European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 22, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sparks of Independence on Gibraltar by Edward Cody Washington Post after nearly 300 years As an impregnable British fortress on the tip of Spain Gibraltar has begun to stir with ambitions of its own. The rocks role As a nato monitoring and naval base on the Strait linking the Mediterranean with the Atlantic is Likely to endure despite the East West thaw. But alongside that traditional vocation several Gibraltar ans said in interviews Gibraltar is moving toward economic self sufficiency mainly through offshore banking designed to give it a foundation for greater political Independence from Britain. These aspirations flow not Only from a feeling that Gibraltar s status As a British Crown Colony May have become anachronistic they said. For the last two years in particular they said the reason also lies in suspicions that despite denials London could come to care More about relations with Spain in the european Community than holding off Madrid s claim to the 2.2-Square-mile Peninsula. Largely because he incarnated these feelings chief minister Joe Bassano led his socialist labor party to Victory two years ago Over the venerable sir Joshua Hassan whose association for the advancement of civil rights had managed Gibraltar almost without interruption since world War ii in general Harmony with Britain a colonial administration. Bassano ignoring his party a leftist sounding name has aggressively pursued his goal of making Gibraltar a Luxembourg like Center for offshore investments into the european Community s integrated Market scheduled for 1993. The number of Banks Here has risen from eight in 1985 to 24 this year. Their assets have quadrupled to $4 billion since Bassano took office. A people feel More Independent now than they did two years ago Quot Bassano said in an interview. Quot there is a sense of National Pride in our achievements because we Are doing them  but Bassano 50, and most other Gibraltar ans have stopped Well Short of demanding Legal Independence from Britain largely because Spain with its perennial claim to the Rock lies Only a five minute drive away. As things stand Britain has retained responsibility for defense and foreign affairs while the elected government of Gibraltar has taken Over most of the rest. This arrangement was endorsed overwhelmingly in the last referendum on the Issue held in 1967 at Spain s demand. A to that extent we Are already standing As an Independent nation Quot Bassano said noting that most. National geographic aspirations of Independence guarding the Western Entrance to a and exit from a the Mediterranean Gibraltar juts out into the water and climbs to a height of 1,398 feet important government decisions have to do with economics anyway. The British military establishment Here which accounted for 65 percent of Gross National product in the 1970s, has shrunk to about 25 percent of the $342 million Gnu since a Royal Navy dockyard was turned Over to civilian operators. The hesitations about Independence have not flowed from kinship Between the British Back Home and Gibraltar s 28,000 residents despite the British soldiers red Telephone Booths and policemen dressed As bobbies who patrol main Street and its shop advertising Quot truly British fish and  the rocks history instead has peopled it with a Hodgepodge of maltese genoese sephardic jews spaniards and moroccans in addition to britons who never went Home. Conversing with equal ease in Spanish and English often in the same sentence Many Gibraltar ans seem to have acquired a sense of identity that if not National is at least municipal. Robert Sanguinetti for example has at age 34 just taken Over a family business that has been flourishing on main Street since his Grandfather arrived from Genoa to make a new life. Quot standing on our own feet would be a wonderful thing Quot he told a visitor intrigued by the polished brass plaque outside his shop. Quot James Sanguinetti and son est. 1870,&Quot it reads. Quot furniture restorer French polishing and washing funeral  having conquered Gibraltar in the War of the Spanish succession Britain formalized its Possession in the treaty of utrecht in 1713. That document however also specified that if the British Ever left the territory would revert to Spain. Spanish governments Long have denounced the treaty without Success. The Franco regime backed up its ire by closing the Frontier beginning in 1963, creating an indelible hostility among the Gibraltar Ian population penned on Peninsula except for London bound flights. After Spain returned to democracy the Border was reopened in 1985. London and Madrid have made particular efforts to smooth out the dispute since Spain joined the european Community in 1986. But the people of Gibraltar themselves remembering the 22-year closure have remained determined to avoid what they Are certain is Spain a design. Quot there is not a single Gibraltar Ian who does not believe that the ultimate aim of Spain is sovereignty a said Andrew Haynes a lawyer who recalled How the isolation harmed his fathers business. The most dramatic illustration of Gibraltar s resolve to stay out of Spanish hands came two years ago when British and Spanish negotiators reached agreement on shared use of the Gibraltar Airstrip built by British soldiers on reclaimed land during world War ii. Spain bound travellers could pass through Spanish customs while Gibraltar bound arrivals would continue to show passports at a British immigration Booth the Accord provided. But Gibraltar a and particularly Bassano who campaigned on the Issue a refused to go along saying the Deal bowed too clearly to Spain. Britain pledged to do nothing against the will of Gibraltar ans has let the matter stand while Spain fumes. Stars 0 and stripes bookstores Sta Sand stripes bookstores / another top 10 paperback discount available at 10% off from cover Price Anne Rice s the Mummy is another stars and stripes top 10 paperback available at ten percent off from cover Price at a stars and stripes Bookstore near you. Ramses the great lives. But having drunk the elixir of life he is now Ramses the damned doomed forever to wander the Earth desperate to quell hungers that can never be satisfied a for food for wine for women. Reawakened in opulent edwardian London he becomes or. Ramsey expert in egyptology. He also becomes the close companion of voluptuous adventurous Julie Stratford heiress to a vast shipping Fortune and the Center of a group of jaded aristocrats with appetites of their own to appease. But the pleasures Ramses enjoys with Julie cannot sooth him. Searing memories of his last reawakening at the Behest of Cleopatra his beloved Queen of Egypt Burn in his immortal soul. And though he is immortal he is still All too human. His intense longing for his great love undiminished Over the centuries will Force him to commit an act that will place everyone around him in the gravest  and stripes bookstores stars and stripes bookstores it 30 it it z o it h 2j Quot a m too o o o 00 m c0 sunday april 22, 1990 the stars and stripes a a a Page 17