Answer Dr Fox

Dear Sir,

Allow me to answer the Rt Hon Dr Liam Fox the Defence Secretary for his remarks that Spanish attitude on waters unjustified, intolerable... but the solution is political.

Sorry Sir, Spain is ‘de facto’ openly challenging the UK’s very presence in Gibraltar and its waters and  also infringing three previous agreements dealing with this. In the first instance the 1907 Pact of Cartagena, which in the words of the then British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey later the 1st Lord Fallodon, was the first time Spain had acknowledged British possession of Gibraltar and its waters, so how come 104 years later they are back to their old tricks, secondly their usurping with their usual skullduggery, waters designated as British in 2006 by the EU, mine you the FO representative gave the wrong co-ordinates which placed us in Algeria and although the law provides for genuine mistakes to be rectified, no one is any the wiser why your Foreign Office did nothing and last but not least Spain is in violation of the UN Convention of the Seas and their so called statement and/or declaration does not modify one iota the Convention, furthermore if you care to request the FO to check it and then declare in which part of the Convention does it state not applicable to colonial territories.

This situation has now got out of hand because once again appeasement does not work and never has, if you are looking for a political solution, forget it because all that the UK will be doing is condoning illegal acts by Spain.

What a pity no FO Mandarin thought of a political way out to the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya and avoid sacrificing British lives, since after all no British Nationals were trampled in any of the above theatres of war but the Gibraltarians have been and continue to suffer at the hands of a so called Democracy.

Yours faithfully.

W.L.Chamberland.