I feel that the House should not necessarily follow the proposed recess dates. It is easy to suggest that the House should rise later in the year, possibly having a debate on Christmas Eve, but I favour a return a little earlier next year. We could discuss one matter which is not related, as far as I am aware, to the various issues already debated. Many cogent reasons have been advanced why the House should discuss this and that, the conduct of various Ministers, steel, and the Vietnamese refugees, who were referred to by my hon. Friend the Member for Burton (Mr. Lawrence).

I express to my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House my concern about the position of the Falkland Islands dependencies, especially the action that the House may take on a matter that I shall reveal shortly. In the recent past the House has from time to time debated the Falkland Islands. Lord Shackleton produced an excellent report which made a number of recommendations—which the Government of the day should have considered—on securing the future of the islands.

The report was published several years ago, but little or no apparent action has been taken on its recommendations. Some of them, it is true, would have been costly to the public exchequer. Others would not have been costly but were considered to be a little daring bearing in mind relationships with the neighbouring Power, the Argentine.

The reason why nothing was done about most of the recommendations was probably that to venture too far along the road of the Shackleton recommendations, and once again to establish, without doubt, in that part of the world that the Falkland Islands are British and intend to remain so, would have caused diplomatic difficulties with the Argentine. Some of the explorations put in hand by Lord Shackleton have proved that there are extremely valuable reserves of raw materials, minerals and oil in the waters surrounding the Falkland Islands dependencies.

I should be glad to return a day or two early. By then there would be an opportunity for my right hon. Friend to send a copy of today's Hansard to my right hon. and noble Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, giving him the gist of the remarks made about the islands. If we returned a day or two early, my right hon. and noble Friend would, by then, have formed some conclusion on any action that might be taken.

Successive Governments have been contemplating the Shackleton report in a passive and inactive way for five or six years. In view of the wonderful achievements of my right hon. and noble Friend in Zimbabwe, it is possible that he would show similar initiative over the Falkland Islands dependencies.

We have had previous opportunities of putting questions to my right hon. Friend the Lord Privy Seal on the Falkland Islands. I have tabled a number of questions during the past few weeks, following the visit of my hon. Friend the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office to South America, especially the Argentine, in November. He had discussions with the Argentine Government. Questions were put to him in the House about how the discussions touched on the future of the Falkland Islands, especially on how they related to the position in the South Thule dependency where there has been a Falkland occupation depot and camp for two or three years. In his reply, my hon. Friend did not indicate that the matter had been discussed. In a subsequent reply, he said that the Argentine Government had been left in no doubt about the views of Her Majesty's Government.

If we were to return a day or two early in 1980, I should raise this issue, because I am not clear about the Government's views. The previous Government made quite clear their displeasure about the position and indicated that it should not continue. However, the new Government—of whom I am happy to be a supporting member—have made no such forthright statement. I hope that if we return early we shall have a substantive debate. By then, we would have received the benefit of the Lord Privy Seal seeking advice from his office. Do the Government intend to deal with the matter directly and end the illegal occupation of South Thule in the Falkland Islands, by raising the matter either at the International Court at The Hague or at the United Nations? That is why I wish the House to return a day or two early.