Laurie Island
By 1908, Britain had come to regret its previous assessment of Laurie Island. In the Letters Patent of 1908, Britain declared a claim over the South Orkney Islands and incorporated Laurie Island into the newly created Falkland Islands Dependencies, meaning that Laurie Island would be subject to the British government in the Falklands. Argentina did not lodge a formal protest against the Letters Patent and Britain interpreted this as an acceptance of the British claim. The British position was that Bruce had given the meteorological station, but not the island itself to Argentina. The territorial dispute escalated in 1925 with the construction of an Argentinian wireless telegraph station on the island. As Argentina viewed Laurie Island as its own, the Argentine government did not request permission from the British government to operate the station, and for the first time, Argentina made an outright declaration that it had sovereignty over the island. Britain saw the possibility of strategically relinquishing the South Orkney Islands to Argentina in order to strengthen diplomatic relations or to secure the Falkland Islands themselves. The Argentine occupation of Laurie Island posed a problem for this strategy, as it weakened Britain's claim to the South Orkneys. Before a British cession of the South Orkney Islands could exert any leverage, Britain would have to solidify its own claim over the territory.