Rock of Ages

Secure with American military aid, dictator France is renewing Spanish agitation for control of Gibraltar by planned riots and diplomatic insults. Mindful of American eagerness to hold airfields on the Iberian peninsula, France has embarrassed the British by acting when the U.S. wants to please him. The United states is reluctant to take sides in the dispute, a policy which jeopardized the British position.

Although America's recent pact with Spain involved only bases, the Spanish seem to believe it is a license for France's bold actions. And while the State department remains quick the British interpret the silence as mute agreement with France, who is eager to turn every diplomatic twist to his advantage.

Unfettered by American protests, Spain insists that modern armaments have made British fortifications on the bastion useless. Yet NATO experts regard the underground defenses of the Rock as secure as man can devise, and consider Gibraltar a vital point in the regulation of trade and supply routes to the Mediterranean. Solely on the basis of defense policy, the British have good reason to keep a tight grip on Gibraltar.

But France is unlikely to accept the British stand of his own volition, and the unfortunate diplomatic war will continue unless the State department attempts to resolve the issues by making a policy statement. The United States should insist that she will ot prejudice her friendship with Britain for the sake of Spanish air bases: France must not use America as a lever for territorial claims. Firmness may not end the conflict, defense of Western Europe, and would assure the British that America respects her intention to remain at Gibraltar.