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itants of Gibraltar are an
imported
population, and that the
real
G i–
braltarians, whose descendants now
live in nearby areas in Spain, were
those Spaniards driven off the Rock
in 1704 by the British.
Britain retorts that Gibraltar has
been British for sorne 270 years -
longer than Spain held the Rock af–
ter its capture from the Moors in
1462.
And so the controversy continues.
The Blockade Begins
In September 1963, General
Franco took the Gibraltar problem
to the United Nations' Committee
of Twenty-Four, a body dealing
with decolonization issues. In Octo–
ber 1964, the committee finally en–
couraged Britain and Spain to
negotiate a settlement, deeming the
problema prívate disagreement and
a question of sovereignty rather
than of colonial oppression.
General Franco immediately be–
gan to take measures to prod Britain
into beginning such talks. Spanish
authorities imposed a gradually
tightening blockade of the Rock,
making the transit of people and
goods across the isthmus connecting
the península to the Spanish main–
land increasingly difficult. Cars and
persons crossing to and from Gi–
braltar were subjected to delaying
inspection at the customs check–
point at the Spanish border town of
La Linea. Spanish goods (except
fruit, vegetables, and fish) destined
for the Rock were denied export
ti–
censes. These measures, however,
failed to weaken Britain's resolve.
In December 1965, the United
Nations General Assembly urged
Spain and Britain to open dis–
cussions on Gibraltar, but the en–
sui ng talks broke down within
weeks when Britain made it clear
that British sovereignty over the
Rock was not negotiable.
Spain, consequently, tightened its
grip still further. In October 1966,
the road frontier at La Linea was
closed to all automobile traffic in or
out of Gibraltar. The thousands of
Spanish workers crossing every day
8
on foot to jobs in Gibraltar were still
allowed to pass, as were other pe–
destrians. And there was sti ll the
ferry operating across the bay, link–
ing the Spanish port of Algeciras
with the Rock.
In May of the following year,
Spain denied Spanish a irspace to
foreign aircraft making their ap–
proaches to Gibraltar.
One year later - in May 1968 -
the land frontier was closed to all
pedestrians except the Spanish day
workers and Gibraltarians with spe–
cial passes issued by the Spanish au–
thorities.
Then on December 8, 1968, Spain
won a resolution in the U.N. Gen–
eral Assembly recommending that
Britain begin negotiations with
Spain at once. By a 67-18 vote, with
34 abstentions, the General Assem–
bly called on Britain "to termínate
the colonial situation in Gibraltar
no later than 1 October 1969" and
"to begin without delay the negotia–
tion s with the government of
Spain."
Britain rejected the resolution,
stating that it "will not and cannot
be put into effect."
The Final Blow
A final attempt to bring Gibraltar
to its knees carne in June 1969. This
time Spanish authorities completely
sealed off the land frontier, stopping
the approximately 5,000 Spanish
day workers from crossing to Gi–
braltar by foot. (Before the begin–
ning of the restrictions in 1964, the
number had been well over 10,000).
This was to have been the final blow
to Gibraltar's economy, as one third
of its labor force was Spanish.
A few weeks later, Gibraltar's sole
remaining link with the Spanish
mainland - the Algeciras ferry -
was cut. Gibraltar, for all intents
and purposes, became an island.
Spain explained that it was sim–
ply applying to the letter the terms
of the 1713 treaty, which banned
any Iand contact between the British
colony and Spain. The treaty stated
that Gibraltar should be "yielded to
Britain ... without any open com-
munication by land with the coun–
try round about."
The frontier was now completely
barred to Spanish trade, labor, and
travel. Gibraltar was deprived of
every third worker. Hardest hit were
the building and construction trades
and the royal navy dockyards. To
compensate for its depleted labor
force, Gibraltar brought in over
2,000 workers from nearby Mo–
rocco, and many of the Gibraltar–
ians themselves took second jobs.
It
was soon found that although
the Moroccans received higher
wages than had the Spanish work–
ers, they spent much more of it in
Gibraltar, where they lived in local
dormitories during the week. The
Spanish day workers customarily
took most of their wages back to
Spain with them. Also, the Gibral–
tarians themselves - with their sec–
ond jobs - were taking home larger
paychecks than ever before.
The result of the blockade, there–
fore, was initially a degree of stimu–
lation for the local economy and a
mild boom - quite the opposite ef–
fect Spain had hoped for! In reality,
Madrid's action in closing the bor–
der produced more problems on its
own side than it did in Gibraltar,
due to rising unemployment along
the Spanish coast.
October 1969 arrived, and Britain
failed to comply with the United
Nations recommendation ofthe pre–
vious year. Spain answered by cut–
ting the last tenuous link between
the Rock and the mainland - the
telephone and telegraph lines.
Britain declared that she would
not negotiate under duress (that is ,
as long as the blockade remained in
force).
Cooling-Off Period
Then almost overnight, things be–
gan to cool. During a Spanish cabi–
net reshuffie in October 1969,
Gregorio Lopez Bravo became for–
eign minister of Spain. Lopez Bravo
shifted the red-hot Gibraltar issue
to the back burner. The blockade, to
be sure, remained in full force - as
it does to this day - but no addi–
tional pressure was applied. Spain
PLAIN TRUTH September 1974