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You can't afford to lose them, not with a small population like this one." Says a resident: "One isn't hearing talk of leaving, but you know damn well they're thinking it." An even less kind truth, of course, is that Falkland Islands life had already begun to slide away from its idyllic memories long before the Argentine invasion. The occupation, in fact, may even have served to awaken the islanders to the already present dangers. The Falklands population had continued to decline over the past decade as the uncertainty over and escalation of Argentina's claims grew. The political insecurity also served to dry up new investment. There were other signs of less satis faction with the simple life. Divorce and alcoholism became persistent social ailments: in recent years, the islands' divorce rate ran as high as 50% among new marriages.
Although Falklanders, as before, leave their doors unlocked at night, the islands experienced two murders last year, their first since a celebrated case in 1900 when a black cook successfully turned a seal-hunting rifle on two white tormentors.
So far even the most thoughtful islanders have found few answers to the problems posed by the future. Says Stuart Wallace, 27, an ex-islands councilor and sixth-generation kelper who is married to an Argentine: "I'm emotionally tied to these islands. The point has been made that Britain will defend us, but our situation isn't any better than it was. It would be marvelous to have a brave new world, even a nice new island, but I'm pessimistic that this is the place I am going to be able to raise my family in."
As a possible start, one of the islands' heroes and their most energetic councilor, Terry Peck, called his own town meeting this week in the local gym, the first since the ending of the Falklands war. Although it lasted for two hours, most of the 100 townspeople who turned out were silent as proposals were offered for increasing the islanders' local legislative control; allowing residents to buy land from the Falkland Islands Co., which controls 46% of the region; and having a greater say over the teachers and contract workers sent out from Britain. Indeed, the evening revealed long-simmering resentments against the British. "Is there anything we can do about the same colonial administration that we disliked before that is now back?" asked Donald Davidson, who runs a tourist guesthouse in Port Stanley.
There was unanimous applause, however, when Peck resolved that "we have no more to do, ever, with the Argentines." Wearing a monogrammed E.R. on his dark blue blazer, he finally appealed, "I'm disappointed at the turnout and disappointed you don't have more to offer about our future. I want to get some punch into these islands."
That determined attitude may still be a way of uniting the individualistic and defiant islanders after all. They may even get around to having that party celebrating the coming of the British and the ending of the fighting. Promises Magistrate Harold Bennett, 65, who had retired after 36 years on the job only two days before the Argentine invasion and who is now back on his old job: "The Falklands are going to have their 150th anniversary next January.