“PAINFUL”

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17781, 17 May 1932, Page 9

“PAINFUL”

ITALY TO BRITAIN MALTA PROBLEM ROME, May 6. Replying to deputies’ questions as to whether representations had been mado to Great Britain respecting the use of Italian language in Malta, the Foreign Minister, Signor Grand!, said that tne Government had taken no official step as it was a question concerning tho internal policy of the British Empire. He added: “I cannot refrain from saying that the Government shares the unanimous feelings of the Italian nation, which has been so painfully struck by regulations frarrted 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 the 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 tlie statement.