TNAG-0378-FCO40-424-UK-policy-on-the-future-of-Hong-Kong-after-1997-1973 — Page 18

SECRET

Advantages of the eventual Solution provoseâ

12. A settlement of the Gibraltar dispute with Spain is

desirable in the interests of Western Europe as a whole. It would

facilitate defence, trade and other cooperation between us.

The Spaniards have often told us that they can make greater

concessions to achieve such a settlement before Franco dies

than later. The Gibraltarians, at the same time, would, if a

settlement were agreed on the lines I advocate, be able to await

the liberalisation of Spain before coming under Spanish

administration. If it eventually led to the transfer to Spain

of administrative responsibility for Gibraltar (at the express

wish of the Gibraltarians) it would remove a growing financial

burden, at present running at £2.5 million p.a., from the

British taxpayer and a colony whose increasingly military

Trades Unionists have the potential of serious trouble-making

- for MG. It must ultimately be in the interests of the

Gibraltarians to integrate themselves in the society around

them rather than to stand indefinite siege, growing more and

more to be an anomaly in Europe.

13. In the shorter terms, the removal of the Spanish restrictions

would have valuable economic benefits for the Gibraltarians

and would enable them to play an important part in the

development of the economic potential of the Campo area as a

whole. The dismantling of restrictions on travel to and from

Spain would be of considerable psychological and physical

benefit to them. And a settlement based on only token

/sovereignty

SECRET