Ian,
I assume that since there is access to the email from any computer with an internet connection, and they aren't deleted from the email server (in this case, Gmail), it's IMAP. I don't however use the cloud for anything, ever, at least not intentionally.
I guess that ultimately, my question was answered. On the mail program on my MBP, I just go to edit, select all, delete. BOOM, all gone. That function does not exist on the iPad. It's not ultimately THAT big a deal anyway. It was annoying that I couldn't figure it out. REALLY dumb though that a task so simple is so **** complicated. Very often iOS is so easy, I can't figure it out because I EXPECT it to be complicated. In this case, it actually IS complicated.
As always, thanks for the responses.
k