Government booklet marks 50 years of border closure

The Government has published a commemorative booklet to mark the 50th anniversary of the closure of the border in 1969.
Some 8,000 copies of the book have been produced and will be distributed to all local schools.
The books can also been collected free of charge from the Heritage Trust in John Mackintosh Square and from No 6 Convent Place.
On 8 June 1969, General Franco closed the land border between Gibraltar and Spain.
The booklet contains a chronology of events leading up to the closure and includes photographs and press cuttings of the time.
The booklet also includes photographs of the United National when then Chief Minister Sir Joshua Hassan and Peter Isola went to address the committee in 1963.
It opens with a joint-foreword by Caretaker Chief Minister Fabian Picardo and Caretaker Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia and ends with a series of interviews from people who lived through the event.
This is the third in a series of commemorative booklets that the Government have issued on important historical events.
The first in 2015 marked 75 years of the wartime evacuation of the people of Gibraltar. The second in 2017 featured the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Referendum.
The idea is that the booklets will be used to teach the younger generations about Gibraltar history in schools.
The distribution to the schools will begin over the next couple weeks.
“The Government took a policy decision early during our first term of office that we needed to mark important milestones in the history of Gibraltar,” Dr Garcia said.
“We have done this in relation to the evacuation, the 1967 referendum and now the closure of the land border by Spain in 1969. The border closure was a traumatic event for many people in Gibraltar.”
“It separated families and tore communities apart. It also meant that Gibraltar had to turn to Morocco for the supply of goods and labour.”