MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

MP who aborted Argentine invasion visit

A former Member of Parliament, Sir Frederic Bennett, who criticised what he regarded as the complacency of the British Embassy in Buenos Aires on the eve of the Argentina's invasion of the Falkland Islands, has died aged 83.

Sir Frederic, an MP for 36 years from 1951 to 1987, was an acknowledged expert on South American countries and a distinguished barrister.

Having been invited to visit Argentina and Chile, he flew into Santiago just two days before the April 2nd invasion.

There he was the guest of the British Ambassador, who advised him to finish his engagements in Chile, then to fly straight back to Britain, abandoning his visit to Buenos Aires where he was due to make a speech next day. The Ambassador told him "We shall be at war by then". Sir Frederic asked: "What war is that?", and the diplomat told him: "The Argentines are on the way to invade the Falklands".

Sir Frederic immediately telephoned the British Ambassador in Buenos Aires, AnthonyWilliams, explaining why it would be imprudent for him to make the visit.

Williams allegedly asked: "What war?" and suggested it would cause offence to the Argentines if he cancelled his visit.

He was bemused by these mixed signals but accepted Anthony Williams' reassurance. But just before leaving for the airport at 0630, he received a second call from Williams saying: "I'm sorry, but I don't think you should come over today. It appears, after all, that we are at war with Argentina. They have just begun invading the Falklands".

This may have been an unfair assessment of the British Embassy's lack of intelligence by then, because it is now known that warning telegrams were being sent to the Foreign Office in London by this late stage, in contrast to the complacency Anthony Williams had shown several weeks previously when I spoke to him and he told me: "Our relations with Argentina have never been better".

Sir Frederic, who was seriously wounded in 1941 conducting secret experiments as a Royal Artillery officer, was a fierce critic of the Soviet Union and Warsaw during the Cold War, arguing for stronger NATO forces and more powerful nuclear weapons. Having worked as a barrister in Southern Rhodesia, he also prophetically warned that, almost without exception, every African country that achieved independence on the principle of one-man-one-vote would succumb to authoritarian rule. Sir Frederic, who received honours from Greece, Pakistan, Jordan and Turkey, leaves a widow but no children.

Harold Briley, London