Saturday 17 August 2013

Silver Lining

Gibraltar is to issue a silver coin with Churchill on it, and the words "We Will Never Surrender".

But Gibraltar is only still under British sovereignty because Labour won the 1945 Election and removed Churchill from office.

After Franco had refused to let Hitler use Spain in order to invade Gibraltar and thus seize control of the Straits, Churchill had promised Gibraltar to Franco once the War was safely won.

That would have been just another colonial transfer in those days. In May 1940, Churchill had been all ready to give Gibraltar, Malta, Suez, Somaliland, Kenya and Uganda to Mussolini.

Gibraltar (or the Falkland Islands) was not a point of honour in the Age of Empire, even in those last days of it. It was just another colony.

But Churchill lost at the ballot box.

Therefore, the man who handed over Eastern Europe to Stalin never got to hand over Gibraltar to Franco. For that reason alone.

1 comment:

  1. Curiously, a similarly deal was offered to De Velera who refused to get involved. Franco, Salazar and Dev were all smart men but the latter was the smartest of them all.

    With these guys around, it's a wonder how J23 made such a mess of the 2nd Vatican Council?

    ReplyDelete