How Gallant Malta Defies The Raiders

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23850, 28 December 1940, Page 1 (Supplement)

How Gallant Malta Defies The Raiders

Admiral Sir A. B. Cunningham, Commander-in-Chief of the British Fleet in the Alcditci- ' rancan

.Many of Malta's fertile fields thus consist, i.il' imported soil spread on 1 lie native rock, drawing its fertility i'rom the lime and phosphates of the latter. In order th.it it shall not In; blown away hy the winter gales—the Euroclydon of St. I'aul, now known as the gregale, from the north-east alternates with equally violent gales from other quarters with great frequency during t lie first three mont hs of the year—the Maltese husbandman digs up some of the rock and builds high walls round his tiny fields. Joined the Empire in 1814 These walls are all that the visitor sees from the roads or looking over the country from an eminence, and he is inclined to assume that the island is bare and dry. But inside them three crops are grown between January and June, and even more on ground that can be irrigated; and every sort of luscious fruit tree also flourishes, so that the oranges of Malta rival the best of those ol Spain. The Maltese are an attractive race. Of middle stature, swarthy without any ol the negroid admixture to be seen in Sicily. they are industrious and laughter loving. Then* is nothing of the Italian in them, for they rarely marry outside their own race; their language suggests Arabic rather than any Romance tongue, but philologists pro-

nounce it to be even earlier than the Saracenic form, and to be probably the purest survival of the language of Phoenicia and Carthage. It was never written before the end of the last century, but until recently over 80 per cent, of the .Maltese spoke nothing else. It is now the official language of the courts, but Knglisli is of course the language of tin- Government and is spoken by more and more of the people as well as their own language. The Maltese joined the British Empire of their own free will in 1811, and have been loyal citizens of it ever since. By bent, they are mostly husbandmen and sailors —an island race as prolific as they are, inevitably looks largely to the sea for its livelihood. Many of them have served in the Royal Navy in peace, and even more in war, when they have volunteered iu large numbers for minesweeping and like duties. They are good colonisers too, and there are Maltese communities in many Mediterranean countries as well as much farther afield of 1 a I o years. But there is no more home-loving person than the Mai tee, and though he will go elsewhere to earn a living, he pines for his own beloved island if he stars away

THERE can be few officers or men of the Navy who, by the time they have about five or fix years' service, are not well acquainted with the Islands of Malta: and there can be still fewer who have come to know them and their people well who have not a very real affection for both. The islands themselves arc small, almost treeless, and at first appearance arid. Anyone visiting them for the first time in summer might be excused for describing them—as young men of the Navy, in one of those confident generalisations

from insufficient experience common to youth, have been known to doas smelly dust-heaps. But a closer acquaintance undeceives them. .Malta itself is rocky—Go/.o and the islets are just the same—-and much of the rock of which the sttrlacc is composed lends itself to excavation of cellars which, in medieval times, were found to he ideal lor tin* storage of wheat; they are still used for the same purpose. Hence grew up an entrepot trade, hut a rule was made by the island authorities that ships coming to huy corn would only he permitted to trade if they were ballasted with soil, which must he left behind,

Staunchness and Courage of its People A Very Real Contribution to War Effort

BRITAIN'S VITAL MEDITERRANEAN NAVAL BASE

By a Special Correspondent with the Mediterranean Fleet

Euroclydon, which blows straight into its entrance facing the north-east; but not completely, and even now a gregale may suspend boat communication in the harbour for days on end. Command, of the Sea The galley harbour of the Knights is now j1 is Majesty's dockyard, which Jius overflowed the creek between the cities of Yittoriosa —so-called since it withstood the siege of Suleiman the .Magnificent—and Senglea. Jt now extends through a tunnel to the next arm of the Grand Harbour, and even farther. Two graving docks were there constructed late in the last century, and since the last war a large floating dock was moored in the Grand Harbour itself, at the same time that an aerodrome was made at Hal Far, near the other harbour of Marsa Scirocco. Though ships have grown while fleets have dwindled, the resources of Malta have kept pace with both movements. Hut .Malta, like other strong places of which the defences were made in the days before air forces, has its weak points to-day. Considered as a fortress, it as strong as it ever was. if not stronger, and it would be a bold enemy

from it too long. That, perhaps, is how he lias managed to preserve his individuality throughout so many centuries, in spite of foreign domination inevitable in a tiny island placed, as .Malta is, at the centre of the .Middle Sea. Malta was conquered by the Normans at about the same time that England was, and it remained an appanage of the monarch oi Aragon until it was granted by the Kmperor Charles V. in Jo.'iO to the Order of St. John of .Jerusalem, which had just been expelled by the infidel from its stronghold of Rhodes. Before the Order was (irmly established there it had to withstand a tremendous siege by the Turks in !">(}">; but the infidel was beaten off by the devotion of Grand Master do la Valletta and his knights, at the cost of some 9000 knights and men-at arms, and the island remained under the Order's quasi-ecclesiastical sway until it was brought to an end by Napoleon on bis way to Kgypt in 1798. I.a Vallette built the beautiful city of Valletta, on what had hitherto been a barren rocky ridge between the two parts of the magnificent Grand Harbour; and be and his successors con stnictod the fortifications, and great ditches, some of which are a wonderful sight to this day. So are the auberges, the community houses of the different Langues. or national contingents, of the Order. Ships and Air Forces .Malta is rich in relics of the Middle Ages, but not of that period of history alone. It possesses some of the most complete and interesting neolithic temples that are known; and in at least one limestone cave there were found the fossilised skeletons of mammoths and their contemporaries among the larger mammals. The student of any historic or prehistoric period will find something of interest to him in Malta. The feature of Malta which makes it so valuable to Britain is that which made it attractive to the Order of St. .John —its magnificent harbour. It is small by modern ideas; no large sheet of water, but narrow creeks, from the shores of which the fortifications of La Vallette and his predecessors arise abruptly. Yet its contours are so convenient that the mastodons of to-day, the Hoods and W'arspites. use it freely and deftly, as did the three-deckers of Nelson or the galleys of the Knights. Breakwaters buiit some 'SO years ago partially protect it from the raging of

who would attempt its reduction and capture. But it is one of the most thickly populated places in the world, and thus an attractive target to an enemy who counts terrorism among his weapons. Yet even so, Malta has its natural advantages. The ordinary method of building a house is to excavate the cellar and so obtain the materials of building, for the coralline limestone is easily shaped with a saw. It follows that the construction of air raid

shelters is easy and quick, and thus it is that, while some of the most thickly peopled areas are next the naval dockyard, the civilian casualties in the raids that have been made have been but moderate; though indeed the magnificent defence of the R.A.F. fighters lias been chiefly responsible for that satisfactory result. Even so, when the enemy possesses air bases in Sicily, only 60 miles away, and a numerous air force, Malta's utility as a naval base is inevitably severely restricted, and that restriction lias economic repercussions on the people which must be taken into account by the Imperial Government. But sea-power can ensure the supply of the island, as was convincingly demonstrated not so long ago; and sea power, reinforced by the staunchness and courage of its loyal people, will preserve to them the free status that membership of the British Commonwealth of Nations confers.