The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 1930. SITUATION AT MALTA.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 June 1930, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 1930. SITUATION AT MALTA.

The history of Malta, says the Otago limes, extends back at least to da\s >vlien the islands were inhabited by ■Neanderthal man. Through the ages, so far as can be judged by scientists, Malta has very often been a storm centre, and it is a regrettable fact that in the enligheued year 1930 a.u. the storms continue—so slow is the process by which reason comes to triumph over jealousies and rivalries, ft might have been thought that after having enjoyed for over a century -me security which tenure by Great Britain has conferred, the Maltese would now be a peaceful and contented community, Such is, unfortunately, nardly the case, as recent cable messages have indicated hut too clearly, It must not, however, he assumed that the Maltese as a whole are disaffected, or even that a majority of the pophlace is dissatisfied with the present administration. The issue in Malta is partly political and partly religious, and unrest centres particularly around the figure of one man, Lord Strickland, hereditary Count Bella Catena 111 the island nobility and Head of the Ministry. Lord Strickland's position has been made extremely difficult through a dispute, now of some fifteen months’ duration, with the Holy See. The Vatican has chosen to advertise its animosity to Lord Strickland as head of the Government, and of the Constitutional Party, and the precis of a White Paper laid before the British Parliament, recently makes it apparent that me British Government has, in upholding his authority, taken the only possible course. Malta is a sell’-goveining community of the Kinpire the youngest—and it becomes the duty of Great Britain to adopt the same attitude towards this State as it would Lo. say, Now Zealand were the civil liberty of the people of this Bom'n ion brought into ones! ion. The privilege of a - universal and secret ballot is one of the most important enjoyed within the self-governing dependencies of the British Conimonwalth, and the attempt of the Holy See, which ,scorns to be established beyond ‘jiie-il ion. to interfere in trie

Maltese elections must he deplored, 'the position appears all ;the more strange when it is realised that the island depends wholly upon Great Britain h.r its livelihood, as a writer in the Daily Telegraph stresses: “The natural wealth of tne island is nil; industry is in its infancy. A population of a quarter of a million souls living on sixty squaie miles of rock depend lor their livelihood on Iho naval and military establishments.” The inperlere.ice iof the Vatican in the Constitutional affairs of .Malta may be accepted as being purely disinterested, though ill-advised and against the best interests of the Maltese, but it must be remembered that Italy also is rather keenly con. entrating its attention upon .Malta, which it looks upon as Italian' “unredeemed” territory, .and that the politico-religious controversy now raging is of more than passing significance to the Italian •Government Under all the circumstances 'the British Government has acted in the only possible way in suspending election proceedings. The responsibility now rests with the Holy .See to do what it- can to terminate the unsatisfactory state in which the affairs of Malta are left suspended, and it should not be too much to hope that negotiations for delining the relations between Church and State, which the Vatican has rendered impossible, should be resumed in the near future.