Mr Howard won’t get his war with Spain

Recalling Michael Howard’s Balkan ancestry, the former Tory leader’s sabre-rattling that we might have to do a “Falklands” if Spain seized Gibraltar brought to mind a memorable anecdote from the Second World War. This was recorded by Mussolini’s foreign minister, Count Ciano, in his diary for May 1942, describing how Hungary declared war on the United States.

Hungary was ruled by Admiral Horthy, who had been the last commander of the Austro-Hungarian navy before in 1919 it lost its access to the Adriatic. He had then been declared “Regent” until Hungary elected a king, which it never did. The US official informed by a minister that Hungary had declared war had not been fully briefed on all this, so began by suggesting that, if Horthy was a regent, then Hungary must be a kingdom.

“No, we are a republic.” But if your man is an admiral, you must have a fleet? “No, we have no sea.” But you say you are declaring war on America because you have “claims”. Do you have claims against the United States? “No.” Do you have claims against Great Britain? “No.” Then who do you have claims against? “Romania.” So why aren’t you declaring war against Romania? “Because they are our allies.”

As far as I can discern, Hungary never did actually declare war on the US. Despite Mr Howard’s Romanian background, I suspect we shall not be declaring war on Spain any time soon.