HEROIC MALTA

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 184, 24 November 1941, Page 6

HEROIC MALTA

DANGEROUS POSITION

MEDITERRANEAN SENTINEL

! Nowadaj-s Malta is very little in tlie news, except l'or an occasional obscure paragraph stating that "Malta Avas bombed again last night. Some civilian damage was done, and there were a few casualties," writes Commodore Muirhead-Gould in the Sydney Morning Herald. But we should not forget that Malta is still of vital importance to; the Mediterranean Fleet, and, therefore, to the Empire and tOi Australia.

Situated almost in the centre of the Mediterranean, facing the Straits of Sicii3 r , Malta occupies a proud, but dangerous, position on Mussolini's front doorstep, Avhich lias resulted in saving and persistent bombing from the airfields. In fact, Malta, one of the smallest of our outposts, has suffered more than any other part of the Empire, except England itself. There have been over 500 air raids and several hundred women and children have been killed.

When only the Italians raided il was not so bad, as the Italian pilots usually restricted their attacks to genuine military targets, and so long as the civilian population obeyed the warnings and remained indoors oi went to ground in the caves anc\ catacombs which Malta inherited from the early Christians all wai fairly well, and casualties were light.

Unfortunately, familiarity bred eon tempt, and the people began to come out in the streets to cheer on our fighters in the continual doglights which took place overhead, and when the remorseless Huns came along in their Stukas and started t(\ bomb indiscriminately (even if they did not actually attack deliberately the residential areas), casualties became heavy. There are now ovci 30,000 people homeless and practice ally destitute.

The importance of Malta has lioi much diminished even though it maj not be possible for the Mediterran« ean Fleet to make siu-h full use ol it as in normal times. It still remains a fortified base, where shipa ean be repaired in ease of need (witness the aircraft carrier Illustrious), and it remains a base for smalj craft whose job it is to harry the enemy in the Straits of Sicily. Furthermore, if Ave allowed Malto to fall into the hands of the cncinv

we should find ourselves faced with

grave difficulties, with the Mediterranean divided into two portions, and the fleet in the Eastern Basin permanently separated from the fleet in the Western Basin. It would mean that Italy Avould have practically uninterrupted sea communications between the mainland and Africa, and would put us at a serious strategical disadvantage.