The first luncheon of the 90th anniversary of the University Women's Club had a guest of honour last Tuesday: outgoing (in every sense of the word) British Ambassador Kirsty Hayes, whose subject was an even older anniversary – 200 years of relationship between Britain and Argentina.
More specifically, the Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation signed in this city between the United Kingdom and the United Provinces of the River Plate on February 2, 1825 (which happens to be the envoy’s birthday although not the year of her birth) as the first foreign recognition of Argentine independence.
The friendship ranged far beyond the commerce and navigation, although plenty to report there. Almost from the start Britain was both building up Argentine infrastructure and opening up the country to the world – Argentina’s railway network is a British creation while no less than 84 of its cattle today correspond to British breeds. It would be difficult to find two more complementary economies in the world, Hayes said – this both goes far towards explaining the past partnership and gives her optimism for the future now that Argentina is finally moving in the direction of free trade.
But the close relationship also extends to education, culture, science and sports among other fields. Quite apart from the number of British schools established here, Hayes is proud of the 600 Chevening scholarships awarded to local students for university studies in the UK. Cultural relationships stretch from the friendship between Virginia Woolf and Victoria Ocampo to Martina ‘Tini’ Stoessel teaming up with Coldplay. Scientific contact starts with Charles Darwin off these shores in 1832 and includes Cecilia Grierson, Argentina’s first female doctor (portrayed on every 2,000-peso banknote). It was Scotland’s Alexander Watson Hutton who brought football to Argentina, boasted the Aberdeen-born ambassador, although the pupil has since surpassed the master.
No light without shadow and certain South Atlantic islands (this journalist does not recall the ambassador giving them either of their names) have been a pebble in the shoe over the years, even leading to war. But since she started her mission here in 2021, Hayes has seen even this conflict to be an occasion of human warmth – the joint humanitarian effort of the two countries to identify and give final rest to the war dead, as well as a warm meeting between veterans of the two sides on the 40th anniversary of the South Atlantic war in 2022.
The talk of the departing ambassador (who leaves in midyear) was followed by a long and lively question session, in which such personal passions as gender issues and horses were not absent.
Comments