MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Falklands Post-War Minister Dies
The most senior British Minister to have direct responsibility for the Falkland Islands and Latin American Affairs before and since the 1982 Conflict, Baroness Young of Farnworth, has died of cancer, aged 75, on September 6th.
She was the only other woman to serve in Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet. She was the first ever woman Leader of the House of Lords, before her appointment as Foreign Office Minister of State, taking over from Cranley Onslow responsibility for the Falkland Islands from 1983 to 1987, a crucial period in the reconstruction and redevelopment of the Islands after the Falklands War.
During that period of unregulated fishing in Falklands waters, the Foreign Office was criticised by Islanders for delaying the declaration of a conservation zone which was later to lead to unprecedented Falklands prosperity from fishing revenue. The British Government's policy was first to try to get international agreement through the United Nations with Argentina and other South American regional countries.
Islanders' "friend and staunch supporter" The Governor, Sir Rex Hunt, who welcomed her as the new Minister on her first visit in 1984, recalls that at a public meeting in Stanley there was criticism of the Foreign Office for being "fainthearted and unnecessarily negative over the fishing issue". But Sir Rex believed Islanders had a "good friend and staunch supporter" in Lady Young.
In her hectic six day visit, she visited eleven settlements and several military units, met councillors and a large cross-section of the community, and inspected progress on Mount Pleasant airport.
The Minister found out from first-hand experience the challenges of Falklands transport and fickle weather. Visiting penguin colonies on New Island, she was soaked and battered by hail and sleet in a sudden storm. Two of the helicopters she was due to use had technical problems, and she experienced a bumpy half-hour Land Rover ride, from Fox Bay West to Fox Bay East, with Shirley Knight at the wheel. Back in Britain, impressed by the Islanders' stoicism and self-reliance, she became a conscientious Minister arguing their case in Cabinet.
In other areas, she was an implacable Conservative moralist, as the Times newspaper described her, campaigning against a decline in sexual morality and more tolerant attitudes to gay sex, which earned her the nick-name "Old Tin Knickers".
Janet Young went to school in the United States during the 1939-45 war, before studying at Oxford University and entering politics in local government in Oxford. She is survived by her husband and three daughters.
Harold Briley, (MP) London
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