Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 January 1910 — GREAT VALUE OF GIBRALTAR. [ARTICLE]

GREAT VALUE OF GIBRALTAR.

Gout* to Excbinsc with ifirntn Ml*hl Be Good Bargain for Britain. “For over 200 years, down to a very recent period,’’ said Irving S. Seymour of Liverpool, at the New Willard recently, according to Washington Herald, *“1116 rock of has been the synonym for impregnability, and Its possession has been thought to invest Great Britain with an absolute control over the entrance to the Mediterranean. , ", “It dominates one of the most frequented waters in the world,” continued Mr. Seymour, who to Interested in the export trade. ‘‘From every quarter of the horizon Which, is visible from its summit the steamship tracks con-, verge. Those coming from the east, from the ports of the Mediterranean, from China, India, Australia and the far Pacific, cross those which arrive there from-England and the United States, from France and Germany, from South America and western Africa, and every day throughout the year nearly 200 -vessels <}eflle between the columns of Hercules and pass In sight of the gigantic fortress which stands there on guard. , “Such being the case,’” added Mr. Seymour, “it to no wonder that Great Britain, with its vast commerce to protect and its distant colonies and dependencies to guard, should these last two centuries have held on to the place with such a tenacious grip, or that it should have spared nothing In its efforts to improve to the uttermost the natural advantages of the position and to make Gibraltar, in very fact, the key to the inland sea at whose entrance It is situated. The control of the "Mediterranean was never so important to Great Britain as it is today, jvhen the road to India and of the east, which used to lie around the Cape of Good Hope, has been diverted to the Suez canal. and the Red Sea, and to make sure of that control against whatever opposition may be encountered has been, and Is, the constant solicitude of the British government. Everything that is possible has been done, not only to render Gibraltar impregnable, but to develop Its full utility as a naval base. Yet a grave doubt has been raised as to Gibraltar’s strength, and there are those who declare that the trust which to placed in Gibraltar as a naval base might, if put to the test, be disappointed. Ceuta would be of much greater value to England than Gibraltar, and so good an authority as Sir Charles Dllke (has argued that if Spain be Induqpd to exchange Ceuta Gibraltar. It would be a good bargain for Great Britain.”