The Vinita weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1905, 1904-10-06
clsRALTAR's 200 YEARS.
Taken from Spain in t7oa as an After
thought, Now the Pride Of
Great Britain.

On August 4, 1IU4 (neW etylel, the
Rock OF Gibraltar was captured BY
Great Britain. and II has remained IN
her possession from that day to this
Among the many possessions scattered
all over the globe that are comprised in
the British empire to-day there is none
that the nation holds with greater te.
naclty for reasons both OF sentiment
and OF material interest and none that
II would lose with more poignant shame
and sorrow than the redoubtable strong
hold we took from Spain at the begin
ming OF the reign OF Queen Anne, writes
Roland McNell, in the Nineteenth Cen.
tury and After.
The fact that throughout the eight.
eenth century, when so many con
quests In both hemispheres changed
hands backward and forward in success
siye wars and under successive treaties,
Gibraltar remained permanently In the
keeping OF England, might seem to
prove that British sentiment with re-
gard to II was from the first the same as
II is to-day. But this Is far from having
been the case For, although at the end
of 200 years OF our possession of the
fortress. at a time when the imperial
instinct OF Engllshmen had become
more consciously developed and more
deply engrained than ever before. and
at the same time more intelligently APP
preciatiye OF the true meaning OF sea
power and alive TO the strategical re-
quirements OF It's maintenance, the reten.
tion OF the key OF the Mediterranean has
become an essential article OF our polit-
ical creed. and II was a considerable
time before the immense value of the
acquisition was fully realized by British
statesmen.
II seems strange enough to us to re-
member that King George I. and his
ministers were ready TO give up GIbral-
tar merely to secure SPANS acquieseence
in the arrangement by which the quad
ruple alliance was anxious to make
some pettifogging notifications in the
shuttle TO territories affected by the
treaty Of Utrecht, but It Is still more
extraordinary that so olear-sighted, pa
triotie and high-splrlted an empire.
builder as Lord Chatham himself should
have made a similar offer as an induce.
ment to Spain 10 help rs 10 recover MI
norca-and this. moreover, al time
when the fortress had been in our
hands for more than half a century and
Its vital Importance to our growing
maritime supremacy had already been
abundantly proved IN the naval wars Oh
the period Happily the spanlards were
as blind az ourselves TO the supreme i'm
portance Of the position commandinr
the roads from the Atlantic TO the Med
iterranean.
The truth Is, as readers OF Mahan DO
not need 10 be reminded, that the impor
tance OF sea power and the nature Of
the foundations on which Il Is based
we're very imperfectly grasped even by
England In the seventeenth and the
FIRST half Of the eighteenth century and
Scarcely at al By any other European
power Occasionally at intervals some
statesman like Colbert In France or Al
beroni in Spain had more than al
inklins OF the truth. but no nation OK.
eept England made deliberate and sus-
tained efforts with view to maritime
development Even England did so
rather by Instinct than by Insight
on this blindness 90 the true principles
OF maritime policy the taking Of Glib
faltar and its history during the follow
ing three-quarters OF a century afford a
striking illustration just as the vast
Importance OF its acquisition was al the
time underrated both by England and
Spain so rs actual capture by the former
was an afteFthoueht and Clt may almost
be said an accident Il became a Brit
lsh possession IN the first instance be-
cause AZ time when We happened 70 be
AZ war with one Of the royal claimants
20 the Spanish throne our admiral in the
Mediterranean happened to have no
particular objective in view. and. hav-
ing failed In his only enterprise Of that
year, vas unwilling 10 return home with
a fne fleet that had done nothing for the
honor Of the hag SO be thought he
might a. well make an attack on Gllbral-
tar as do anything else. Nevertheless.
his action has to be reckoned among the
notable deeds that Won the empire
and one that on its bl-centenary de-
serves 10 be had IN remembrance
---zzz
s. Science in Ancient Sharon.
From time lmmemortal the gardens
~ tha ancient nfafv - ukm4r.. ea4.o,ts