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4. On 18 July, the Spanish Permanent Representative at
the United Nations handed the UN Secretary-General a note
on Gibraltar.
This was their first initiative on this
question in the UN since 1971 and the note was in significantly
stronger terms than on the previous occasion. It spoke of
a Spanish decision "to interrupt the conversations "with
Britain. Accordingly Sir J Russell was instructed to speak
to the Spanish Foreign Minister, and to explore his
intentions.
5. From Sir J Russell's report it would appear that there is
internal pressure on Sr Lopez Rodó to adopt a harder line
towards us. But the Spanish Government would be prepared to
continue the dialogue provided that we contribute some ideas
of our own. Sr Lopez Rodó has asked for these by 23 August;
HM Ambassador has suggested that the meeting of the Spanish
Cabinet on 13 September is the ultimate deadline. The
Spaniards regard the ball as being in our court. If we do
not return it, then we are on notice that they will revert
to confrontation at the UN and elsewhere.
ARGUMENT
6. It is in our interests to prevent Anglo-Spanish relations
from degenerating once more into a sterile confrontation on
the Gibraltar issue, e.g. at the United Nations (as spelled
out in FCO telegram No 247 to Madrid, paragraph 5). But in
order to do this we must now make some contribution of our
own for the Spanish Government to consider.
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