8208.
No. 655. (GIBRALTAR.)
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
MY LORD,
Temple, July 29, 1870. We are honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified in Sir Frederic Rogers' letter of the 19th instant, stating that, with reference to our letter of the 18th May last, in which we stated as our opinion that subjects of the King of Italy, desiring to reside and to trade at Gibraltar, were clearly within both the letter and the spirit of the 14th Article of the Treaty of Navigation and Commerce between this country and Italy of the 6th of August 1863, he was directed by your Lordship to
forward, for our consideration, a copy of a Despatch from the Governor of Gibraltar No. 120, 27 with enclosures on the subject. And that your Lordship would be glad to know June 1870. whether there was anything in those documents to alter the opinion expressed in our letter of the 18th May.
In obedience to your Lordship's commands we have taken these documents into consideration, and have the honour to
Report
That we had not before us, when we wrote our report of the 18th May, the peculiar physical characteristics of the fortress of Gibraltar, nor the body of regulations as to residents other than military and political therein which apply to British subjects as well as aliens, and have long been in force in that fortress. It seems to us that whether the treaty of 1863 is or is not to be applied to a particular place in the dominions of either sovereign is a question of sense and of degree, and that there may well be places to which, although within the literal words of the treaty, it would be perfectly just and reasonable to refuse to apply its provisions, and from what is laid before us we should be of opinion that Gibraltar is such a place.
The Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley, K.P.
We have, &c. (Signed)
R. P. COLLIER.
J. D. COLERIDGE. TRAVERS TWISS.
O 16978-730. 95.-5/86.
• No. 642.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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