ITALIAN RAIDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 April 1941, Page 5

ITALIAN RAIDS

MANY BOMBS FAIL TO EXPLODE. CONDITIONS IN MALTA. After having experienced 78 Italian air raids in Malta, and an average of three a week for about a mon uh in Alexandria, a young Canadian woman, Mrs P. A. Rathgen, recently arrived at Auckland. Mrs Rathgen has visited New Zealand on two previous occasions and now looks on it as a haven of refuge after the experiences she has had abroad. She left Malta in the first convoy about a month after Italy declared war on the Allies. The first aeroplane to carry out a raid over Malta was a German one manned by Italians. Mrs Rathgen said. There had been comparatively few casualties while she was there, for air raid precautions had been instituted on the' island long before Italy came into the war. Certain buildings had been approved by the air raid precautions authorities as suitable for air raid shelters, and there were also many natural shelters in Malta, and the old tunnels which were once used as shelters against the Turks, were now employed as a protection against bombs. The buildings, which were made of sandstone taken from the island itself, were very strong and stood up well against the force of the Italian bombs. As far as she knew, no time bombs had been used by the Italians up to the time of her departure from the Island but many of [he high explosive type which had been used failed to explode. “The attitude of the Maltese people to the Italians is very clearly defined —so much so that every effort has to be made to keep them away from Italian airmen, whose machines are brought down on the island.” continued Mrs Rathgen. "The Maltese people's hatred of the Italians is very strong, and because of this the island authorities have had to refuse to take Italian prisoners from passing ships. The few Maltese who showed proItalian tendencies were quickly removed when Italy entered the war.” Mrs Rathgen added that an appeal to the Maltese people not to resist the Italians was made over the Rome radio, together with a statement that Italy would invade Malta two weeks after the former country had entered the war. The Maltese, however, were not impressed and the island was well fortified against an invasion, which so far had failed to materialise. Mrs Rathgen said there was no food shortage on the island, but petrol for private motor cars had been stopped the day after Italy declared war. Taxis were still running, but those, and official cars, were the only ones to be seen.