THE CHINA MAIL, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1954.
GIBRALTAR HAS BEEN OT BRITISH LONGER THAN
IT WAS EVER SPANISH
G
By Peter Lovegrove
IBRALTAR, that rocky "entry-box" guarding the narrow seaway between Moors wore back in posses- Europe and Africa where sion 24 years Inter, and it the Mediterranean and the was not until the end of the Atlantic meet, which Her
fifteenth century that Majesty the Queen is Lo
Spain regained control. visit on May 10, will com- under plete its 250th year the British Crown on July 24.
It has recently been the target for threats by General Franco and hysterical de- monstrations of nationalism
by Spanish youths in Madrid
and other cities, but in actual fact this naval base of vital srategic importance has been British territory longer than it ever Was Spanish.
Known to the Greeks as the one of Kulpe, it was Pillars of Hereults of anti- quity, and the Phoenicians were the fir-t to found
settlement there,
atruck back to such offeci that all the "floating batteries" 'were blown up or burned out and the whole offensive collapseit
siege in 1726,,again made disastrously. a "l" renunciation of their claims in 1729, and fifty years luter launched, with the help of the French, their most ambitious effort to reduce the fortress.
This was Spain's lost throw, and the 1788. Peace of Versalles confirmed, for the third time, Britain's right of possession of the historic rock. Soon after, Spain and Britpin were allied against Napoleon, and Gibraltar This was Gibraltar's greatest censed to be an issue, between nations until recent lege, the small British garrison the two holding out indomitably against years. vastly superior forces for three years and seven months. The Chief was the dagged and ex- perienced
In 1704 it fell once more, this time to the combined British and Dutch forces
Rooke after under Admiral Sir George three-day siege. The War of the Spanish Succession was Governor and Commander-in- are now more than 10 miles of
A
then in progress, with Bri- tain supporting the claim
In World Wor
One, when Spain remained neutral,--there
70-year-old manpower
had
were
Most Loyal
subterranean corridors and ott, and he only
strengthened against a possible attack. but of the Archduke Charles of
though men under his command. There Franen.
co-operating Austria to the throne of
were tour British Infantry with the Axis PowerS
on the prudently rên Spain, and the original aim realments the 12th of Foot (the Russian front,
the Suffolks). f Rooke's expedition had
1st frained from 39th (the
commiting him- Dorsets), the 58th (2nd Essex)
self against the Allies, heen to seize Barcelona. and the 38th (2nd Northants). When this was found to be all of whom wear the ensile of loyal to the Archduke's Gibraltar on thelt cap badges to
their Rooke
at commemorate
gallantry ruuse,
struck Gibraltar instead and, ap v lunteers,
and endurance--the Manchester
Gibraltar today
civil дая Hanoverian. three Im strategic preciating
23,000, of Marines population of some egments, a hory ot
mixed Mediterranean and value, promptly huisted the 424 Get Ma
Spanish origin who count amoun Queen
Elizabeth's most loyal subjects. Some 12,000 Spanish workmen cross the neutral zone every day to work for the British authorities.
The Rock of Gibraltar, photographed from the air.
It was un important harbour under the Carthaginians; it be- came the first Roman colony
the eighth century
seized
In
Royal Standard of Anne.
Queen
the
When the war ended, territory-it is only 3 miles in length,
terms
Carler
Under
0
NEW
+
Constitution
promulgated by 1940. ine Governor is nasisted by a Legis- lative Couneli and an Executive Council. The Governor presides the Legislative Council, over
which has three ex-officio mem- bers, five elected by the popular vote of the Rock's Inhabitants, and two nominated members (of whom both may, and one must be unafela!).
A free port, with an extensive shipping trade and tourist trame, it derives most of its revenue from port ducs, and duties on variety of commodities. It has virtually no home production, und depends on Spain for it fresh food and on rain storage for drinking water.
There have been two previous Royal visits by King Edward VII in 1993 and King George V
in 1012. George VI hart also n visit for 1951, but planned was prevented by Mness.
No Intention
is returned to Spain, he
yard and other military installa-
in
no
And
B
'LET'S GET OUT OF SUEZ' -Says Nye
Cummings
"We must invite Senor Bevan to Gibraltar without delay"
DON MORE
London Express Service
IDDON'S DIARY
PUSH-BUTTON
FOR MRS AMERICA
New York, Tuesday.
money
people Bre total of $2,500,000,000 tied up in because In surplus foodstuffs, and another now $3,000,000,000 in loans to farm-
ers on crops,
And it daren't give the stuff, or rather foodstust, away.
He adds that
worried IG business is obviously getting
to pick up out to save the New order
you have to bend, World for prosperity by electronica, autronics, hydromatics, and several American billion dollars of expendi whether you see any
ture.
kit-
is
A barometer
all the wealth and
success
Pedigree For 18 Pence
By J. W. Taylor
THEY are expecting an-
THEY
other busy year at Somerset House, dealing
with the hundreds of en- quiries, aome by post, others personally, from Americans anxious to trace their British ancestry.
Remarkable research re- · aults are, often achieved by the Somerset House experta, sometimes on the flimsiest of clues, although there are seems times when defeat imminent from the start;
Typical is the request from an American called Smith who to establish the
818
genealogical details of a grand- father born "somewhere in the Midlands, England, round about 1805," A common name calls for essential data as the precise date and place of birth; less is needed for a rarer name.
Cost of the search can be modest or very costly, accord- A ing to the work: Involved. sifting of records
covering a
of five years at Somerest se costs 13. Od, if made in
person, and 3s. Dd. If consueted through the post, in which caso the applicant must take up a cartiică copy of an entry at an additional charge of 3s. 9d. An extensive search in person costs 30s. for six consecutive hours.
COLLEGE OF ARMS
• The Society of Genealogists, a non-profit making concern, is also available for additional The help at appropriate fees. College of Arms, too, will help at charges that can be high, for the fees expected for private genealogists are appropriate to the high professional skill or the researchers engaged. Л long
and protracted search. much of it perhaps involving
much
wasted time on fruitless enquiries, can mean the expenditure of hundreds, perhaps thousands of pounds, before before a pedigree can Anally be established. The
College E concerns itself only with
milim families who boast a crest or coat of arms,
The experts do not agree that snobbery has made Americans so ancestor-conscious; they say.. cames of a very natural pride in one's origin. Somerset House have the impression, however, that sodal-climbing may have but something to do with it, admit that with many there are for the very practical reasons quest.
Some
seek
to establish hereditary right to an estate. There are those who are Latter Day Saint devotees wishing to baptise their ancestors into their faith by proxy. Somerset House records each month regularly swell the posthumous roll of This conflict
this sect by about 20 a month, Then there are Americans who can trace their descent to the of nearly SEE that the United States Mayflower, and have through News, which has great in-these researches been able to go fluenec, злуд that. Sir Miles back in their ancestory to the Thomas and all Britons "were" Middle Ages in England. proud of the Comet, What does
mean-“were"'?
that Anyway, it is plain
pre- industry
Despite I don't know pared to bend.
of of the power
this country. 1 American
but if sometimes think there is a Jurk- maguzines, do you will notice that ing inferiority complex in 'some East side, West side. Bil you they
on the are carrying more ad- Americans. Such stress around the town there are ex verlising than ever before in word "imported." such pride in hibitions
by dominated
the their history. Newspapers are
"European styling." push-button. The latest In
printing a record volume of
Brilish The Navy was represented by
motor-boats,
with motor-cars,
jet a 80-gun ship, three frigates and
During his recent compaign chens,
airliners rather irked the aviation and household equip- advertising too. one sloop of war, and at the
industry and provoked opposition among Congressmen. British outset there were less than five co has said that if Gibraltar ment are on display near the
will sidewalks of New York.
bad luck lately with the same in the whole herinn penin
months' supplies of basle foods, lease back to Britain the dock
reinforcements Included
I could not help thinking as
jet gave Drew Pearson and other three the 71st of Fout (Highland tions. But there is sua; and it was occupied
inten-looked at the "Kitchen of to-
of this advertising is columnists an opportunity to say MUCH [ quarters
mile EL
in Light Infantry), the 97th
MUCE (2nd tion in Whitehall to countenance morrow brought to you today by the motor-cur by the Goths after the fall
Arms. that Americans were right in West Kenta) und a
in the territorial breadth, and 1,396 feet high Royal of the Roman Empire.
any change
the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel: The motor-car industry is the refusing to grant certidentes, midshipmon who was status of Gibraltar.
"But can you bell an egg?"
borometer of the American at its highest point was rotund The
Franco's
Impertinent warning Ovens, grills, ranges appear- economy that's why I write Berbers and the Araba ceded to Britain under the later to become William IV.
unequivocal
The Franco-Iberian investing of the "resentment" the Queen's ed, disappeared, slid sideways, about 11 a good deal. It cm- it when they in- most
visit will cause In Spain has backwards and forwards at the ploys one out of every seven
the pressure of a lever. There was American vaded Spain: they
called under the Treaty of Utrecht forces tried a variety of tactics:
wage-carners long-range blockade and hard- been firmly rejected by This
not the treaty 1713,
slightest resemblanco provides Foreign Office, ruck the
out Gebel el Tarik of
pressed slege; continuous bom-
between the old kitchen stove every 14 dollars bardments by land and power- (Mount Tarik) after
fd seaborne attacks. Their January 25, Mr Selwyn Lloyd and the gleaming white labora- spend. name of their leader, and "The Catholic King does determined venture this eventually got deform hereby
was stated that Mr Eden had in- tory on show before the gaping for himself, his pressed by no less than 40,000 formed the Spanish Ambassador ed into Gibraltar.
47 ships of the that he was heirs and successors
not prepared viek troops, 200 gu
guns, 47 The Spaniards first come to the Crown of Great Bri- line, a multitude of mall vessels discuss the Queen's visit to any and landing craft made of one of her territories and that into the
picture in 1809 tain the full and entire pro- hinged planks, and tea formid- in no circumstances could he when Ferdinand II of priety of the Town and able but unwieldy "Boating adopt a representation on such Castile captured the Moor- Castle of Gibraltar, to balterles," each carrying from a tople from any foreign Power. ish castle-fortress, but the, gether with the Fort, forti- 10 to 20 guns with crews of 250 And Mr Lloyd added that Bri-
to 700 men,
tain would take a serious view deations and forts belong-
The garrison suffered severely if any hostile demonstrations ing thereto. And he gives and great material damage was were organised during up the said propriety to be caused, but the fortress guns Queen's visit. held and enjoyed absolutely with all manner of right for ever without any exception whatso- impediment
» Bayer's « TONIC
the
states:
or ever.
It was
not long before the Spaniards dishonoured their signature. They made an attack on the Rock in 1720, undertook a fruitless
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KOWLOON
most
In the House of Commons on
The Port Serjonn! marching away after
the Water Gale of the fortress at Gibraltar - part of the weekly caremony of the Köym. The custom dates back to the daya of the Great Blege of 1779+17880
and was revived Fini: 193: ELA PAR
to
the
women.
one
and
Americans
Life magazine asks; "Did the jot age come too soon?", though it answers "No, even though the British are going through a painful time ironing out the famed. Comet's bugs,"
Other giant industries-steel,
CHURCH RECORDS on the
Somerset House Everything, appears, is to oll, rubber-depend
records in be automatic, and maybe motor-car. When the motor-car
the Strand, London, are chiefly coughs the United atomic, in the mechanical world industry
confined to births, marriages of the future. Perhaps the States is sick.
and deaths In England and housewife is becoming super- In the hope that the cough
Wales since 1837; Scottish and I will not Become Influenza or
Irish records are filed in Edin- pneumonia, the motor сак
burgh and Dublin. They also
records Include magnates
raiding
kept
by treasure chests to
sell their which incenses the high-tariff them going back to the middle churches prior to 1837, some of products,
duous.
The Motorama
are
their
Perhaps its this
crowd.
conflict
THERE was everything In the brought to you today" except thousands of millions "into also not being given a fair Clues
was
1954 cars are on exhibition.
drastic tariff reduction.
of the 18th century; Census I find it strange that so many "Kitchen of tomorrow
Complaints from British show-returns since 1861, and military busincammen, so ready to pour men that our shows and films are records for about two centuries. tood. A demonstrator said this "souped-up" selling, are so wary chance don't,
sometimes take the however, seem searchers to the Somerset House an oversight, and gulded about reducing tariffs, Henry valid to me.
Probate
the me to the "Motorama" (thest Ford is an exception, but most
Registry; to
over diocesan repositories strange new words) where the big executives shy away from
If American exhibliora believe the country; to mediaeval re- our pictures will make money cords and land deeds housed at for them they will put them on. the Public Record: Offico In Dollar-carning capacity is the Chancery Lane, finally to parish one test.
churches throughout the country detalls of births, and denihs from registration was or that the "Buy American" Sherek hopes for a triumph with 1830, when "No depression is programme will be waived. T. S. Ellot's Tho Confidential introduced by law, to 1837.
called on me The Society of Genealogists
Impressive? Very. The auto- mobile Industry, stung by talk
of
The report of the President's a recession, is obviously, commission on trade policy has betting on boom. General' been received frigidly here, Motors president Harlow Curtice There's hardly a chance that Our plays have had 4 poor containing is wagering $1,000,000,000 on American tariffs will be slashed Broadway season, "but expansion.
He says:
in my vision."
Young cautious,
about
Henry Ford, more ta slightly uneasy. rising unemployment, but he also la spending several hundred millions on now models and selling them to the public.
There is something ironical about
the America
about a
Standing fast
Henry
marriages
apri Sherek
said he was delighted at not only fiave an index, of tho advance bookings. Alec Guin- Dorish registers covoring
whole
country, but, blher ness, Ina Claire, Joan Green- wood, and Claude Rains should research olds such On tho make "The Clerk" a bil, }
passenger lists of early emigrant ship.
CTUALLY.
American tariffa wore, scrapped entire- y.. I don't think the overall Hollywood actor Robert Ryan volume of US. business would is
memorable in: "Coriolanui.”
be affected much, Small sections, He has been wasted in reveral સપના 右臂
the watch Industry, trashy lms, would possibly be hurt.
customer's WUITY
slump,
strangest One of the
alghts of 1954 is a prosperous
Yet most of Congress, and
allizen having his super car particularly the Republican
equipped with ampliñers so members, aro standing fast
sion cati carry passengers,
Farewell party
that his forecast of a depres against tariff reform. The best HALF of Broadway turned
to all his we can hope for is another
out for the party for modest
expansion of the re- London' Slogy Scealer, given by ciprocal trade programme,
Earl Wilson.” : I “saw" Dolores. Special interests here still have Gray, Sir Cedric Hardwleke, Eva Gabor, vast influence. There are only Gloria Swanson,
Dorsey; Robert, 20.000,000 people in agriculture Tonimy out of a population of 160,000 Lewis, Lauren Bacalf. HEAR mon almost every 000, yet one whisper from the Sessler, who returns to I day, while ordering meals farmers has Washington turning on today, has been feted
Humorist's view
which cost £2 or Ed, asking, handsprings, the walter: "Do you think the
recession is going to get workethe farmer has been pan
The humorini, H. 1. Phillips per polled, supported, and subsidised - for years. His high *The well-heeled: Ameri- prices ars, propped by the Cours Slump when he ernment, which means the tax- put poodle Dalt
has
from here to Hollywood
..
Scotland's Maty, Garden, says; "Marriage is all right for soniv opora singers, but if you have a great career why do you want a
Martini;, and make the French . Tas result is that the, Glove / manitrafing You Obey
through
the ment hargy lit of food on a lend awaited Her hands**: 900,000,000,0g af butter Baggy author-compon
POCKET CARTOON
| by OSBERT LANCASTER