From Marie Peralta Sir: It is preposterous to suggest that
Gibraltar or any colony — past, present or future — can be treated in the same way as title deeds on a Monopoly board. Britain has had her fair share of disasters with former colonies. Yet while not hesitating to defend the Falkland Islanders from the Argentinians (one can only speculate that this was because of the more 'pure' British lineage of these people), she has shirked her duty in turn to Cyprus and Hong Kong, and continues not to stand up to Spain's unashamedly bullying tactics with regard to Gibraltar.
The right of Gibraltarians to self-determination is an inalienable one which we will never give up. To compare the Gibraltar situation with Calais is naive in the extreme. To analyse the situation in Ceuta and Melilla in purely property terms is misleading your readership. Those territories legally became part of mainland Spain in order that Spain and its former colonies could avoid the present situation. They were assumed in this way not because they were particularly valuable or useful territories, but because the people living there were Spanish and wished to remain so. Had they not wished this, they would have returned to Morocco long ago. Anyone familiar with these territories, will have realised that the inhabitants are themselves ethnically Spanish, not Moroccan. The truth is therefore that they will never wish to become Moroccan because they are not, nor ever have been, Moroccan.
So with Gibraltar: although the inhabitants consist of a mêlée of many ethnic and religious backgrounds, these have been forged under the British, not Spanish, flag over the last 300 years. Whatever the ethnic background of its inhabitants, it is not Spanish. It is a fusion of all things that make us Gibraltarians.
Marie Peralta
London WC1
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