Could The Mediterranean Be Closed ?

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 72, 18 December 1937, Page 28

Could The Mediterranean Be Closed ?

4 4 ’VT T 11 ' voul(i have happened in the Great War if Cape Gris % / Nez and Dover were in the hands of Germans with great %/h/ guns?” asked Mr. Lloyd George in a recent House of'ComY V mons debate. “It would have stopped the traffic of the

Channel. I 481 not sure whether, if the Germahs had marched on to Calais at the beginning and planted great guns at Gris Nez, the Channel would not have been closed. It is much broader than the Straits of Gibraltar.

“The islands of Spain, which are in the most dangerous position, from the point of view of a menace to the routes of Franco and Britain, are being taken practically in the hands of Italy and Germany for submarine bases, for aerodromes, for guns. . . .

“If anybody gets up on behalf of the Government and says that great guns planted on each side of the Straits Of Gibraltar will not prevent the passage of ships there, I should be glad.”

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger Keyes: “I will say quite definitely that the possession of .great guns on both sides of the Straits of Gibraltar will not prevent the passage of ships through the Straits if we retain command of the sea. . . . Guns on either shore of the Straits of Gibraltar could be masked by smoke and other means while ships were passed through the Straits by night, and probably in the daytime also. If, however, the nation that possesses those guns had command of the sea and were able to patrol the Straits with surface craft, lay mine-fields and keep them maintained, then I grant the right hon. gentleman that it could close the Straits of Gibraltar.”

Mr. Lloyd George: “That satisfies me. I ask any hon. gentleman after that last statement whether that is his idea of our position in the Great War—precarious, dependent upon smoke screens, and our route to India dependent upon that very precarious and rather terrifying prospect, I thank the admiral for coming to judgment.”.

Sir R. Keyes: “The right, hon. gentleman the member for Carnarvon Boroughs (Mr. Lloyd George) has, of course, beaten me in a war of words. . . . The right hon. gentleman painted a picture of a Power that had defeated the British Navy and controlled the Straits of Gibraltar. Does be suggest tljat Germany or Italy is In a position to do that while the British Navy is iu existence? While the British Navy is where it is to-day great guns on either shore will not stop British ships being passed through the Straits of Gibraltar- at night and probably by day as long as the people who occupy the shores of the Straits have not got control of the sea.”

Mr. Lloyd George: “I gave way to the hon. and gallant admiral, and perhaps he will allow me to ask him a question. Does he mean to say, regarding the matter from the point of view of an admiral that it makes no difference whether there are great German guns on both sides of the Straits of Gibraltar or whether there are not?” Sir R. Keyes: “Of course, it makes a difference; but I spent the best part of a year in the Dover Straits, where I. was very often within range of powerful 12-inch and 16-inch guns—well within their range at night and in the daytime—and that knowledge and my experience there impel me to insist that the possession of great guns on the two shoes of the Straits of Gibraltar -will not command those Straits.”