"GIS" IN WAR TIME.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 July 1917, Page 4

"GIS" IN WAR TIME.

UNMISTAKABLY ENGLISH. ] - • I (By Hamilton Pyfe, Oar Special 3 Correspondent in Spain.) < ] 5 * Aloe onus, May 1 , The road from Cadiz to Algeciras , was bumpy, and dusty. Spain, I said, ia, no country for motoring. iy didn't I take tho train ? . ; But when we bad passed Tarita, the dirty tittle town on the Spanish s ore of the Straits which is so Moorish, still that the holiday dress of the women includes a modification ot the Moslem veil, we turned oft into the mountains, and I began to be... .glad I had come by car. j 5 The African shore seemed to be close to us when we were high up. j The white houses of Tangier glowed j in the level beams of the setting sun. And then, suddenly, we saw Gibraltar, the Book, the old lion lying there, grey and watchful, the little bit of England which has been here on the southernmost corner of Spain for two centuries, guarding the narrows which join the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, guaranteeing to all and sundry whose intents are peaceful the free and unhindered passage of the seas. I sat up straight as I saw it A thrill ran down my back. A thrill of pride in my country and my countrymen, the men who had won and kept the Bock. A thrill of gratitude for all that England meant to me, for all the thoughts and memories which the sight of the Rock brought surging into my mind. A little steamer was coming across the Bay 'of Algeciras, the little steamer which plies between “ Gib and the western shore. A couple ot torpedo boats were chasing out into the Mediterranean. I heard the faint boom of the sunset gun and imagined I conld see the white ensigns fluttering down on the men-o’-war in the Harbour. England was a long way off, yet here was an outpost of England. The Empire of \ Britain lay spread all round the world, and here was one of its pulses. You can tell by the slowness or the quickness of beat in Gibraltar whether the state of the Empire 4 normal or disturbed. A casual visitor might suppose that the war had not made much cliffeienee to the people on the Rock ; there are seventeen thousand inhabitants who live there always, you must remember, as well as the naval and military forces. One afternoon theie were races. The day before, the hunt had had its last day out. Concerts were being given by a Follies troupe of gunners, with severs! pro-fes-ionals in it. Through the main fctreet, with its numerous postcard p.nd tobacco and knick-knack shops, like the street of a seaside town at home, the usual throng of idlers drifts in the sunshine, the usual busy figures pass with qnick step and pre. occupied a.ir. *’o

In the shady,: flowery, public gardens which separate the town of the townspeople from the quarter where most of the officials and officers live in their solid, thoroughly British houses, thero js the same feeling as ever of delightful, drowsy, lotus-eat-ing contentment. Outward and visible signg of. change from peace conditions there are few. But probe beneath the surface and yon come upon them at once. PEEPING THE WAR STRATA’.

All those upon whom responsibilities weigh are,, working at full pressure. Neyer by uiglii nor by day does Ibe tension slacken. There are no holidays, no regular hours of work. Barring necessary intervals for food and sleep, they work all the time. Gone the old pleasant days of rides into the hills; of dinner parties followed by btidge; of week-ends spent at Algeciras, where is the best hotel in Spain, and a garden that is one of the most enchanting in the world. War is a serious matter’ everywhere, but Gibraltar feels the strain of it more than most other places. The admiral in command has a heavy burden laid . upon him, though not, happily, too heavy for a sailor of capabilities so well proved. In all branches of both Services ■efforts are being made commensurate with what the Empire expects from “ Gib,”

It does one good, after being in dirty, dusty, smelly Spanish towns, to walk afiont the clean, well-paved streets of Gibraltar, to note }row everything is done to v make life

healthy, to see how briskly the i | natives, who are hnostly of Italian '■< origin, go about their business and 1 iow prosperous they seem to be. No f leggai’s here, no filthy, ragged child- 1 ■en, pestering for li ': thontunetoes.” i • Ah,” say the Spaniards who come lere to sell their produce or to work is day labourers, if we only had a ;owu like this to live in ! ” The Germans have been stirring ap the embers of Spanish resentment igainst us for keeping Gibraltar. A Spanish general the other day de- j livered himself of an address suggest- | ing the exchange of “ Gib ” for Ceuta, on the African coast. He • was promptly relieved of his post he was Governor of Cadiz-for bis . boldness in going further and telling his countrymen they would do well to hand all their Morocco territory over to us—for a consideration. Nobody paid much attention to his address except the people of the country round about “ Gib.” They would be very much alarmed if they thought there was any likelihood of our leaving the Rock. They rpake a good living ont of us. Tliey know,, unfortunately, that without the English the prosperity of Gibraltar'and the demand for their produce would come to an end. WAKE PUT. AND PREPARED. The rural population fqr fifty miles round would like to have us take over their territory also. It speaks well for the way we have behaved in “ Gib ” all these t\yo hundred years that the British name stands so high. Numbers of Spanish women in the neighbourhood do their best to have their children born there. All the mothers in that part of Andalusia think longingly of British citizenship for their babies. I need hardly say the authorities on the Rock do not encourage the attainment of this ambition, so complimentary to us. It is said that any lady who is not a Gibraltarian and who appears to be about to become a mother is politely invited to return to Spain. There is a good deal of Spanish blood in the inhabitants, as, well as Italian and Maltese. They are a clean and industrious race, proud of tlieir British passports. For ail its Southern languor cf climate, its riot of blossom, its glare of semi-tropical sunshine, Gib ” lias kept itself unmistakably English. No need of the Union .lack to tell one that this is a' British possession. From the admiral’s house, high up, commanding the Straits, one feels as if one were looking out over the Solent of Plymouth Sound. So thoroughly have \ve made the place our own that it is not we who seem exotic there,-hut rather the luxuriant growth of flowering trees and bushes, the palms and cactus, the monkeys, the African blueness of sky and sea.

As I look across at night from my window at Algeciras and see the lights twinkling thick on the Rock, I feel the same thrill that ran over me when I saw it suddenly in the sunset glamour. And then from several points there stream forth the thick white beams of searchlights. “ Gib ” is watch'd] g, wakeful, and.prepared. Those beams of light scouring the sea are the eyes of England. Behind them is the might of the Navy that never sleeps.