UNPUBLISHED CORRESPONDENCE (1)

Thirteen years ago, precisely on the 3rd March 1997, a local newspaper carried the following headline.

"DECOLONISATION, says CHIEF MINISTER"

The Chief Minister Peter Caruana then spoke of "our desire to achieve decolonisation, to shed our colonial status through a process of constitutional modernisation which, while preserving a status of political dependency with the UK, would give us a modern, non-colonial status, something along the lines of the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands."

This is what he says he has achieved today, but to our regret the British sovereignty of Gibraltar is not secured like that of the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands. Instead, he has restored to life the reversionary clause of the Treaty of Utrecht by including it in our Constitution and we are still very much a colony as far as the United Nations and the rest of the world is concerned.

Malta was denied integration with Britain in a referendum with a much larger "Yes" vote than the 30% the Gibraltarian electorate choose to give in our referendum on the Constitution, consequently our Constitution should, likewise, have been denied. Instead, it was undemocratically presented to Her Majesty for approval and rammed down our throats. A fact for which the Opposition is, also, to blame and must now regret it for more than one reason, including the loss of an excellent judge, whose only fault was to become native and fall into our natural laxity.

As far as Mr. Caruana’s achievements in the European Union are concerned, the status of Gibraltar as a separate jurisdiction has been allowed to deteriorate to insignificance, notwithstanding the costs and hassle entailed in adopting European legislation. From being virtually equal in European Law to that of any other of the original jurisdictions it has become an excluded Cinderella. Why? Because of his neglect and failure to defend our original favourable position as a separate Jurisdiction; mostly against the Spanish Government’s persistent objections to our inclusion in rightful measures with the excuse that Gibraltar is not a state. The Spanish Government usurpation of British Territorial Waters is the recent most blatant example of this neglect and failure. The European Commissioner advised of Spain’s claim almost two years ago! One should consider how much is incompetent failure and how much deliberate neglect. Consider the withdrawal of our official representative in Europe. This would never have occurred under any previous Government.

Yours sincerely,

Emilio Peire



N.B. This letter was not published. I have not asked the reason why.

A Decisive Line on Frontier Traffic Flow.

On the 27th November 1813 the Duke of Wellington said:

"You may rely on this, if you take a firm and decisive line and show your determination to go through with it, you will bring the Spanish Government to their senses, and you will put an end to their petty cabals".

Since the Spanish attitude towards Gibraltar has not changed since then, our Government should take up Wellington's stance. I believe that sooner rather than later we would put an end to the frontier traffic delays.

Spain cannot afford to be seen as a bully by the European Union. The Spanish politicians pride in their new found freedoom and democracy and their ardent desire to appear to all as a model society would force them to put an end, as Wellington said, to their petty cabals.

Spain Recognised Gibraltar's Territorial Waters in 1728!

The Spanish Establishment has always been well known as re-writers and suppressors of historical facts; most of all in relation to the Rock of Gibraltar. At the present time this is truly evident from their denial of the existence of British Territorial Waters around Gibraltar. Research in London and Madrid shows that Spain recognised Gibraltar's right to the sea around it as far back as 1728.

This fact is disclosed in a Memorandum signed by General Prim in 1844. It is contained in the Archives of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, inder the Political Section, Gibraltar, Leg. 2483. This document affirms that a Royal Order of 1728 established the boundaries recognised by Spain after the Treaty of Utrecht as follows: “ ... by sea, the limit will not exceed the appropriate waters of the land they adjoined. In effect, the limits should be: to the North the most advanced parallel of the Rock, which included all the waters pertaining to the Old Wharf; to the West, the median line of the Bay, and outside it, to the South and East, where they do not concur with Spanish waters, the Gibraltar waters should not reach further than the normal range of guns”. (This last point was for years highly debatable, but, today it is universally accepted as three miles).

At the time of General Prim the British claim to Territorial Waters around Gibraltar exceeded the above limits. The British claimed its sovereignty extended to Punta Mala as expressed in a Memorandum at the Public Records Office, referred to as Colonial Office, 91-340 (1876).

The British and Gibraltar Governments should ensure these documents are brought to the notice of European Judges, in the Court Case concerning the Territorial Waters.

ENCROACHMENT OF SOVEREIGNTY

The position of the Gibraltar House of Assembly in relation to Gibraltar Airport was set out in the following motions passed unanimously on 24 March 1986 and 17 December 1986 respectively:-

"This House affirms, that should proposals be put forward in connection with greater civilian use of the Gibraltar airport, which might in the view of the Gibraltar House of Assembly make it possible to represent or interpret such use as being an encroachment on British Sovereignty over the isthmus, such proposals would be unacceptable to this House and to the people of Gibraltar. It calls on her Majesty’s Government to note this view and make it known to the Government of the Kingdom of Spain.

This House declares that the views and wishes of the people of Gibraltar in respect of the use of the Airport are: (a) that it should continue under the exclusive control of the British and Gibraltarian authorities and (b) that any flight from or to any foreign country should be governed by the rules applicable to international flights." :-

Our Chief Minister's concessions to Spain in the Airport Agreement will ignore the House Motions by allowing flights to Spain as Spanish national flights within the Schengen Area, but with passengers to Gibraltar being checked by Spanish Officials when they are on British soil.