§ Joint Communiqué Issued at Conclusion of Consultations
§ 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 Gibraltar, 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 re-affirmed Her Majesty's Government's assurances to the people of 303 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. 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 to 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 DelacourtSmith). 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 expressed 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 Assistance.
§ 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 attributable to the consequences of Spanish restrictions by making available a further sum of £100,000 304 in addition to the £100,000 previously provided to the same end.
THE EARL OF BESSBOROUGHMy Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Lord for having repeated that Statement, which I warmly welcome. I wonder whether the noble Lord could, none the less, give us a little more of the detail of this Three-Year Development Programme on which we are going to spend some £4 million. For example, can he say how many houses are to be built and where the land is coming from on which to build them? Can he also say something about Gibraltar's probable deficit on her ordinary Budget in 1970 and how the gap is to be bridged? Further, may I be assured that in these recent talks the question of sovereignty was not discussed, and that there is no question of our yielding to pressure in this matter, when the people of Gibraltar have made it abundantly clear that they wish to remain British?
I wonder whether the noble Lord can also tell me if Gibraltarians really want the system of comprehensive secondary education, which I think is included in this package deal? Will it be "comprehensive" in the same sense as we use the term here?
§ LORD BYERSMy Lords, I, too, should like to welcome this Statement and to thank the Government for the efforts which they have made on behalf of Gibraltar. May I nevertheless ask them whether the Gibraltar delegation who were over here were fairly satisfied with the results of their talks? Does this £4 million represent something like the assistance they were hoping to get?
§ LORD SHEPHERDMy Lords, perhaps I may reply first to the noble Lord, Lord Byers, who asked whether the Gibraltar Ministers were fairly satisfied. All I can say is that the delegation left me this morning with smiles on their faces, and I think that is an indication that they were satisfied. It was not a question or problem of money; it was a question of how much could be spent by Gibraltar in terms of the Three-Year Programme. It may be a fact—I hope it is—that Gibraltar can proceed faster on her development programme than we foresee at the present time. In terms of sovereignty, we reaffirmed, as we always do when we see Gibraltar Ministers, the position of 305 Her Majesty's Government over Gibraltar; and this is perhaps best spelt out in the preamble to the present Constitution.
In regard to a probable deficit, I think that this is very much for the Gibraltar Government themselves to announce in Gibraltar, when they announce what steps they themselves are going to take to deal with the deficit. Our contribution was made in the light of the facts and figures they provided to us in confidence.
In terms of comprehensive education, there is a feeling that special need exists in Gibraltar for greater technical education in order to meet the dockyard needs and all the other developments that are needed in Gibraltar. Whether it will be comprehensive education as we know it in this country is for them themselves to decide. As the noble Earl knows, our own form of comprehensive education covers a very wide area.
The principal feature of the development plan is housing. We are undertaking to assist in the building of some 750 units on top of what is already planned. This of course cannot be achieved in the first three years, but this is a commitment to this long-term building project. On the question of land, I am very pleased that the Ministry of Defence have been able to give us one of the (I think the phrase is) "choice pieces" of land in Gibraltar—some reclaimed land by the sea—and it is this new piece of land that has become available to us which makes housing a real starter in Gibraltar. We are also going to help in the field of emergency housing for immigrant workers, and in the field of tourism communications. We shall help, too, with a special feature, which I think is very much needed in Gibraltar. It is that special development projects should be undertaken to increase the opportunity of leisure and recreation for the young people of Gibraltar.
§ LORD MERRIVALEMy Lords, I should at the outset like to congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Shepherd, on the part he played in reaching agreement with the Ministers of Gibraltar over here. As he knows, I had the pleasure of meeting the three gentlemen last week. Can the noble Lord say whether Her Majesty's Government accept in its entirety the Manpower Mission Report 306 —that is, the Beeching/Delacourt-Smith Report—and whether they propose to implement its recommendations which concern Her Majesty's Government: for instance, that work study specialists should be sent to Gibraltar? As the noble Lord said that Her Majesty's Government would be assisting in the supply of better communication facilities, may I ask whether they will give this matter top priority, because I believe there is very great difficulty in travelling to and from Gibraltar either by air or by sea, over the weekends in particular?
§ LORD SHEPHERDMy Lords, whether Her Majesty's Government accept the Beeching Report in principle is neither here nor there. This is a matter for the Gibraltar authorities. If they were to ask for specialists—as they have done in certain fields—in work study, to which the noble Lord himself referred, we should be only too willing to assist them. In the field of communication, such as air services and the ferry between Tangiers and Gibraltar, this has been a considerable problem both financially and otherwise to the Gibraltar Government; but I think that the assistance we are now giving to Gibraltar should overcome most of the problems.