Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-11-02
GIBRALTAR'S 200 YEARS.
Taken by Rookie in 1904 as an After
thought, Now Britain's Pride.
zenith Century and After.

From the Nine Century and After.
On August 4. 1904 new style), the Rock of
Gibraltar was captured by Great Britain,
end it has remained in her possession from
that day to this. Among the many possess
sicns scattered all over the globe that are
comprised in the British empire today there
is none that the nation holds with greater
tenacity, for reasons both of sentiment and
OF material interest. and none that it would
lose with more poignant shame and sorrow
than the redoubtable stronghold we took
from Spain at the beginning of the reign
of Queen Anne.
The fact that throughout the eighteenth
century, when so many conquests in both
hemispheres changed hands backward and
forward III successive wars and under sue
cessve treaties, Gibraltar remained perma-
Eently in the keeping of England might
seem to prove that British sentiment with
regard to it was from the first the same as
1t is today. But this is far from having
been the case. For, although at the end
OF 2O0 years of our possession of the for
tress, at a time when the imperial instinct
of Englishmen has become more conscious
ly developed and more deeply ingrained
than ever before and at the same time
more intellfgently appreciative of the true
meaning of sea power and alive to the
strategical requirements of it's maintenance,
the retention of the key of the Mediterra-
mean has become an essential article of our
political creed, it was a considerable time
before the immense value of the acouisi-
ton was fully realized by British states
men.
1t seems strange enough to us to remem-
Der that King George l and his ministers
were ready to give up Gibraltar merely to
secure SPANS acquiescence in the arrange
ment by which the quadruple alliance was
anxious to make some pettifogging modif-
cations in the shuttle of territories effected
by the treaty of Utrecht, but it is still more
extraordinary that so clear-Sighted patri-
otto and high-spirited an empire builder as
Lord Chatham himself should have made
a similar offer as an induCement to Spain
to help US to recover Minorca-and this.
moreover. at a 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
of the period. Happily the Spaniards We're
as blind as ourselves to the supreme i'm
portance of the position commanding the
road from the Atlantic to the Mediterra-
mean.
The truth is, as readers of Mahan do not
need to be reminded that the Importance of
sea power and the nature of the founda-
tons on which it is based We're very i'm
perfectly grasped even by England in the
seventeenth and the first half of the
eighteenth century, and scarcely at all by
any other European power. Occasionally
at intervals some statesman like Colbert in
France or Alberoni in Spain had more than
an inkling of the truth but no nation ex-
cept England made deliberate and sustain
ed efforts with a view to maritime develop
ment. Even England did so rather by in
stfnct than by insight.
OF this blindness to the true principles
of maritime policy the taking of Gibraltar
and its history during the following three
quarters of century afford a striking Illus
tration. Just as the vast Importance of its
acquisition was at the time moderated both
by England and Spain SO it's actual capture
by the former was an afterthought and
ut may almost be said an accident, 1t
tn,
instance because at a time when we hap
pened to be at war with one of the rival
claimants to the Spanish throne our ad-
mfral in the Mediterranean happened to
have no particular objective in view, and.
having failed In his only enterprise of that
year. was unwilling to return home with q
fine fleet that had done nothing for the
honor of the flag. So he thought he might
as well make an attack on Gibraltar as do
anything else. Nevertheless his action has
to be reckoned among the notable deeds
that won the empire" and one that on It's
bi-centenary deserves to be had in remem-
brance.