The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1916-09-02

stands today as it has stood
two centuries in the grasp OF
Britain. Never ceaslng in her vigi.
lance Britain's thin red line of soldiers
has held this well-nigh i%mpregnable
fortress year in and year out. Wars
have come and ars have gone, but no
power for a century has even threat
ened the looming, f~orbidding rock.
They say the central powers of Eu-
rope offer to give the frowning rock
back to Spain if Spain will cast her
lot with them. But before the gift
may be made by the Austro-G Germans 1t
must first be won. You have to catch
your rabbit, you know, before you a
skin it.
And in the meantime Great Britain
keeps her never-ending watch we the
portal Of the Mediterranean.
Every moment, day and night, in
times of peace, as well as il times of
war, for upward of 100 years, a line of
British sentinels has stood on the shore
side of the rock watching out over a
narrow strip of low lying neutral
ground toward the shore of Spain to
guard against surprise. And every
moment, for over 100 years, a sentry
has stood upon the highest pinnacle of
the rock and gazed out over the sea.
Generations of sentinels have lived and
died and been replaced by others;
wars have come and gone; no attack
has ever been made or even threat
ened against the rock, but the eternal
vigilance has never relaxed, not for
one minute in the last 100 years.
The sleepless vigilance through the
century may well be taken as typical
of the bulldog temper of the British
people. They have salted this rock
down with their blood and bones. They
have given too many lives for it to
ever give it up now so long as a Brit.
ish soldier lives to fight for it. And SO
this precipice of rock, looming out of
the sea, looking out across the strait
to the shore of Africa, the mysterious,
keeps on brooding there in grim ST.
lence, with its thousands of guns
shotted, always ready, ever watching
e- ""itihS lilOuSl tHe centuries,
Honeycombed With Tunnels.
Britain has held the Rock of Gibral-
tar for 200 years and has fortified
1t so strongly hat 1t has been known
for a century as 'impregnable Gil
braltar." To capture it an attacking
force would literally have to pound the
vast rock to dust. Gibraltar is honey
combed with tunnels and the muzzles
of the greatest guns in the world
bristle from a thousand openings in
the face of the rock, like pins stuck
in a paper. What would those guns be
doing to a fleet or land force that got
close enough to throw shells against
the rock?
1t is very well to state, as some mill
tary men have said these past two
years, that modern guns which can
shoot more than the 20 miles across
the narrow gap hat divides Europe
from Africa could render the place I'M
tenable, but no power yet has seen fit
to try it out. The odds are too great
and the prize too inconsiderable for
the price.
FruitIess Siege of Four Years.
The last time an attempt was made
to take Gibraltar was 100 years ago.
France and Spain together undertook
to capture Gibraltar from the British.
Inside the rock, hidden in the tunnels
like ants in a hill, were 5000 British
soldiers. Attacking them were 81, 900
of the best trained fighters In the
world and a fleet of Al ships. For four
years the siege went on. 1t was one
of the greatest sieges in all history
and there were many deeds of daring,
but the 61,000 had never a chance
against 5000 safely hidden in their
rock cells, Just the muzzles of their
guns thrust out and hurting red-hot
iron shot.
That was a century ago. Ever since |
then the human moles g%arrisoned there
have been boring and burrowing deep
er into the rock, storing food and am
munition in great chambered galleries,
even below the sea level; mounting
guns and making the rock as
unconquerable as possible. They |
are never idle, those human moles.
They are always making the place
stronger.