillor Richard Cockwell and to our Clerk of Councils, Claudette Anderson for the enormous amount of work, which they and her colleagues have put into organising this event. I have no doubt at all that all will go very smoothly throughout the week.
Once you have visited these remote Islands, they can take a curious hold on you. It’s remarkable how many people you meet who came to the Falklands for six months twenty years ago and somehow never got around to leaving. In a way, I suppose I am a case in point. I first visited the Falklands almost exactly 29 years ago as a very young, inexperienced 3rd Secretary in the British Embassy in Buenos Aires on my first overseas posting with the Diplomatic Service. I recall vividly enjoying the hospitality of Mr. Speaker, Tim Blake and his wife, Sally, at Hill Cove at their farm on West Falkland. Either I, nor they ever imagined that the young Scrog would be returning these years later as Governor. It’s an enormous privilege to have done so. I reckon I have one of the best jobs in my service.
The Falkland Islands have undergone an extraordinary transformation since those days in the late 1960s. Then, the economy was stagnant, totally dependent on the production of wool, the population was declining, young people were looking for ways to leave, Islanders felt insecure and unloved by Britain and increasingly dependent on their South American Neighbour. The future looked bleak. And, indeed, especially during those few traumatic weeks in 1982, it was bleak, indeed.
It is a very different place today. This is now a prosperous, secure, dynamic and forward-looking community. Young people leave to complete their education in 6th Form College and University in the UK, but they come back with qualifications, which the Falklands need and keen to play their part in developing their Islands. I cannot think of a more telling symbol of the change, which is taking place here in these Islands. The Islands population has grown to some 2400. In the last Census, there were some 40 nationalities identified as living here.
We have been particularly pleased to welcome many in-comers from St. Helena. Saints now form a highly valued and well-integrated part of the Island community. The Islands have benefited greatly from an investment from Britain following the 1982 conflict, and help from other friends, too.
I should like to make a special mention of the assistance we have received from the Islands of Jersey and Guernsey. Thanks to this together with the income we gained from the fishing industry, and from tourism, the Islands now enjoy a range of services and infrastructure which would have been unimaginable twenty years ago.
We are particularly proud of our health and education services and our remarkably flexible and efficient internal air service. The air service is run entirely by Falkland Islanders, who carry out every task from aircraft maintenance to air traffic control and flying the aircraft. It offers an unrivalled way of seeing the Islands. I hope some of you may be able to take part in a flight while you are here.
The development of our fishing industry has been one of the most remarkable features over the last 15 or so years. The licensing of fishing in Falklands waters brings in an annual income to Government of some £20 to 24Million Sterling per annum – well over 50% of Government receipts. Direct Falkland Islander involvement in the industry has grown steadily over the years. We are in the process of a far-reaching overhaul of fisheries policy, which should increase that involvement still further. We are proud of the expertise in fisheries science and management developed by the Government’s Fisheries Department and of our record in managing our fisheries in a responsible and a sustainable manner.
Tourism has become another mainstay of the Falklands economy. The number of cruise ship visits has grown steadily in recent years, with over 30,000 cruise ship passengers now visiting the Islands annually. The Islands are becoming increasingly popular with the cruise ship operators as a centre for passenger exchanges. Land based tourism is still very small scale but ripe for further development.
But the roots of Falklands’ society lay in agriculture and, in particular, sheep ranching and wool production. This is now a much less important part of our economy relatively than it once was. More than 80% of the Islands’ population now live in Stanley.
But there is a sense in which the soul of the Falklands is still to be found in Camp, which is the name we give to anything outside of Stanley. There are still many Falkland Islanders for whom sheep ranching and Camp life provide a degree of fulfilment, which they can’t find elsewhere, tough as that life might be.
The challenge for the future is to diversify, to find new kinds of economic activity, which reduce our dependence on the volatile and unpredictable regimes claiming the Islands’ way of life. This is not easy when the local market is so small, overseas markets so busy and communications with the outside world so limited. The development of communications both by air and by sea has to be one of the Islands’ key priorities for the immediate future. Unfortunately, geography provides Argentina, who persists in its claim to the Falklands, with the opportunity to obstruct these developments. We have recently been encountering problems over clearances for charter flights from Chile, bringing in Cruise ship passengers. Our friends from Gibraltar will understand these problems only too well. Islanders are ready to engage in practical co-operation with Argentina where it is in their interests to do so. But only on the basis of full respect to the Islanders’ right to self-determination.
We have plenty of opportunity to exchange views on these and the wide range of other issues at the Conference during the next three days. I think the discussions will prove to be stimulating and rewarding. I look forward to meeting and talking to as many of you as possible over the coming week. It will be a special pleasure to welcome you to Government House for dinner on Tuesday evening. It only remains for me to formally declare the 35th British Islands and Mediterranean Regional Conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association open.
After the Governor’s speech, the School Choir sang “The Song of the Falklands,” by Rock Berntsen. They left prior to the departure of H. E. the Governor, Mr. Pearce and the Speaker, Mr. Blake.
(100X Transcription Service)
