§ A series of talks under the chairmanship of Lord Shepherd, Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, have taken place during the past week with representatives of the Government of Gilbraltar, comprising the Governor (Admiral of the Fleet Sir Varyl Begg), the Chief Minister (Major R. J. Peliza), the Gibraltar Ministers for Labour and Social Security (Mr. M. Xiberras) and for Information. Port, Trade and Industries (Major A. J. Gache) and the Financial and Development Secretary (Mr. E. H. Davis). The Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary and the Minister of Overseas Development also had talks with the delegation, and during their visit the Governor and Chief Minister, accompanied by Lord Shepherd, were received by the Prime Minister.
§ In the course of these talks Gibraltar Ministers put before British Ministers Gibraltar's development proposals for the next three years, and repeated and made clear their views on a variety of other subjects, which included Gibraltar's relations with Britain, citizenship, Anglo-Spanish relations.
§ The Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary took note of the views expressed by Gibraltar Ministers and reaffirmed Her Majesty's Government's assurances to the people of Gibraltar in the Preamble to the Order-in-Council embodying the 1969 Gibraltar Constitution. He undertook to consider the resolution on citizenship recently adopted by the Gibraltar House of Assembly, while holding out no prospect at this time that amendments to United Kingdom legislation concerned would be possible. 25 The Gibraltar Ministers accepted that, in accordance with previous assurances by Her Majesty's Government there are in practice no obstacles in the way of Gibraltarians who wish to do so coming to the United Kingdom under the Commonwealth Immigrants Act.
§ The Gibraltar representatives tabled a comprehensive Development Programme for the three years 1970–1973 drawn up with the object of counteracting the economic difficulties resulting from the Spanish restrictions and in the light of the recent report of the Manpower Mission (Lords Beeching and Delacourt-Smith). After full discussion it was agreed that Her Majesty's Government would assist the Gibraltar Government to carry out their Development Programme in the following ways.
§ The British Government will support Gibraltar's proposals for about a further 750 housing units in addition to the current housing programme. The Gibraltar Government have expresses particular satisfaction that the British Defence Secretary is making available for this purpose, without charge to Gibraltar, the greater part of Viaduct Reclamation site which is the property of his Ministry.
§ The British Government will finance the immediate construction of a hostel for temporary immigrant labour which is vital to Gibraltar at this time.
§ Discussions took place on the Gibraltar Government's proposals to turn to a system of comprehensive secondary education, and the British Government will support this, subject to further details becoming available.
§ Money will be provided for a Schools Sports Centre, for additional medical facilities and for port development. The British Government will also assist appropriate schemes for tourist development. These will include a number of amenities which will be available for the people of Gibraltar as well.
§ To achieve this development programme the Government of Gibraltar have asked for expert advice in a number of fields and the British Government will make this available under Technical Assistance arrangements.
§ The cost of British support for this programme in the next three years is expected to be about £4 million exclusive of Technical Assistanc.
§ The Gibraltar Ministers indicated that owing to Gibraltar's present difficulties a deficit on the ordinary Budget was forecast for 1970 and that they had in mind to introduce into the House of Assembly measures to increase revenue from local sources in order to help bridge this gap. In these circumstances Her Majesty's Government are willing to assist Gibraltar to meet special expenditure attribuable to the consequences of Spanish restrictions by making available a further sum of £100,000 in addition to the £100,000 previously provided to the same end.