MALTA'S PRIME MINISTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20598, 24 June 1930, Page 9

MALTA'S PRIME MINISTER.

TRENCHANT CRITICISM.

DESCRIBED AS A DESPOT.

VATICAN DELEGATE'S REPORT.

By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright,

HOME, June 22.

"It is doubtful whether peace and harmony can exist in Malta whilo Lord Strickland remains in power," says Monsignor Robinson in a report to the Vatican after a visit to Malta as Apostolic Delogate. Ho adds: "Lord Strickland spends five days a week in the law courts fighting others. He has been so accustomed throughout his life to fight that if ho should stop ho would almost die. Ho considers thoso who oppose him in the slightest degreo as enemies. .

"Ho would sacrifice any individual policy or principle for his lovo of power He is cunning and without scruple, and it is not an exaggeration to say that Malta is subjected to a regime of terror and inquisitorial dospotisrn. "Opposition is disarmed and' the newspapers are muzzled. If tho British Secretary for Stato for tho Colonies, Lord Passfield, understood tho extent to which Lord Strickland lias damaged Britain's prestige ho might force him to modify his policy or find a way of eliminating him from tho political field." BRITISH RESENTMENT. ATTITUDE OF VATICAN. INTERVENTION IN POLITICS. (Received June 23, 0.15 p.m.) LONDON, Juua 23. The Daily Telegraph's diplomatic editor writes: "It is idlo to conceal tho fact that tho latest attitudo of tho Vatican toward tho Maltese problem has occasioned considerable resentment in British circles. "Tho British .Government holds that tho domestic peace of tho island can only bo restored by a lasting agreement which will define the respective spheres of tho Church and tho Stato and keep local clergy, including bishops, outside lay politics. " However, the Vatican is obsessed with tho idea of procuring Lord Strickland's personal eviction from tho political sphere."