The Treaty of Utrecht
SIR,—I do not think that Mr Ludovic Kennedy (in your issue of August 26) should he prepared to admit quite so readily that 'we do not seem to have much of a de jure case' in Gibraltar.
The Treaty of Utrecht is not the kind of document to be 'thumbed through' without coming to some very fallacious conclusions. Article X, short though it is, has given rise to lengthy and complex argu- ments of interpretation. It is not possible in a letter to go into these in detail but I should like to put forward some brief comments in reply to the points raised by Mr Kennedy.
(1) 'Without any territorial jurisdiction.' I would quote here from Professor C. E. Carrington's Gibraltar (Chatham House Memoranda, Royal Insti- tute of International Affairs); '(the phrase) cannot imply that the fortress was merely leased to Great Britain in some lesser status than sovereignty, as Spanish writers have occasionally implied, because ' all manner of rights" (his omnimodo) have been granted in the earlier sentence. It must therefore apply to "the neighbouring country on the landward s;de," which during the war the British had occupied, as far as San Roque.'
(2) 'Without any open communication by land with the country round about.' To quote again from Carrington : 'no open communication' has always been taken by the British to refer to normal fron- tier control; it does not say `no communication.' The Spaniards have interpreted it in various ways, from time to time, according to the degree of friendliness or hostility they wished to show.
(3) Jews and Moors. In present-day thought this is an, I hope, intolerable, racialist restriction.
(4) Alienation. Decolonisation and alienation of the 'propriety' are not necessarily the same thing. Alienation can only come about as a result of a transfer of sovereignty and this, as everybody now knows, and as i made clear before the United Nations, is the last thing Gibraltarians want.
There are two final points I should like to make.
First, I am of Jewish but not of Moorish blood. Even if I were both Jewish and Moorish or just Jewish as I am, I am sure that no British—or for that matter. Spanish—government would for such a reason suggest that I should not reside in Gibraltar which is my home and has been the home of my ancestors since early in the eighteenth century.
Secondly, I quote the first sentence of Article. X of the Treaty: 'The Catholic King does hereby, for himself, his heirs and successors, yield to the Crown of Great Britain the full and entire propriety of the town and castle of Gibraltar, together with the port, fortifications, and forts thereunto belonging; and he gives up the said propriety to be held and enjoyed absolutely and with all manner of right for ever without any exception or impediment whatsoever.'
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