GIBRALTAR
Rock of Discord
By SIR PHILIP DE ZULUETA ONE day in 1823 a former President of the Cortes de Cadiz slipped into Gibraltar. Harried and exiled, by a reactionary monarch for his liberal views, he was making for a new life in England. This ancestor of mine was only one of many Spaniards to whom the Rock has been an asylum. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in particular hundreds had reason to bless it. So, too, did and do the mass of the inhabitants of the south of Spain for whom Gibraltar can be either a shopping centre, a source of employment, an entry port for tourists, or the home of a useful polo team. But to the Nationalist Spaniard, Gibraltar is an offence, a standing reminder of Spain's days of weakness.
The problem of the Rock has troubled Anglo.- Spanish relations fitfully since 1704 and more acutely since the last war. With a stronger Spain, a weaker Britain and an anti-colonial world climate, Gibraltar seems to flaunt its uncom- promising bulk more defiantly than ever. As ancient prejudices die and the Costa Brava be- comes the Florida for the Midlands, Gibraltar seems fated to be the rock on which Anglo- Spanish friendship will make or break. So even Gibraltar's apes must rejoice that Sefior Castiella, the Spanish Foreign Minister, is to begin talks about Gibraltar in London next Wednesday.
Britain's legal right to Gibraltar can scarcely be questioned, nor do the Spaniards themselves seriously challenge it. Founded on conquest, sanc- tified by treaty, confirmed by time and approved by the inhabitants, our title to the Rock is better than that of the Americans to the United States. Gibraltar has now been British for 260 years, longer than it lived under the Spanish crown after the defeat of the Moors. Article X of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1704 confirmed the cession of the Rock, and two Spanish attempts to wrest it back again by force failed during the eighteenth century. The Spanish population did not stay to live under the Union Jack and only a handful of the 25,000 modern Gibraltarians are of Spanish stock. The rest have diverse,. if mostly Mediterranean, origins, the majority being de- scendants of Genoese refugees from Napoleon. A close-knit community of traders with as much self-administration as they want and a minimum of taxes, they evince- an unusual, albeit gratify- ing, desire to remain British. But although they do not look for greater independence, they do seek an end to the restrictions which Spain has progressively imposed since 1964 on movement by land between Gibraltar and Spain. These re- strictions have made many Gibraltarians living in Campomento and other areas near by alter their whole pattern of life, since they can no longer cross the frontier daily. Many, indeed, have had to leave their homes.
The British government has made brave pledges of support for Gibraltar, and talks of re- orienting its economic life. Some money has been given to Gibraltar and certain measures, such as moving naval stores from Malta, taken to give more employment in government. But although reorientation might be possible, it will be neither easy nor painless; it will almost cer- tainly involve a permanent subsidy from London, whether paid openly or concealed by maintain- ing an unnecessarily large military base.
The Spanish case is at once sentimental, legalistic and practical. Extreme nationalists in
Madrid, still using the jargon of the 'thirties, pro- claim Spain's right to her sacred soil. The Rock is a romantic eminence and the Spaniards are as sentimental as the British about such symbols. The Spanish government has not followed its right wing all the way, but complains of manifold British violations of the Treaty of Utrecht and of the deleterious effects on the Spanish excise of smuggling from Gibraltar.
The heart of the Spanish case lies in two parts of Article X of the Treaty of Utrecht. The first is an obscure passage which appears to lay down that communication between Spain and Gibral- tar by land shall only be open for the purchase -of necessaries for the garrison, the inhabitants and ships in the harbour. This is the Spanish justification for the frontier restrictions. The second is at the end of the article, which gives Spain first refusal if Britain ever grants, sells 'or by any means alienates' Gibraltar. The Spanish government maintains that the so-called 'Lansdowne Constitution' of 1964 did not con- form to this proviso. The 1964 Constitution was a belated attempt to forestall embarrassment for Britain in the United Nations committee of twenty-four and gave to the colony two of the Colonial Office's favourite panaceas in the shape of a Legislative Council and a Chief Minister. Gibraltarians remain British subjects and citi- zens of the United Kingdom and Colonies, and the Governor deals with external affairs, defence, and internal security, as the Queen's representa- tive. However, passports issued in Gibraltar were somewhat tactlessly stamped as issued 'on behalf of the Government of Gibraltar.' This caused great offence to Spain, which now refuses to accept such passports as valid.
The argument about smuggling is somewhat confused. Excise duties in Gibraltar are low— some 10 per cent of the Spanish level—and Spain has a number of import restrictions. The temp- tation to smuggle highly-excised goods like tobacco or spirits is considerable and it has certainly not always been resisted either by Gibraltarians or by visiting Spaniards.
In all this tangled situation one thing is clear. It will be a tragedy if the forthcoming talks alo not produce a solution. The Labour government has a bad record in recent dealings with Spain. Now it has made some amends by holding talks in London. It is to be hoped that the ghosts of the Spanish Civil War, which still steem to haunt the Labour party, will not prevent a sensible outcome. The possibilities of Anglo-Spanish friendship and trade could be better than ever before.
Any solution for Gibraltar will have to take account of patriotic feelings on both sides, of the attitude of the Gibraltarians and of economic reality. Far the best long-term hope for the Rock is that its people should be enabled to play a full part in developing the hinterland in southern Spain; this would benefit Spain as well. The British base in Gibraltar, with its miles of tunnels in the Rock defensible even in this nuclear age, is still felt to have some value, and the Spanish government, which has granted bases to the United States, will not object to this. Taking the Treaty of Utrecht as a basis, to which both sides could revert if the new regime failed, surely a formula can be found. To satisfy Spanish sentiment, the British government could agree to reaffirm Spain's residual rights to Gibraltar and concede that Britain has a perpetual if sovereign lease. As to the regime in the colony, any change in the status quo should be accepted as possible only after Anglo-Spanish agree- ment. Finally, the smuggling. The only way to deal with this is by minimising the tempta- tion. This could to a large extent be achieved if the excise duties in Gibraltar were kept in line with those current in Spain. The fresh revenue produced would help to keep other taxes in Gibraltar low and to improve its amenities. In return for these two concessions, the Spaniards should make movement over the frontier free for Gibraltarians and others, abandon the campaign of vilification and accept wholeheartedly that Spain and Gibraltar will live together to their mutual benefit. Then, indeed, the famous monkeys on the Rock will be able to look down happy and secure at the olive-skinned policemen in London-blue uniform.
'Now that's more like it!'
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