ANTIQUE “ANDERSONS”

Evening Star, Issue 23686, 20 September 1940, Page 9

ANTIQUE “ANDERSONS”

THE MALTA BOMB-SHELTERS [From Our Correspondent] LONDON, August 8. Once France had been knocked out by bis Axis partner, and Mussolini felt reasonably safe in throwing off the mask of non-belligerency, it was a foregone conclusion that Malta would be persistently peppered by Italian bombers. These attacks arc being sustained with fortitude even by the Maltese civilians, who are finding ideal bombshelters in the ancient underground catacombs. Those Phoenician or Roman relics, dating back thousands of years, constitute perfect »\nderson shelters. The island is honeycombed with them, deep down beyond the effect of any high-explosive projectiles, and ample to accommodate the entire population. How weird is the fact that our twen-tieth-century necessities find a new use for these souvenirs of a vanished classic epoch. Malta is of rich historical association. It is believed that Hannibal, whose father was GovernorGeneral of Sicily, may have been born in Malta, and a later era found the famous Knights of Malta a bulwark against Mohammedan menace, much as Britain is to-day against that of German v.