Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1904-12-10
GIBRALlAR's 400 YEARS.
Taken by Rookie in 1904 as an After
thought, Now Britain's Pride.

lhouSht, NOW Brlta1n'S Pride
On August 4. 1904 new style, tho
Rock of Gibraltar was captured L,.
Great Britain, and it has remained in bo,.
possession from that day to this. Amonc
the many possessions scattered all over
the globe that are comprised in the Brit.
ish empire today, there is none that tha
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 tban
the redoubtable stronghold we took from
Spain ut the beginning of the reign If
Queen Anne. -
The fact that throughout the Eigh.-
| eenth century, when so many conduests
IN both hemispheres changed hands back
ward and forward in successive wars
ana under successive treaties. Gibraltar
remained permanently in the keeping Of
England might seem to prove that Rrit-
lSh sentiment IN regard to it was from
the nrst the same as it is today. Rut
tins Is far from having been the case
fof although at the end of POO years
OF our possession of the fortress. at -
time when the imperial instinct of Eng
lshmen has become more consciously do
Yeioped and more deeply ingrained than
ever before, and at the same time more
intelllgently appreciative of the trun
strateglcal requirements of its main
tenance, the retention Of the key of the
Mediterranean has become an essential
article of our political creed, it was n
considerable time before the immense
value of the acquisition was fully realized
by British statesmen.
1t seems strange enough TO rs to rp
member that King George |. and his
ministers were ready to give UP Gibraltar
merely TO secure SPANS acquescence in
the arrangement by which the quadruple
alllance was anxious to make some pet
lIogglng notifications in the shuttle OF
territories affected by the treaty of If
recht, but it is still more extraordinary
that SO clear-sighted patriotic and high
spirited an empire builder as Lord
Chatham himself should have made a
similar offer as an inducement to Spain
TO help us recover Mnorca-and This.
moreover, at time when the fortress
had been in our hands for more than half
century and its vital importance to our
growing maritime supremacy had already
Deen abundantly proved in the naval wars
OF the period. Happily the Snaniards
were as blind as ourselves to the supreme
importance of the position, commanding
Inc road from the Atlantic to the Medi-
terranean.
The truth is, as readers of Mahan do
not need to be reminded. that the i'm
portance Of sea power and the nature of
the foundations on which it is based were
very lmperfectly grasped even by Eng
land IN the Seventeenth and the first half
OF the Eighteenth century and scarcely
at all by any other European power. Dc
caslonally, at intervals some statesman
like Colbert in France, or Alberoni in
Spain, had more than an inkling of the
truth, but no nation except England
made deliberate and sustained efforts
with view TO maritime DEVELOPMENT.
Even England did so rather by instinct
than by insight
Of this blindness to the true PRINCIPLES
OF maritime policy, the taking of Gibral-
tar and its history during the following
three-quarters of a century afford a strik-
ing illustration. Just as the vast imDor-
lance of its acquisition was at the time
moderated both by England and SpaiD,
so ITS actual capture by the former was
an afterthought and lit may almost be
said an accident. 1t became n British
possession in the first instance because at
a time when we happened to be at war
with one of the rival claimants TO the
Spanish throne our admiral in the Nedi-
terranean happened to have no particular
oDJectlye in view, and. having failed in
ms only enterprise of that year, was I'M
Wiling to return home with a fine fleet
that had done nothing for the honor of
the flag. So he thought he might rs well
make an attack on Gibraltar as do any
thing else. Nevertheless, his action has
to be reckoned among the notable deeds
that won the empire and one that on
Its bl-centenary deserves to be had in re-
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Century and
After.