Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 1937. GUARDING A GATEWAY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 57, Issue 249, 2 August 1937, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 1937. GUARDING A GATEWAY.

The mistrust expressed regarding the installation of big gun batteries near Gibraltar is based on realisation of the vital place the Rock occupies in British naval policy. It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of keeping 'Gibraltar inviolate. Its service is the Atlantic gateway of the Mediterranean route to British possessions half a world away is written indelibly. on modern history. Since its acquisition in 1704, in the course of the War of the Spanish Succession, it has proved essential in the overseas expansion of Greater Britain. Again and again has it had to withstand siege by those desiring to cripple the United Kingdom, dependent increasingly, under a necesisty imposed by growth of population, on secure traffic of foodstuffs and raw materials by this eastern waterway. If this route should be no longer secure —and the strategists are becoming so anxious that they begin to discuss new uses for the old trade route by way of the Cape—there will be critical hampering of the communications of a vast extent of the British Commonwealth of Nations. It is true that & strategical situation changed by the invention of aircraft has made narrow seas more vulnerable, and that consequently the Mediterranean cannot now be exclusively the care of the Admiralty ; but the old Cape route, although not so slow as of yore, has still its perils, and to safeguard the Mediterranean cannot be deemed a negligible policy. As long as it is humanly possible to use this way there should be determination not to be shouldered out. Evenj if the desirability of increasing the service of the Cape route to a considerable extent be given some practicable effect, there are too many British interests along the Mediterranean to warrant its abandonment. That is the basis of the British case for jealously guarding Gibraltar as a necessary link in the chain of fortified stations on the Empire’s chief ocean-roads, Britain is determined to maintain a istrong position in the Mediterranean. This policy, which was the burden of Sir Samuel Hoare’s declaration immediately after his return from a cruise in that region, is made imperative by present and prospective circumstances. While there is manifest truth in the contention of many that the problems of the Mediterranean, as they particularly affect Britain, have materially altered in recent years, no sound deduction can induce British indifference to national interests there. The statement made by Mr Eden in the House of Commons last week that the Government 4s resolved to maintain through communications in the Mediterranean is based on Empire needs.