HOLD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 July 1940, Page 9

HOLD

KEY OF MEDITERRANEAN. MANY HISTORIC ASSOCIATIONS. A vital area in British trade routes through the Mediterranean is that where the troubled sea narrows between Sicily and Tunisia, writes Joseph Michael. Standing like a sentinel at this point, by which all traffic moving along the length of the Mediterranean must pass, lies Malta, Britain’s most important overseas naval base in the Occident. It is a small island, only seventeen miles long and nine broad, but its 92J square miles of limestone rock and cultivated fields have witnessed historic events whose interest and number are out of all proportion to its size. It was here that St Paul is said to have been shipwrecked, and the Maltese believe that it is through the Apostle that they were converted to Christianity. After an interim, when they were conquered by the Moors and their island was used for piratical expeditions, they came under the rulers of Sicily, who governed them from 1090 to 1530. It was in that year that the famous Knights Templar of the Order of St John arrived in Malta. They fortified the island with great skill, the fortifications being of high value during the great Turkish siege of 1565, which was beaten off with a loss of over 30,000 men to the invaders.

Visitors to Malta, entering its Grand Harbour, are struck by the formidable and extensive fortifications built under the Knights, by which the capital, Valetta, its suburb, Floriana and the three cities, Senglea, Cospicua, and Vittoriosa, on the opposite side, are encircled. At the time of construction they were considered impregnable. Notabile was Malta's former capital. There is also the residential town of Sliema, as well as 30 villages and several hamlets.

Valetta, begun in 1566 under Grand Master Jean Parisot de la Valette, stands on a high, rocky promontory, jutting out seawards and dividing the Grand Harbour from Marsamuscetto or Quarantine Harbour. Its streets of stairs leading to both harbours, and others which for the highest points assume the shape of a broad letter “V,” are some of the main characteristics of Malta’s capital. The most attractive features of this city are its stately structures, their historical associations, and the magnificent souvenirs they contain.

The Royal Malta University dates back to 1577. The “Auberges,” scattered over Valetta, were the seats of the different “Langues” of the Order. They are imposing edifices of superior importance. The French Revolution first brought Malta into prominence from a strategic point of view. The victorious young Napoleon Bonaparte occupied Malta as a preparation to his Egyptian campaign. In his absence, however, the Maltese, aided by British and Neapolitan troops, revolted and drove the French garrison out. Henceforth it remained in British hands, an invaluable aid to the expansion of British commerce on which the very life of Great Britain nowadays depends. In the past, present, and future of the Maltese Islands, there has always been an eager interest, and for an obvious reason. Geologically, these fragments of rock are what is left of a bridge between Italy and Africa. Strategically, Malta has been- regarded hitherto —whatever it may become under new conditions —as the key of the Mediterranean, Shipping, whether from the east or west, has to pass that way. , What is known popularly as Malta' consists of two main islands —Malta itself covering ninety-one square miles and Gozo twenty square miles. For archaeologists, historians and tourists these islands are a paradise. Before history came to be written in books Malta’s history was being written in the rocks. The island is curiously scored with cart ruts thousands of years old which end at the coast and seem to show that here is a fragment of what once was a much larger territory. The island was Phoenician. There are dark temples to be explored, hewn out of rock, with mysterious passages and. in one case, a hole in the wall which serves as a megaphone through which the priest, as deity, could thunder forth its oracle. Rock temples, built by masons, include massive pillars that suggest human sacrifices.

Many immigrations—Greek, Roman, Norman. French and British—have contributed to Malta’s population of 230,000. Most Maltese have learned English; one out of six speaks Italian. But the language that everyone talks is still Phoenician in origin. For instance, the Phoenicians were matriarchal and the Maltese have no word that precisely signifies father. It is pleasant weather in Malta—as a rule. But from time to time there descends on the island a hurricane known as “gregalia,” which sweeps all before it. Malta has need of her breakwaters for, in 1585, no fewer than 600 persons were drowned at Valetta. and the “gregalia” has resulted in shipwrecks, some of which will never be forgotten. Homer tells how the hero Ulysses, during his voyages, was driven by the storm on to Gozo, where still may be seen the cave in which, according to legend, the wanderer dwelt with the nymph Calypso. Another pice of pilgrimage for tourists is the shore where a ship from Alexandria, on which St Paid was a passenger, was wrecked. That was the occasion when the Maltese heard of Christianity, and the inlet is still called St Paid’s Bay. The island was a stepping stone between Jerusalem and Rome.

Alone of all British territory its Government owns an opera house, and maintains an annual opera season; runs a lottery with weekly drawings as a Government Department; and operates the pawnbroking establishments. No rates or taxes are paid by the fortunate inhabitants. The cost of living is very low. A furnished house or flat costs only about £35 a year. Small wonder is it that this island, already so well-known to thousands of cruise holiday-makers, was, until war broke out in Europe, becoming popular as a tourist and residential resort for English people. The Maltese, who are descendants of the Phoenician traders of the Eastern Mediterranean, are a proud European race. Their complexion is for the most part less dark than that of the Southern Italians. Many are fair, with blue eyes, perhaps being remote descendants of the day when the island was governed by the Knights of Malta, members of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, among whom were some

of the highest families of Western Europe. Today Malta is directly in the front line, as it were. Fifty-six miles to the north lies Sicily, from which. Mussolini has claimed, the whole base can be reduced to ashes by raiding Italian aeroplanes within a few hours. Certainly, it is true that air power has brought modification to the nature of the defence work Malta can undertake, especially as the Italians have fortified the island of Pantelleria, a hundred or so miles to the west. Nevertheless. the military and naval command of Malta has taken good care that hostile operations would find the island as hard a nut to crack as did those of the Turks. The main work of the troops is the manning of the anti-aircraft defences and of the great guns hidden in the cliffs, while R.A.F. and Fleet Air Arm machines are able to give hostile planes a warm reception. The huge medieval granaries are estimated to be capable of holding sufficient supplies for a siege lasting two years, and the island itself produces sufficient agricultural products to enable it to have a yearly trade turnover of nearly a million pounds. The island is intersected -by a succession of valleys, running parallel to each other from south-west to northeast and it is on these valleys that the rich terraced fields produce their fine crops of wheat, oranges, grapes and melons. Some of the land is pasture, where the famous goats and cattle of Malta can be seen grazing in the shimmering heat of the Mediterranean sun. In the quaint villages which dot the countryside here and there, the narrow streets and old stone houses give the island an impressive air of venerable permanence. Malta went through anxious times while sanctions against Italy were in force. The .calmness of the inhabitants was admirable, with Malta only 60 miles from Sicily. Gas masks for the population were sent out from England. Verbal and printed gas instructions in English and Maltese were distributed. Old railway and other tunnels, crypts of churches, garages, and so on. were prepared as air raid shelters. At sunset a boom was placed between the two arms of the breakwater, which prevented craft from entering the Grand Harbour without a special permit from the authorities.