HOME OF KNIGHTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 October 1938, Page 8

HOME OF KNIGHTS

BRITISH ISLAND OF MALTA. Malta, headquarters of the Mediterranean Fleet, and a naval base of particular importance in safeguarding the trade routes to the East, became a British possession on September 5, 1814. The island has a most romantic history, especially in its association with the Knights of St John, to whom the St John Ambulance Association owes its name and inspiration. Malta is ninety-one and a half square miles in area, and lies midway between Gibraltar and Egypt. In 1530 the island was granted by the Emperor Charles V. to the Knights of St John, who had been, driven by .the Turks from their former home at Rodes. They strongly fortified their new home as a bulwark of Christendom, but in the eighteenth century the power of the Knights had so far declined that Napoleon had no difficulty in securing possession of their fortress while on his way to Egypt in 1798. Blockaded by Lord Nelson, after the Battle of the Nile, Malta was surrendered to Great Britain in 1800. The Treaty of Amiens (1802) provided that it should be restored to the Knights of St John as a neutral State, under the protection of the Tsar of Russia, but the British Government refused to hand it over until France had evacuated Holland. In September, 1814, Great Britain was confirmed in possession of the island. For many years Malta enjoyed a measure of responsible government, but in 1936, owing to the persistent abuse of Parliamentary libertiestraceable to Italian propaganda—the island was reconstituted a Crown Colony.