GIBRALTAR OR CEUTA.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sta,—In your article on "Our Relations with France," which appeared in your issue of November 24th —and with the general substance of which I am in entire agreement—you suggest in the concluding paragraph that we should" be better off in every way" if we exchanged Gibraltar for Ceuta.
I am aware that some people believe that our retention of Gibraltar is based on sentiment rather than sense, as your writer asserts. But there is certainly no sentiment about the matter at the Admiralty, and one vitally important aspect of our position there which is often forgotten is that it breaks the continuity of the Spanish territorial waters on the north side of the Straits.
With Gibraltar again in Spanish hands our power to prevent an enemy ship from entering or leaving the Mediterranean would be gone. By following the coast within the three-mile limit she could pass in or out unmolested under the very eyes of our watching force in the Straits, and if followed up would only need to continue hugging the coast till nightfall to give her chasers the slip.
The value of Gibraltar to the Empire rests entirely in its bearings on maritime strategy. Any number of arguments may be brought forward as to the superior advantages of Ceuta, but the above consideration outweighs them all where maritime strategy is concerned, and its return to Spain would be a ten times worse blunder than our cession of Heligoland to Germany by Lord Salisbury.—! am, Sir, tie.,
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