Further submission from W L Chamberland,
Gibraltar
My most profound apologies for my continuous
writing on the same subject ie Gibraltar, but after reading some
of the answers given to your committee by the Chief Minister,
I like many others take umbrage at his remarks, moreso without
a mandate from the electorate.
Julius Caesar's famous saying, Veni, Vidi, Vici,
can be translated for Caruana as "I arrived, I lied and I
went into my usual tantrum".
How can any person continue to lie in this way,
"Cordoba agreement welcomed overwhelmingly
by the people of Gibraltar". Is an election win by a mere
600 votes considered a mandate by him?
Next, when asked by Mr Horam about immigration,
answer this is exclusively in the hands of the Gibraltar Government
therefore without a mandate he granted this concession to allow
Spaniards to bypass Gibraltar immigration controls before taking
it to the House of Assembly and we the citizens and owners of
the air terminal have to abide by the Laws of Gibraltar.
You saw in his party's Manifesto for 2003 that
he was adamant on "safe dialogue" full stop no mention
of signing anything, where is his much promised referendum. The
much talked about new Constitution which according to him and
him alone de-colonises Gibraltar, a constitution which he rush
through just before he signed the Cordoba Agreement to placate
his Spanish friends. Proof. Wednesday 7 June 2006, The Iranian
News Agency in London gave a resume of the proposed talks on a
new constitution for Gibraltar and stated that the right to self-determination
for the people on the peninsular but conditioned to "existing
treaties" this condition is believed to have been included
at the insistence of Spain, how convenient that this turns up
in Clause 5 of the Despatch and the Referendum for the Constitution
is rushed through before the signing of the Cordoba Agreement.
NB Results of Referendum—Total Electorate 20,061, 7,299
persons voted YES, 4,574 voted NO and 7,944 persons did not vote.
Contrary to established practices, no electioneering allowed day
before, Mr Caruana usurped the local TV for a YES campaign and
not allowed oppositions to have a say and took out full page adverts
on day before referendum and when challenged his excuse was that
rules only applied to elections and not to referendum as if Gibraltar
had a plebiscite every year.
Because I have not been able to obtain a copy
from the internet I shall be posting two articles which appeared
in the local press, which after all is what people read.
In regard to the establishing of the "Cervantes
Institute" it is precisely the Spaniards who are as usual
mixing culture and politics and Mr Caruana's statement leaves
much to be desired. In the first instance, he like all of Gibraltar
know that English is the official language and Spanish is taught
as a "Foreign" one, the language of the Administration,
and the Courts is English. It is Spain that has contemplated the
appointment of a seasoned diplomat rather than an intellectual
with, in their own words try to substitute Spanish for English
and furthermore to allow this individual access into Gibraltar's
official forum.
If Mr Caruana is not aware of this, then he
and he alone is the individual responsible for the situation prevailing,
because Spanish diplomatic sources name him as the instigator
behind this move. Another very important point is the re-opening
of the "Spanish Consulate", something which Spain refuses
to do because this would recognise that Gibraltar is a "Foreign"
territory. Permit me Sir to bring to your notice and that of your
committee the circumstances prevailing up to 1954, when as a result
of Her Majesty's visit, the dictator Franco closed the consulate,
this incident in contravention of the spirit of Article vi of
Utrecht. A Spanish consulate had existed in Gibraltar since time
immemorial and in fact up to the start of the Civil War there
were in fact two, one representing the Republican side and the
other the Nationalist, in the end Franco won and the republican
one closed, in fact I was fortunate enough to know both consuls.
The Cervantes lark is Spain's way of flying
their flag without accepting that Gibraltar is not Spanish and
no doubt because we know them in all probability three (3) flags
will appear, the Spanish, the European and nor forgetting the
Andalusian one because in their warped mind Gibraltar is part
of Andalusia, within days they will start to flog to the Europeans
their theory that Gibraltar is now part of Spain and who is responsible
for all this, non other than the Chief Minister of Gibraltar without
implied mandate except an election victory by 600 votes.
17 March 2008
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