GOVERNOR AND TOWNSFOLK.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 144082, 29 April 1913, Page 7

GOVERNOR AND TOWNSFOLK.

Our cables the other day stated that General Sir Archibald Hunter, Governor of Gibraltar, had been, granted three months’ leave to enable tlie local representations concerning his statements about Gibraltar to be considered. It now transpires that the Governor issued orders that workmen at the dockyards who reside in Spanish territory should not pass through the town on their way home. The Chamber of Commerce, on behalf of the shopkeepers of the town, protested and asked the Governor to receive a deputation. The Governor announced in Fortress Orders of January- 27 that he would receive the deputation on January 81, and ordered all “commanding officers” to be present. The following extracts from the Governor’s speech to the deputation are taken from the “Official Gazette”;—

“There are other people to be considered in this place beside those engaged in commerce. The Chamber of Commerce think of nobody but themselves—(mind you, I don’t blame them) —but this fortress is not maintained lor purely commercial interests. “There are places I will Jet civilians go to and there are places I shall prevent their going .to. There are routes they may foljow, and routes they may not.

“There is a limit beyond which I am not prepared to allow the local Press to go. I see the Press censorship is a duty that may soon have to be undertaken.

“English is no better spoken here in general than by Kaffir rickshaw men in Durban, and nothing like so well as by a.donkey boy, at Suez or Cairo. “My views have not altered since I came here. They are that a fortress in peace should always be ready for war. In peace time you employ labour here from a source that may not, and almost certainly will not, be available or allowable in time of war. It would be as easy, as I think it would be wise, to bring British labour or labour from the congested districts of India. I can find room for them by turning other people out. Remember, this is a fortress. None of you can deny that. “This town is like the Augean stables, but it is small, and it is under lock and key, whenever, for military reasons, the fortress commander chooses to shut it up. You remember the action taken by Hercules in connection with the stables. I make no pretence to be a Hercules, but X do claim to know what I am talking about, and I am determined to exact order and decency here from everybody who comes into the fortress I command. Let everybody undertsSnd that. I do nothing without careful reflection and without devoting deep, thought to causation and consequents^ J Better far if my critics would do the same. My duty here is quite clear to me.”