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392 INTO THE THATCHER ERA
something slightly more exciting than brooms for sweeping
down the decks. Sir Anthony Williams, Britain's Ambassador to
Buenos Aires later explained that Endurance was not only
listening to Argentina, but was gathering signals intelligence
from throughout South AmericaY Much of Cheltenham's best
material on Argentina came from the Endurance. However, the
Thule incident had also prompted GCHQ to revive its small
station on Ascension Island off the west coast of Africa, which
had only been closed down the year before. The cover for this
activity was the small settlement called TWo Boats, which nominally
belonged to Cable & Wireless Ltd. 16
In 1980 an unsuspecting Foreign Office Minister, Nicholas
Ridley, was lured by pro-Argentinean British diplomats into trying
to transfer the islands' sovereignty by stealth. The idea was that
the Falklands would quietly be given to the Argentineans, but
then leased back from them by Britain for a number of years.
Ridley tried valiantly to sell the idea of 'leaseback' to the islanders,
but they were not impressed, and wished to remain British
subjects. In December 1980 he expounded the plan to the House
of Commons, and walked into a well-prepared ambush by the
Falklands lobby. He was subjected to a wilting attack from all
sides, denouncing what they called the Foreign Office's 'shameful
schemes' . 17 Nonetheless, curious conspiracies were still going on
in Whitehall a year later. When Admiral Fieldhouse, the new
Commander in Chief of the Fleet, took over in 1981, he recalls
repeatedly asking about contingency plans for the defence of the
Falklands. The Foreign Office told him there was no need, as
'they were negotiating and could handle it' .18 More alarmingly,
HMS Endurance was scheduled to be withdrawn in late 1981
because of defence cuts. Argentina had detected that the civil
servants of Whitehall were not anxious to defend the Falklands,
but it was equally clear that a negotiated solution would never
get past the House of Commons. For the Argentineans, the only
logical answer was now invasion. The person who was most
aware of the developing crisis was the man on the spot, Sir
Anthony Williams, Britain's Ambassador in Buenos Aires. He had