DIFFICULTY OF LANGUAGE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 142, 18 May 1932, Page 3

DIFFICULTY OF LANGUAGE.

MALTESE AND ITALIAN. Replying to deputies’ questions as to ■whether representations had been made to Great Britain respecting the use of the Italian language in Malta, tho Italian Foreign Minister, Signor Grandi, said that the Government had taken no official step as it was a question concerning the internal policy of the British Empire.

He added: “I cannot refrain from saying that tho Government shares the unanimous feelings of the Italian nation which has been so painfully struck by regulations framed to diminish a language in which generations have been educated as loyal subjects of the British Empire. On two previous occasions, in 1899 and 1902, when similar regulations were announced, Great Britain eventually countermanded them, yet Italy was then a member of an alliance, the Triple Alliance, which did not include the British Empire. Moreover, the two countries had not shed much blood in common as they did in the Great War, nor had they worked for 10 years together in tho cause of peace.” Tho Italian nation hopes that Great Britain, recalling the greatness of the Empire in which so many live freely and loyally, will consider the language question in all its aspects, also taking into account Italy’s spontaneous sentiments.

The deputies loudly cheered the statement.