Annual report on the social and economic progress of the people of the Falkland Islands.

Date:
[1938]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on the social and economic progress of the people of the Falkland Islands. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the well-known Royalist, Lucius Cary, Lord Falkland, killed at the battle of Newbury in 1643 ; and from this the group afterwards took its English name of “ Falkland Islands ” although this name does not appear to have been given to it before 1745. The first settlement on the islands was established in 1764 by de Bougainville on behalf of the King of France, with a small colony of Acadians transferred from Nova Scotia, at Port Louis in the East Falkland Island on Berkeley Sound. In the following year Captain Byron took possession of the West Falkland Island and left a small garrison at Port Egmont on Saunders Island, which lies off and close to the north coast of the mainland. The Spaniards, ever jealous of interference by other nations in the southern seas, bought out the French from the settlement at Port Louis, which they renamed Soledad in 1766, and in 177° forcibly ejected the British from Port Egmont. This action on the part of Spain led the two countries to the verge of war. The settlement was restored, however, to Great Britain in 177L but was again in 1774 voluntarily abandoned. The Spaniards in turn abandoned their settlements early in the nineteenth century, and the entire group of islands appears for some years to have remained without formal occupation and without inhabitants until in 1829 Louis Vernet, enjoying the nominal protection of the Government of the Republic of Buenos Aires, planted a new colony at Port Louis. Vernet thought fit to seize certain vessels belonging to the United States’ fishing fleet and in 1831 his settlement suffered from an American punitive expedition. Finally, in 1833, Great Britain, who had never relaxed her claim to the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, expelled the few Argentine soldiers and colonists yet re¬ maining at Port Louis and resumed occupation, which has been maintained without break to the present day. The Colony was under the charge of Naval Officers engaged in making Admiralty surveys until 1843, in which year a Civil Administration was formed, the headquarters of Government being at Port Louis until 1844, when they were removed to Stanley, then called Port William. Prior to the opening of the Panama Canal, the Falkland Islands lay on the main sea route from Europe, through the Straits of Magellan to the west coast of South America, and in the days of sail frequently harboured vessels which had been worsted in the struggle to round Cape Horn. On 8th December, 1914* they were the scene of the naval battle in which Sir F. C. Doveton Sturdee defeated and destroyed the German Squadron under Admiral Graf von Spee, and a memorial commemorating this victory was unveiled at Stanley on 26th February, 1927. II.—GOVERNMENT. At the head of the Government of the Colony is the Governor and Commander-in-Chief, who is advised by an Executive Council consisting of five official and two unofficial members. There is also a Legislative Council composed of four official and four unofficial