Spain ignores the wishes of Gibraltar’s citizens

SIR – I read with interest Guy Sainty’s letter (July 18) regarding the sovereignty of Gibraltar.

My understanding is that Spain only became a nation following the expulsion of the Moors in 1492 and the unification of previous independent kingdoms. Thus, Gibraltar was only part of Spanish territory for around 212 years before it was transferred to Britain and it has been British for 313 years, since the Treaty of Utrecht.

It should also be remembered that the Peninsular War was part of a greater ongoing battle against Napoleon’s ambitions to control the whole of Europe.

As for Spain’s “legitimate interest” in the Iberian peninsular, it is wellknown that some provinces, such as Catalonia, no longer wish to be part of a united Spain and that there was a time when Spain dominated its Iberian neighbour, Portugal. The real point is that the citizens of Gibraltar do not wish to become Spanish, any more than the inhabitants of Spain’s parallel settlements in Morocco want to leave it.

I cannot see how the fact that Gibraltar imports far more goods from the Spanish than it exports to them gives Spain a legitimate interest. After all, Britain imports far more from the EU than it exports to it, but that does not give the EU a legitimate interest in controlling Britain. In practice, Gibraltar benefits the economy of the local area of Spain considerably. Were it to be absorbed into Spain, that benefit would be almost entirely lost. Derek Mitchell

Wallington, Surrey