GIBRALTAR

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 25, Issue 3759, 22 May 1936, Page 9

GIBRALTAR

ITS STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE.

AN OUTPOST OF THE EMPIRE.

Of all the fortresses from out of which the British Empire may be said to watch the movements of the great external world, Gibraltar is, in many respects, certainly the most extraordinary. This fact is in no sense minimised by changes in “ the instrumentalities of warfare ’ the “ flying age ” has brought, and in possibly unexpected forms is likely to bring in tiie years ahead. To a considerable degree Gibraltar epitomses the romance of this Empire. It is not xaggeratio nto affirm that no place on the voyage between New Zealand and England, or vice versa, excites in the traveller a tithe of the interest for which Gibraltar is responsible.

Those who approach the Rock for the first time in the early morning, before its “nightcap of white sea fog ” has been removed, experience a sensation as though gazing at some huge, indistinct, mysterious monster such as must have filled the first Phoenician navigator whose daring keel broke the stillness of a sea to him unknown. As the sun “ comes up out of the East,” higher and higher, and the mists gradually disappear, thus every detail of a majestic spectacle is unfolded. First to the right and later to the left the vista presented by the romantic shores of Spain, rising from gentle swellings into purple mountains, is admired. On the African shore, more dimly seen, appears the rock fortress of Ceuta—a tragic name in Spanish history—-

backed by the tremendous precipices of Mons Abyl or Ape’s Hill, forming with the Rock of Gibraltar the two Pillars of Hercules of the ancients, marking the entrance of the strait connecting-the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean. Approaching the Rock from the east, where the low sandy isthmus, a sort of no man’s land, is observed, connecting it with the shore, it towers above the vessel in what seems a long, unbroken precipice 1400 feet high. Turning the southern “comer,” and sailing along the western side, which fronts the deep Bay of Gibraltar, the Rock, Pro-teus-like, assumes an entirely different appearance. Ranges of batteries, tier upon tier, extend along its sea front, at the northern extremity of which is the town. Every nook in, the crags is pictured bristling with artillery; white barracks and gay villas occupy the midway ascent, and above all, towering in rugged grandeur, is the summit of the Rock itself. No prospect could be more impressive. On the one hand, a scene of crowded life; on the other, an absolute solitude. The whole prospect is best described by the simple word, “compelling.” It is no mere figurative expression to say that the first impressions of Gibraltar—the Rock—surpass the most highly wrought anticipations.

Gibraltar is, in an especial sense, a pillar of Empire. It recalls with tremendous force and insistence some of those great events—term them foundation stones if you will —upon which was builded that Imperial heritage that Australia and New Zealand have emphatically declared shall be handed down inviolate to those yet unborn. Gibraltar strikes upon the heartstrings no uncertain note. Every New Zealander on viewing it feels it is something more than a physical prominence at the western entrance to

the Mediterranean Sea, and something infinitely more than a mere geopraphical expression. From almost cradle days the name had been familiar; and with the passing years a perception of something the famous Rock symbolised. Hence the New Zealander, in some perhaps undefinable way, feels “ at home at Gib.” He is cognisant not alone of its Empire history, but of its topography—that is, as far as military exigencies permitted, Gibraltar, then, may here be considered rather from the aspect of Empire. Gibraltar was taken from the Spanish by a British fleet under the command of Sir George Rooke on 24th July, 1704, and exposed to many attacks and sieges prior to Ist July, 1779, on which day “ the Great Siege of Gibraltar” by the united forces of France and Spain commenced, and continued until 12th March, 1783 when “ peace was signed ” between General Elliott and the commander of the Spanish force, the Due de Grillon, who met for the purpose on neutral ground —the “ no man’s land ” already referred to. The fortress thus has remained an Empire possession ever since its first capture, 230 years ago. The Rock is a bold ridge, in the form of a peninsula running due north and south, three miles in length; its greatest breadth three-quarters of a mile, and its circumference seven miles. Its north, south, and east sides are precipitous, but on the western side, where the town lies, it slopes down to a fine bay. Joined to the mainland on the north by the low, sandy isthmus, “ Neutral Ground,” its chief eminences are the Gun Rock, or Wolf’s Crag, 1250 feet, at the north; the Upper Signal Station, 124 feet, in the cehtre; Sugar Loaf Hill, or O’Hara’s Tower, 1361 feet, at the 'south. The highest point in the neighbourhood is Apes’ Mountain, 2803 feet, on the

African side of the Strait. The town itself is divided into north and south towns. The former, the commercial section, consists mainly of two parallel streets, “ Waterspout Street and “ Irish Town.” The slopes at the back of the town are thickly covered with houses, built in ascending tiers to a height of 250 feet above sealevel. At the north-western extremity is the Moorish Castle. South Town is divided from North Town by the Alameda Parade and public gardens, occupying a slope of the hill below O’Hara’s Tower. The only houses on the east side are those of the fishing village on Catalan Bay. For long a great artificial harbour has been discussed in this locale, Europa Point Light House, the Alameda Gardens, the Signal Station, and certain of the galleries and fortifications are frequented by visitors.

As a town Gibraltar is “ old-fas-hioned.” Its streets are narrow, frequently tortuous; its stores, judged by New Zealand standards, mediocre; and its public buildings, architecturally, have little to commend. Yet everything fits well into the picture, and though an ultra-modem hotpl, with “ hundreds of rooms ” and all appurtenances, has lately been cohstructed by a London syndicate in the vicinity of Europa Point, still the old-world, old-fashioned, small, but comfortable Cecil Hotel appears more truly “ racy of the soil ” than all the luxuriousness of the twentieth-cen-tury “ down-to-the-last-minute ” caravanserai. Gibraltar is a free port, consequently favoured by sailors and some visitors likewise. Tobacco is, or was, to be had almost for the proverbial song, and whisky at “ prices staggering by their moderation.” The civil population presents a weird conglomeration —> British, Spaniards, French, Italians, Maltese, Greeks, Berbers, Kabyles, and Arabs, the

three last named coming across from Africa on trading missions bent. During the years of the World War Gibraltar occupied in the Spanish psychology an accentuated position, accounting for the definite trend of opinion in favour of Germany and her allies. It will be recalled that during the dark days for us in that titanic struggle the ex-Kaiser declared he was then confident of ultimate victory; that Gibraltar should be returned to Spain. Here was “ fire to the Spanish hopes.” It must not be forgotten that the Spaniards, taken broadly, have never ceased to regard our possession of the Rock as other than a painful and festering sore on their national body. Their viewpoint was probably never more clearly set forth than in the pages of the Madrid Revista Contemporanca, in its issues of 15th and 20th October, 1891, by Don Eliseo Guardiola Valero, in recording impressions of a visit to the foock.

Gibraltar is the first or last, as the case may be, of the great chain of bases defending one of the two main routes between the Commonwealth of Australia and the Dominion of New Zealand and Great Britain and Ireland. The late Admiral Mahan’s declaration (“ Influence of Sea Power Upon History”) recurs:— “ Communications dominate war; broadly considered they are the most important single strategy, political or military. . . . The true solution for a State already holding Gibraltar and Malta would seem to be to grasp Egypt firmly, to consolidate local tenure there, and to establish in India, Australia, and at the Cape sources of necessary supply—whether manufactories or depots for ammunition and stores—against the chance of temporary interruption on the side of England. . . . Lines of communication at sea, whatever their starting point and their course, extend as far as ships can float and navigate.” i

There are many who declare that aviation will change all schemes of Imperial defences, in which Gibraltar to-day occupies so pre-eminent a place. This may be true enough in the abstract, but for all practical purposes Gibraltar must for many years to come maintain its present commanding position. Do all quite realise how closely Gibraltar is associated with our “ world-scattered Empire ” ? How valuable it was at a time in the eighteenth century fully as critical as that we have so recently passed through and may have to meet again? In 1779 France and Spain were rallied against us. The great aim of Spain was to recover (1) Gibraltar, (2) Jamaica. In the attempts to secure the former immense but fruitless efforts were expended. To again quote Mahan, on this phase:

“ The question suggested—and it is purely one of naval strategy—-is this: Wbuld not Gibraltar have been more surely recovered by controlling the English Channel, attack the British fleet even in its harbours, and threatening England with annihilation of commerce and invasion at home, than by far greater efforts directed against a very strong outpost of her Empire? 'The English people, from long immunity, were particularly sensitive to fears of invasion, and flieir great confidence in their fleets, if rudely shaken would have left them proportionately disheartened. However decided, the question as a point of strategy is fair, and it was proposed in another form by a French officer of the period, who favoured directing a great effort on a West India island, which might be exchanged against Gibraltar. It is not, however, likely England would have given up the key of the Mediterranean for any other foreign possession, though she might have yielded to save her firesides and her capital. Napoleon once said that he would reconquere Pondicherry on the banks of the Vistula. Could he have controlled the English Channele, as the allied fleet did for a moment in 1799, can it be doubted he would have conquered Gibraltar on the shores of England?

In song and story the “ immortal seige ’’ of Gibraltar has been sung and told almost times innumerable. Little did our forebears defending this almost “ keystone of Empire ” dream that almost one hundred and thirty years later sturdy sons of their race from a far-off eastern island-conti-nent were to pass by the scene of their heroic resistance to defend an Empire, their grit, valour and determination had, in so great a measure made possible. If the shades of those who fought and fell on The Kock during the years of that memorable seige could have revisited the scenes of their labours, sufferings and sacrifices when in 1915, 1916 and 1917 the sons of Australia were passing this “ Impregnable Rock,” there would have been rejoicing in the knowledge that their labours, sufferings and sacrifices had not been in vain.