{"id":19829,"date":"2016-09-30T16:53:45","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T15:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jacothenorth.net\/blog\/?p=19829"},"modified":"2016-10-01T10:36:16","modified_gmt":"2016-10-01T09:36:16","slug":"time-to-show-appreciation-of-international-relationships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jacothenorth.net\/blog\/time-to-show-appreciation-of-international-relationships\/","title":{"rendered":"Time to Show Appreciation of International Relationships"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY A GUEST WRITER<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are a few countries around the world with which Wales has long-standing and profound cultural, political and social ties.\u00a0 The other Celtic countries, of course.\u00a0 The United States, where, famously, 16 of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were of Welsh descent — with particularly strong Welsh connections with Pennsylvania (aka “New Wales”) and Ohio.\u00a0 However, one of the most celebrated and enduring international relationships is with Argentina.<\/p>\n

\u2666<\/span><\/p>\n

Welsh Settlement in Argentina<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Michael D. Jones sought to establish a settlement for Welsh people free from the cultural repression and bigotry of the British state, it was the Argentine government that he approached for permission to locate Y Wladfa in Patagonia as a new country, a “little Wales beyond Wales”, where Welsh would be the language of religion, government, trade and education.\u00a0 And so it was that 153 Welsh settlers arrived in Patagonia aboard the Mimosa, a converted tea-clipper, in a bay which they named “Porth Madryn”.<\/p>\n

The context to this remarkable venture was the hostility of the British state to the language and culture of the Welsh people which had reached new heights in the mid-Victorian era.\u00a0 The official denigration and suppression of the Welsh language was legitimized and fuelled by the reports issued by the three English commissioners appointed by the Westminster parliament to head an “Inquiry into the State of Education in Wales”.\u00a0 Their Reports infamously declaimed:-<\/p>\n

“The Welsh language is a vast drawback to Wales, and a manifold barrier to the moral progress and commercial prosperity of the people.\u00a0 It is not easy to over-estimate its evil effects …”<\/em> (Read more<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\"eisteddfod_y_wladfa_1942\"<\/a>
Eisteddfod y Wladfa 1942 (click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Argentina, however, the Welsh settlers were welcomed, and the Welsh-Argentine community continues to this day centred on the towns of Gaiman, Trelew and Trevelin, where there are today at least\u00a05000 Welsh speakers.<\/p>\n

\u2666<\/span><\/p>\n

“Every Bloody Cause”<\/strong><\/p>\n

The long association between Wales and Argentina experienced tragedy in\u00a01982\u00a0during the conflict in the South Atlantic.<\/p>\n

Many Welsh-Argentines from Patagonia were conscripted into the Argentine forces occupying and defending the Falklands\/Malvinas.\u00a0 One such Welshman, Milton Rhys, was sent as a young conscript as part of the Argentinian garrison to be a radio operator on the Falklands-Malvinas.\u00a0 Se\u00f1or Rhys has given a poignant account of his experiences<\/a> during the period of Argentine rule and the subsequent British invasion. \u00a0Milton Rhys is the great-grandson of William Casnodyn Rhys, a Baptist pastor and Welsh patriot who emigrated to Patagonia from Port Talbot in the 1870s.<\/p>\n

\"milton-rhys-flying-the-flag-in-patagonia\"<\/a>
Milton Rhys flying the flag in Patagonia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course, Welshmen fought on both sides of the conflict in the South Atlantic. \u00a0Thirty-two Welsh soldiers of the British army’s “Welsh Guards” regiment were killed or severely wounded at Bluff Cove, with many suffering terrible burns, after they were left on board the ill-fated Sir Galahad logistics vessel for many hours awaiting orders to disembark \u2013 in a display of gross incompetence by the British military high command.<\/p>\n

In these experiences on both sides of that senseless conflict, Alun Rees\u2019s lines come to mind . . .<\/p>\n

“Now Taffy is a fighter
\nwhen he hears the bugle call.
\nName any war since Agincourt:
\nTaffy’s seen them all.<\/em><\/p>\n

He’s fought the wide world over,
\nhe’s given blood and bone.
\nHe’s fought for every bloody cause
\nexcept his bloody own.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2666<\/span><\/p>\n

Competing Legal Claims to the <\/strong>Falklands-Malvinas<\/strong><\/p>\n

The conflict in the South Atlantic arose out of a long-standing dispute over sovereignty of the Falklands\/Malvinas Islands between the British and Argentine states.\u00a0 Here is a brief synopsis of the competing claims.<\/p>\n

Argentine Claims<\/u><\/p>\n

It is accepted by both Argentina and Britain that first country with a good legal claim to the Falklands\/Malvinas was in fact France, which established the first colony there in\u00a01764\u00a0and gave the islands their original name after the port of St. Malo \u2013 Les \u00celes Malouines<\/em> (subsequently rendered into Spanish as the Islas Malvinas).<\/p>\n

The French subsequently agreed to transfer her claims to the Falklands\/Malvinas to the Spanish. The Argentine claim that they acquired those rights from Spain in\u00a01810\u00a0according to a principle of international law known as\u00a0uti possidetis juris<\/em>\u00a0(basically, principle of international law which provides that newly formed sovereign states should have the same borders that their preceding dependent area had before their independence).<\/p>\n

The Argentine claims were not effectively challenged by Britain until a British naval squadron arrived in\u00a01833\u00a0and caused the submission of the resident Argentine garrison under threat of force.<\/p>\n

On repeated occasions since the British invasion of the Falklands-Malvinas in\u00a01833, the Argentine government has restated its claims.<\/p>\n

In due course, the status of the Falklands\/Malvinas was recognized as a territory to be decolonized under United Nations General Assembly Resolution\u00a01514<\/a>\u00a0of 14 December\u00a01960, titled “Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples”.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, earlier this year, the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf<\/a> (CLCS), sided with Argentina accepting their maritime claims and fixing the limit of their territory at 200 to 350 miles from their coast \u2013 so awarding the seas surrounding the Falklands\/Malvinas to Argentina.<\/p>\n

\"south-american-archipelago\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Although widely denigrated or misrepresented by the British government and much of the British media, the Argentine claims to the Falklands\/Malvinas have considerable substance in law.<\/p>\n

British Claims<\/u><\/p>\n

In a nutshell, the validity of the British claims to the Falklands\/Malvinas rests on two questions:-<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Was a plaque left by the British when they abandoned a brief settlement on the Islands in 1774\u00a0sufficient to entitle the British to re-assert a claim 60 years later (in\u00a01833) and eject the existing Argentine settlement by threat of force?<\/li>\n
  2. Had France\u2019s claims, which pre-dated any of the British claims, which France had transferred to Spain, and which Argentina had assumed on its independence, been extinguished by\u00a01833?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    To any objective observer, the basis of the British legal claims to the Falklands\/Malvinas is decidedly shaky.\u00a0 When this was realised, the British government decided to switch the basis of their argument to one based on “self-determination”.<\/p>\n

    The self-determination argument has more than a touch of the Ealing Comedy “Passport to Pimlico” about it.\u00a0 How can a community of less than\u00a03000\u00a0\u2013 smaller than Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen \u2013 and utterly reliant for all practical purposes on the umbilical cord with Britain, the colonial power, some\u00a08700\u00a0miles away, assert a sovereign right of self-determination for its inhabitants?\u00a0 The Islanders are, of course, a transplanted population of British character and nationality.\u00a0 To attribute sovereign rights of self-determination to this tiny group of people is as ludicrous as astronauts claiming sovereignty over the moon.<\/p>\n

    Just as the British government and media persistently downplay and distort the basis of the Argentine claims to the Falklands\/Malvinas, so too do they brush under the carpet the fundamental weaknesses in the basis of the claims of the British state to the islands.<\/p>\n

    \u2666<\/span><\/p>\n

    Pragmatism and Self-Interest<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Ultimately, the Falklands\/Malvinas sovereignty issue is not going to find its resolution in legal arguments over fine points of international law, since the arguments of both Argentina and Britain have been amply aired and found to be riddled with weaknesses.\u00a0 The time has therefore surely come for both states to consider rationally and pragmatically what the right result should be.\u00a0 For example:<\/p>\n