§ 7.13 p.m.
§ LORD ST. OSWALD rose to ask Her Majesty's Government whether they are able to substantiate or to rebut the persistent rumour that the Spanish authorities at some time prevented or delayed the supply of oxygen for hospitals in Gibraltar under contract from Spanish suppliers. The noble Lord said: My Lords, since I put my Question down, the Government have published a pungent White Paper on the whole subject of Gibraltar, but it does not set out to cover points of this detail, although the general question of supplies to Gibraltar is covered on page 7 of the White Paper. I should say at the outset 264 that I think I know the answer that the Minister will give me this evening, and I believe that it will do some good. It could provide a small, but significant, relief in what is a painful situation for all those involved. On those grounds and because I have no right of reply under this formula, I should like, trustingly, to thank the Minister in advance for the reply that I think he is going to give me.
§ I should also like to make plain that I have not chosen this formula in order to widen the scope of the subject set down on the Order Paper, or to say anything in the least contentious in Party political terms. My interest in the present problem of the Gibraltar border is, perhaps, more intimate than that of other Members of your Lordships' House, because for some years now I have been going down there for my holidays, and I have many valued friends both in Gibraltar and in the Campo de Gibraltar behind it. Upon all of these friends, and upon many thousands of others, some degree of discomfort and unhappiness falls, and it falls in particular on the Gibraltarians themselves. I certainly do not regard this Question as permitting me to dispense blame, and I do not suppose that the Minister will so regard it. The White Paper is quite categorical on this point and the Government have made their opinion clear.
§ The problem is an old one—in fact, 260 years old—and anyone who seeks to deal with it as a new or passing or artificial problem can only, I believe, prejudice and postpone the solution. If the present Government can solve it, or smooth out the difficulties even temporarily, I shall try to be among the earliest to congratulate them. My belief, which I am implementing to-day, is that the Question and its Answer will make the task slightly easier, in so far as it can lower the temperature. The rumour, converted into a widespread belief, that the Spanish authorities deliberately and callously, without warning, cut the supply of oxygen to hospitals in Gibraltar, has understandably incensed people in this country. It has also incensed the Spaniards, that people here should accept such a rumour without demanding proof.
The rumour was first published, I assume in good faith, two months ago.
265§ It has been repeated continually since then for instance, it was stated as an absolute fact by a B.B.C. commentator in a major broadcast on Gibraltar on the 16th of last month—and has obtained a damaging degree of credence in this country. I have been in that district—that is to say, in Gibraltar and in the hinterland—since the rumour was first aired, and I have spoken to some of those who should know the facts. These are the facts as I understand them, and upon this understanding I should like the Government's verdict in so far as they are informed; and I do not expect them to be informed in the absolute detail of what I think to be the case.
§ For some years oxygen has been exported from Spain to Gibraltar on a three-monthly renewable Spanish export licence. The agents in Gibraltar are the highly reputable firm of M. H. Bland. Neither the application for the licence nor the licence itself had ever stated that this oxygen, or any part of it, was destined for hospitals, although a certain portion of it has been distributed to hospitals on arrival. At the time the first newspaper reports of a stoppage appeared —that is, on February 6—the current licence still had five days to run. It covered a quota of 5,000 cubic metres in iron cylinders valued at £854. Up to that date, consignments had been coming through the Customs post into Gibraltar without any hitch or hindrance. The final consignment completing the 5,000 cubic metres came through two days later on February 8, also without impediment.
§ However, that completed the existing licence, and some anxiety may have been felt inside Gibraltar as to whether it would be renewed, particularly since no mention of hospital use had ever been made, at least officially. In fact, on February 10, two days before the old licence expired, a new licence was issued in Cadiz for 3,000 cubic metres over a period of three further months ending in the first part of May. That is the latest information I have, but it is possible that no further information will be available before early May, when a further renewal will possibly be needed. What I do know, and what the noble Lord the Minister may perhaps not know, is that a particular and somewhat unusual instruction was given to the Customs post at La Linea by the Director General 266 of Customs in Madrid, that any consignment of oxygen arriving at the Customs post, even without an export licence, should be let through if an assurance were given that it was for hospital use.
§ My Lords, I am a layman in these matters and, like most noble Lords present, I am happily content with unlicensed oxygen, whether British or Spanish or international, which I draw into my lungs in the normal process of breathing. But I know that a condition can occur when life depends on medical oxygen. But, for the present, it seems impossible that patients in Gibraltar hospitals will suffer from any shortage of this particular and essential commodity; nor have they suffered in this way at any moment in recent months.
§ In what I have said, I am not by any interpretation questioning the wisdom of the Governor of Gibraltar in seeking alternative supplies of oxygen, once he thought that supplies were even remotely threatened. General Sir Dudley Ward is widely recognised as one of the outstanding military intellects of our day; he is also a personal friend of mine of several years' standing. It would be most mistaken to question, even faintly or indirectly, his prudence in this matter. But it seems to me a far cry from saying that he was wise to ensure the residents of Gibraltar against a possibility which he conceived to exist, and saying that the danger actually fell upon the Rock and had to be met in the event, or that supplies were at any time stopped or delayed; or that there was any stated or proven intention on the part of the Spanish authorities to stop or delay them. Unless the Government have some positive knowledge that this intention existed, I should think that the noble Lord opposite could, at most, classify it as a reasoned suspicion.
§ It has been reported that the Royal Navy rushed oxygen to Gibraltar, which of course dramatised the story considerably. If that is so, and if my facts are correct, it must have been in anticipation of a stoppage, not as a result of one, hut, nevertheless, I should be grateful if the Minister could tell the House whether such an alternative or supplementary supply was in fact provided by the Royal Navy or by any other means. As I have said, my information is that there was no stoppage, no delay 267 and no intention to delay, and yet the rumour still lives. While it continues it must embitter the attitudes of the British people, who consider it an act of spiteful inhumanity, and the Spaniards, who have been thus accused, and found guilty without trial, of an action so alien to their character. For this reason, I say that if the Government can kill this particular harmful hearsay stone-dead this evening, for all to see, the task of reconciliation will be at least slightly assisted. I can ask for no more at this moment.
§ 7.22 p.m.
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE FOR COMMONWEALTH RELATIONS AND FOR THE COLONIES (LORD TAYLOR)My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord St. Oswald, has asked me to kill the rumour stone dead. I am afraid that I cannot do that. His statement differs very considerably from the information which I have taken great trouble to obtain. He described the White Paper as "pungent". I think the White Paper is factual and very modest.
LORD ST. OSWALDMy Lords, that was not invective. I am under a charge of using invective this evening, but I did not intend my remark to be offensive. I meant it as a compliment: the Paper was pungently written.
§ LORD TAYLORIf pungency be truth, then we accept at once that this is a pungent Paper.
But, my Lords, the problem of Gibraltar has not been a problem of 240 years, as the noble Lord said: as a practical problem, it is one of comparatively recent date. The immediate trouble with which we are dealing started on December 17, 1964. Since then, the Spanish authorities have, with a few exceptions, which include fruit, vegetables and fresh fish, stopped the export of all goods from Spain to Gibraltar by refusing to issue or renew existing export licences. Early in January, the Gibraltar Government, quite reasonably, anticipated the possibility of oxygen supplies being cut off, and a supply of 400 oxygen cylinders was ordered from British sources to make good what they thought was going to be a deficit.
The firm in Gibraltar, which normally supplies oxygen both to the hospitals 268 and for industrial purposes, repeatedly applied to their agents in Algeciras. I understand that the agents normally obtained their licences provincially, but they had been told that they had to get them from Madrid. On February 5 the agents in Algeciras informed the firm in Gibraltar that their application for a licence to supply oxygen to Gibraltar had been refused by the authorities in Madrid. The agents had actually shown the suppliers the application forms which had been returned from Madrid with the word "Denegado"— "Refused" —stamped on them.
This having happened, it would be folly to deny that there had been a cessation of the licences to supply oxygen. It so happened that—does the noble Lord wish to interrupt me?
LORD ST. OSWALDNo, my Lords, I do not want to interrupt. I was merely muttering, entirely to myself, that this surprises me a great deal, because I thought I had the real facts; and, as the noble Lord says, our facts do conflict.
§ LORD TAYLORSo it seems. It became known at once in Gibraltar that the licences were being refused for the future. It so happened that at the time there were a number of representatives of the British Press already in Gibraltar because the Spaniards had, from February 1, imposed restrictions which resulted in a number of British subjects who had previously been living in Spain and working in Gibraltar being refused permission to cross the frontier daily to work. These people therefore moved into Gibraltar and were provided with temporary accommodation, and this attracted the attention of the British Press. The cancellation of the licence for oxygen supplies therefore received wide publicity in the British Press. It was first mentioned in the evening papers of February 5, and then in the morning papers of February 6. I think the noble Lord said that the licence was due to expire on February 10. That is certainly my information.
In preparation for the expected emergency the Gibraltar authorities asked the Navy authorities to help them, and 100 cylinders of oxygen were supplied. Subsequently the Crown Agents for Overseas Governments and Administrations arranged for the further supply, which 269 had already been ordered for Gibraltar, to be shipped on February 19. It arrived on February 23. There was therefore no interruption in the supply of oxygen to hospitals of Gibraltar, despite the apparent threat.
LORD ST. OSWALDWas it more than a threat? Did it in fact add up, in the end, to more than a threat? I am not intentionally being obtuse, but what I am really asking is this. The licence was due for renewal on the 10th. Was it in fact renewed, even though the impression existed that it would not be?
§ LORD TAYLORMy Lords, it was not merely that an impression existed that it would not be: it was an actual negativing of the licences—and this must be made quite clear. Perhaps as a result of the Press publicity, the Spanish authorities changed their minds, or appeared to have changed their minds, and on February 12, that is, two days after the licence had expired, the Gibraltar authorities were informed that the Spaniards had renewed the licence with effect from February 11 (back-dated, as it were), but that they had specified that the renewal would be for three months only (which is in fact the usual renewal period) and had also specified that all the oxygen must be used for hospitals and that none could be used for industrial purposes. By then, the alternative arrangements had been completed—and, of course, the Spanish terms for the supply of oxygen were clearly unacceptable.
There was, then, a period from February 5 to February 10 when the Gibraltar authorities were satisfied that the supplies of oxygen from Spain were about to stop, and a further period of two days when they believed that they had in fact stopped. It was during this second period that the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in another place spoke about the denial of oxygen supplies to Gibraltar, in an Adjournment Debate on February 11. The only point which can be in dispute is the meaning of the word "stop". Her Majesty's Government have taken this word to mean the prohibition of future supplies being made public, which is what happened when these licences, stamped "Denegado", were revealed. In this 270 sense, there was a stoppage from February 5 to February 12.
Seen against the background of the restriction of entry of goods into Gibraltar from Spain by the refusal of the Spanish Government to issue or renew export licences, this interpretation was, I think, entirely reasonable. From the facts I have given, it seems clear that the Spanish authorities intended to cut off the entire oxygen supplies of Gibraltar, and that the widespread Press publicity caused them to alter their attitude as regards oxygen for hospitals but not for other purposes.