HL Deb 27 April 1965 vol 265 cc594-606

7.18 p.m.

LORD BALFOUR OF INCHRYE rose to ask Her Majesty's Government whether any response has been received from the Spanish Government to the declarations on Gibraltar contained in Command Paper 2632. The noble Lord said: My Lords, in asking the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper I should like to occupy your Lordships for a very few moments only, to deploy the four reasons which have led me to put down this Question. The first reason is to ask Her Majesty's Government whether they can tell us the latest position with Spain following their Note of March 23, which is reproduced in the White Paper dealing with the recent differences with Spain.

My second reason is that I think it gives your Lordships' House the first opportunity it has had of expressing regret that Spain, for reasons of her own, internal or external, has provoked a situation which can do no one any good, which exacerbates feelings between two old friends, damages Gibraltar and Spain alike, and, in the long run, cannot be tolerated. I should have hoped that, by now, Spain would have realised two things: first, that we will not discuss the sovereignty of Gibraltar, that that will never be put on the table for bargaining; and, secondly, that we will not discuss under duress.

I will not in any way attempt to discuss the juridical aspects of the Treaty of Utrecht, 1713, by which Gibraltar was ceded by Spain to Britain, or the Spanish contentions about Article X, which says that Gibraltar should remain without any open communication by land with the country around. The irrefutable facts are that by the Treaty we retain Gibraltar until we surrender it; and we have no intention of so doing. Of far greater importance than the legalistic aspect, is the fact that in the last 250 years Gibraltar has developed with her own people, who are not Spanish; that in peace time and in two wars she has kept close to Britain; and that to-day, with a very limited measure of self-government, she remains a colonial territory owing allegiance to the Crown—and that by the wish of her own people.

I should like to say one word about the United Nations. There have been attempts to bring the United Nations into the picture. The United Nations can have no position in this difference with Spain; and I would only remind those in the United Nations who express on many occasions a passionate love for self-determination for all peoples that they should, if they wish to be consistent, express views which fit the passionate refusal of the inhabitants of Gibraltar to contemplate any handing over to Spain—a refusal shared equally by this country.

My Lords, my third reason for asking this Question is that we in your Lordships' House can affirm strong support for Her Majesty's Government in a policy of supporting with all aid possible the reappraisal of Gibraltar's economy away from Spanish dependence. It will take time; it will cost money. But I am quite sure that, with the lead of Her Majesty's Government, there will be no hesitation, in this House or outside, in giving support to such actions as Her Majesty's Government consider necessary in the fulfilment of that objective.

My fourth and final reason, is that I hope Her Majesty's Government will tonight be able to reassure the Gibraltarians that the recent withdrawal of the passports headed, "Government of Gibraltar" does not mean in any sense a weakening by Her Majesty's Government of the absolute support we are giving to the citizens of Gibraltar. I accept that completely, but my information is that this action has caused some misunderstanding in the Colony of Gibraltar —and it is an understandable misunderstanding. I am quite sure that a few words from the Minister tonight can go out to Gibraltar and remove that misunderstanding.

My final words are of gratitude and affection for those stout-hearted and loyal citizens of a British territory. I have known them, as have others in your Lordships' House, very closely, in Service matters in the war. Also I had the privilege, a few years ago, of leading a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association delegation to Gibraltar. I have the happiest memories of a grand people whom we stand by now, and for as long as they wish us to continue so to do.

7.25 p.m.

LORD ST. OSWALD

My Lords, in what I say this evening I am likely to sound slightly disjointed, and perhaps lacking in desirable clarity, since I left Gibranar at twenty minutes past midnight this morning and have not slept much since. Howeverthis may incapacitate me, it makes it rather difficult for me to stand outside the present debate. The atmosphere on the Gibraltar border is worrying in human terms, and not simply in political terms. Tempers are a good deal more frayed than they were ten weeks ago when I was there on a previous visit, and hardship is being caused to those on both sides of the border—social and economic hardship—and this we must lament.

I am not easily pessimistic, as my friends on both sides of the House know, but I find optimism hard to engender at the moment. What silver lining there is must be woven by reasonable men, on both sides. Some of these men have influence, and the noble Lord, Lord Walston, who is to reply, is certainly one such. There is no simple panacea that I know of to soothe, or even to purge, the accumulating irritation of this state of affairs; but because this harshness of attitude between two great European nations is of such evident harm to both, as indeed my noble friend has said, the intellect insists that a solution must be found, and therefore can be found.

If I am to wade into these somewhat thankless waters with a suggestion, my first suggestion would be demonstrably negative. I do not believe that either Government, perhaps either nation, fully appreciates the sincerity of attitude and genuine sense of responsibility which impels the other. This leads to fencing, ducking and weaving which is certainly not conducive to understanding or to dignity. I have had more arguments than I can count with Spaniards, including Spanish Ministers, who are genuinely loth to believe that we regard the Gibraltarians as being as British as ourselves; and their picture of the typical Gibraltarian and his means of livelihood is often grotesque, though not for that reason insincere or invented for any political reason.

I have argued in vain, sometimes with senior Ministers in Spain, that we cannot and do not regard the Gibraltarians as second-class citizens. It is a great pity that more of the rulers in Madrid do not know Gibraltarians personally or as a community. One is bound to like the Gibraltarians, and if they had been having the best of a number of worlds for some time past—and this must be said—they are now facing changed conditions with fortitude, as we have seen. They deserve our help, and I have no doubt that the noble Lord, Lord Walston, will tell us that they can count on that help. But the last thing the sensible Gibraltarians would wish to be is a bone of contention (or a stone of contention) between two countries, both of which they hold in great respect and on both of which they are to some extent dependent.

For our part we should not underestimate the feelings of the Spaniards or regard them lightly, as I fear successive Governments of Britain have tended to do. A foreign-ruled Gibraltar is felt as a thorn in the flesh of Spain, as I can bear the most personal witness, from living among Spaniards and speaking a good deal to them. The many friends I have in Spain are in no doubt whatever that I do not wish to see Gibraltar relinquished by any British Government —indeed, I think they would regard me with scant respect if they thought I was so minded. But, by the same token, it would be churlish of me, or of others who know them, to ignore or discountenance or deny their feelings towards foreign occupation of a piece of Spain's geographical entity. I must beg noble Lords opposite who are now Ministers, and their colleagues, not to deem it a weakness to take this prejudice into account, because I can well conceive that in their situation we should feel the same prejudice. To believe, to suppose, to state, that the Spaniards do not feel strongly about Gibraltar is tantamount to questioning their manhood.

Earlier this month, I put down an Unstarred Question, as the noble Lord has just done, on a far narrower issue—the supply of oxygen to Gibraltar. I had under that formula no right of reply, and I certainly am not going to abuse my position in the speakers' list now by making this my reply to the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, on the 8th of this month. But I must tell him that, to my mind, two lines of argument he adopted, I would say needlessly—if marginally—harmed the situation and the hopes of a sensible outcome, and the hopes which quite obviously he must share. They therefore seem pertinent to the present small debate. I so often and so willingly agree with the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, that the two slight criticisms, diluted in a chronicle of years of admiration, will hardly, I think, affect him.

In putting. my Question, I said: 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."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, Vol. 265 (No. 63), col. 264, April 8, 1965.] The Government might not have agreed with that statement. They could have left it alone, and no harm would have been done. But the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, chose to contradict me. He said that the problem began on December 17 of last year. I feel that I owe it to the Government, even though they may find it unpalatable, to say that from my own knowledge there is little that could infuriate Spaniards more than to say that.

Ever since 1704, our presence has been resented. Our original occupation of the Rock has been regarded by most Spaniards as a trick. I am not asking noble Lords to form up with this view, any more than I do myself; but I do ask them to recognise that it does exist, and that it is not a quirk or tantrum of the present Government of Spain. General Franco does not function by quirks and tantrums and does not do this only to annoy. Because he knows it teases. All through history, Spanish statesmen have declared their resentment. To mention one recent statesman, much admired in this country, and particularly by the Party of noble Lords opposite, a man who is no friend of the present regime, Don Salvador Madariaga, writing of the beginnings of the Spanish Republic, described the lines upon which its foreign policy was launched. And in that exposition, he said that Spain was not going to abandon the two chief claims to which she thought herself entitled: the restoration of Gibraltar and an agreement with the two Americas whereby her language and culture should be respected in the New World. That was the policy of the Republic, for which many members of the Labour Party fought very gallantly, and for which some died. And as between those two lines of foreign policy, Salvador Madariaga, a giant in the cultural field, considered the restoration of Gibraltar the more important. In another passage of his writings, he referred to our occupation of Gibraltar as perpetuating the era of "might is right" in international relations.

I hope that your Lordships will not think that I have laboured this too far and too long, but I beg noble Lords opposite now in Government to concede the sincerity and consistency of the Spanish attitude to this matter. I believe that enhanced mutual respect must flow from this recognition, even though it does not go hand in hand with agreement. Far too long, it seems to me, both countries have entrenched themselves in the positions which now entrap them. Spain has said that Gibraltar is really Spanish and should be Spanish, despite the existence of a Treaty. Britain has said that, because Gibraltar is British, no Government need, or even can, consult the Government of Spain or acknowledge that it has any interest in Gibraltar. I feel that this has been a mistake, and I have seen it being regarded as a persistent insult. I believe that it is for skilful men of good will and good sense to extricate both countries and the Gibraltarians from these entrenched positions—men in possession of influence in Britain, in Spain and in Gibraltar.

Briefly, the other sadness which the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, caused me—and I am sure that he would not have wished to cause it—was in what seemed to be a totally uncharacteristic lack of generosity in imputing the reason for the Spanish authorities' continuance of the oxygen supplies. He said, I think four times, that the Press publicity caused them to change their minds. Without knowledge of their impulses, prima facie that seems, quite gratuitously, a mean and grudging inference. All of us in this House know that the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, is the human creature farthest removed from meanness and grudgingness. He is, indeed, generous in nature among most men, and can put most of us in the shade. Knowing that, a graver impression might be formed, that of a grudging line imposed upon a naturally generous Minister by Government policy—and I say quickly that I do not believe this is the case either. I know that noble Lords opposite, and the Government, wish to solve this problem, but they will not help themselves by making such a grave misjudgment of the Spanish character, apart from its uncharitable nature.

The late Lord Templewood, writing of his ambassadorship in Spain, said: If you threaten a Spaniard he becomes a mule that kicks back. If you tell him that he will starve unless he accepts your terms, he will reply that he prefers starvation to surrender. Of all people in Europe, he is the most sensitive, but the least submissive. Such a people cannot be cowed by a Press campaign. They are far more likely to be: kindled into hostility. This characteristic of the Spaniards must be taken into account by any Minister attempting to solve this question. Perhaps we may think that they are difficult as bargainers; but their qualities, as I know them, are so immense that they many times match that disadvantage.

My noble friend Lord Balfour of Inchrye has raised the question of passports. Here again I think it right and wise to accept the sincerity of the Spanish Government in the line which I am told they have taken: that the term "Government" signifies an autonomous State in international parlance, and the existence of Gibraltar as an autonomous State creates a breach of the Treaty of Utrecht. That brings me back, before ending, to an observation which I made at the beginning and which was reflected in a letter from some Gibraltarians published in the Observer of the 4th of this month. These gentlemen said in their letter that, since their foreign affairs were in the hands of Her Majesty's Government, it was logical that passports should be issued by that Government, otherwise there would be a suggestion of "second-class citizens". This impression might tend to confirm the erroneous impression held by some Spaniards in places of influence.

In a sense, the Spanish Government have invited Her Majesty's Government to correct this impression, and Her Majesty's Government have quite clearly accepted that invitation. The noble Lord, Lord Walston, does not need me to tell him that I wish him the best of fortune in whatever efforts he may contribute to a solution of this extremely painful problem.

7.40 p.m.

THE PARLIAMENTARY UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE, FOREIGN OFFICE (LORD WALSTON)

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Balfour of lnchrye, for raising once more this vexed and unhappy problem of Gibraltar, and I am grateful, particularly, for the way in which he did so. I am also grateful to the noble Lord, Lord St. Oswald, for having undertaken the hazardous journey from Gibraltar in the small hours of the morning in order to be here to give us his own personal impressions of the situation. I am sorry, but I am not surprised that he has come back with the feelings he has. I think it lends urgency to this debate that we have from his own lips his assessment of how the situation is there and how it is likely to develop.

Perhaps I should start by giving a short answer to the actual Question the noble Lord, Lord Balfour of Inchrye, has put down. He asks: whether any response has been received from the Spanish Government to the declarations on Gibraltar contained in Command Paper 2632. The short answer to that is: No, my Lords; we have received no response to that particular Paper. We have, however, since the publication of the Paper on April 5, received two communications from the Spanish Government. On April 7 the Spanish Ministry for Foreign Affairs addressed to Her Majesty's Embassy at Madrid a Note which questioned the ground of the protest made in the Embassy's Note of March 1 against the withdrawal of workers' passes of British subjects from the Campo area. Subsequently, two days later, on April 9, the Spanish Ambassador called on my honourable friend the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs to deliver his Government's reply to the Note concerning the refusal of the Spanish authorities to accept the validity of certain British passports which the Foreign Secretary had handed to the Ambassador on March 30. This reply gave a legal exposd of the Spanish Government's position and explained why they were not prepared to comply with the request in the Foreign Secretary's Note.

That is the short answer to the noble Lord's Question, but I think it would be right for me, particularly in view of the interest which noble Lords who have spoken have shown in this matter, to amplify a little more. Before I do that, perhaps I may deal briefly with the question raised by the noble Lord, Lord St. Oswald, and my noble friend Lord Taylor as to when this problem began. I think it is really a question of semantics: what do you mean by "this particular problem?". Undoubtedly, the noble Lord is right when he says that there has been feeling in Spain over many years and many centuries. Nobody would deny that; it is a historical fact. On the other hand, my noble friend Lord Taylor is completely right in saying that the particular problem we are now discussing, the narrower issues, began on the date he mentioned. T would accept the noble Lord's contention that this is a matter of long historical background, and it is right that it should be looked at in that light.

I would say at the outset that Her Majesty's Government have no desire whatsoever to quarrel with Spain. We seek no quarrel with Spain at all. We have had our differences with Spain in the past, and we still have our differences, but that is quite another issue. There are many countries with whose policies we disagree, and sometimes strongly disagree; but that does not lead us to quarrel with them and does not prevent us from enjoying friendly relations in all other spheres with them. After all, Spain is a great European country, and we wish to be friendly with all our neighbours in Europe. So I wish to say this very clearly: that we arc unhappy that this situation should have arisen which has led to a serious deterioration in the relations between our two countries.

I would say, also, that we cannot tolerate any interference by any other countries in matters which concern only Gibraltar and ourselves. We maintain, most emphatically and firmly, that the future of Gibraltar and its evolution along the lines that the Gibraltarians wish for and we wish for is solely a matter of concern between them and us, and no interference from any country, however close in proximity it may be, can be supported by us.

Spain, I am sorry to say, in these last months has gone to great lengths to provoke us and to make life difficult for the people of Gibraltar. But, in spite of that we have no intention of indulging in counter provocation. There are many steps that we could take, if we so wished, which would have considerable and harmful effects upon the Spanish economy, but that is not the sort of action that we wish to indulge in. We do not think that is the correct way in which to solve problems such as this that arise. The mere fact that Spain has indulged in them is no excuse for us to do what we can—and I repeat that we could do quite a lot, if we so wished—to hurt Spanish interests.

On the matter of passports, which the noble Lord, Lord Balfour of Inchrye, mentioned, we could retaliate by all sorts of legalistic quibbles over Spanish passports if we so wished, but we do not wish to do that. I would reiterate that the pledges that we have made in the matter of passports—and I will not go into the technical details of what they are—can in no way be taken as any indication that we are running out on our obligations to the people of Gibraltar. What we have done is to look at this in a thoroughly realistic manner. After all, what is the object of a passport? The object of a passport is to allow the bearer to pass freely, without let or hindrance, upon his legitimate business. We have issued on behalf of Her Majesty, through the appropriate channels, documents which, in our view, should entitle the bearer to do that. If the receiving country decides that their actual form is not acceptable to them, we can, of course, argue in courts of law and between lawyers as to whether they are right or wrong. But in the meantime, the people who own those passports and are the bearers of them, who we wish to pass freely without let or hindrance, would suffer. Therefore, without indulging in quibbles of this kind, we have taken the step of modifying those passports so as to enable the bearers to do just those things they wish to do and which we, Her Majesty's Government, wish them to be able to do. That is the sole significance of the alterations in passports: it is merely for the convenience of the people themselves, and they must in no way be taken as indicating that we are weakening in our stand with regard to Gibraltarians, their future, their privileges and their rights.

I want to make it very clear indeed that, although we are not intending in any way to retaliate with counter provocation against Spain, we shall in no way sacrifice either our interests, in so far as Gibraltar is concerned, or the interests of the Gibraltarians themselves. We are firm in our determination to protect them and to adhere to them. Gibraltar has many times in its history withstood violent sieges and long sieges. I hope this will not be another siege of Gibraltar. But if it were to become that, I say very firmly and very clearly that we can from this country maintain Gibraltar indefinitely, so that the people of Gibraltar can continue, possibly not in exactly the same way that they have done in the past, but in reasonable activity and comfort and with a reasonable standard of life, for so long as these troubles may go on. There is no question whatsoever of our compromising on that. As I say, I hope it will not come to that. I hope that wiser counsels will prevail. But if it should be necessary, we shall do it, and we can do it.

We are always prepared to talk with Spain, but we will not talk—and I am very glad that the noble Lord, Lord Balfour of Inchrye, made this point also—under duress, and in our talks we will not deviate one iota from our responsibilities to the people of Gibraltar. But with those two provisos we are prepared at any time to talk with the Spanish Government, and I hope that those talks may come sooner than some people expect.

I know perfectly well that in Spain to-day there are some hotheads who think of this as being a showdown, that they have got us on the run, and that they can succeed in their ambition which has been nourished for 200 years or more. Those people not only are wrong, but I believe that in Spain itself, and, I hope, in the Government of Spain, they are in a minority. I know, too, that there are wiser men, saner men, who, while they still cherish ambitions that the problem of Gibraltar shall, from their point of view, be solved in a satisfactory manner, want to see it solved in a civilised way, and in a way that befits two civilised countries of Europe. It is those wiser counsels which I hope will prevail, and I hope that the people of Spain and the Government of Spain will, in the first place, realise that we are determined to adhere to our responsibilities in Gibraltar, to the people of Gibraltar, and to our own people, too; and that we are, as I have said, able and willing to fulfil those responsibilities indefinitely, regardless of what they may do, but that we wish and are happy to talk with them on these matters, subject to the provisos which I have mentioned.

We believe that Spain, with its long tradition as a leader of European civilisation, will understand that the right way to solve these problems is not by unilateral action of this kind, not by threats of blockades, not by working to rule, not by provocations and pinpricks of one kind or another, but by conversations in a reasonable atmosphere where all threats of duress have been removed, by talking and, I hope, eventually agreeing. But again, I say that although we wish to talk, although we are happy to talk, our talks cannot be at a time while these provocations are going on, and they cannot be undertaken with any expectation that our responsibilities to the people of Gibraltar will be abrogated by Her Majesty's Government.