1940-12-14 — Page 15

ነ

MALTA

people well who have not husbanimen

ther afield of late years.

But

despite foreign domination inevi

CONQUERED NORMANS

Normans at about the same

Saturday,

HONGKONG TELEGRAPH

Naples Tyrrhenian Sea

Cagliari Lipari

Palermo

Bizerta

Messina ali Catania

Corfu

MEDITERRANEAN SEA

Goto Malta Valletta (Brit)

Gozo

Tripoli

Commo

GREEC

Paul.B. -Musta

Notabile (Citta Vecchia)

lietta

Singles,

Marsa Scirocco

Miles

2789)

100

200

Filfola Miles

10

A Mediterranean Base With A History

BO convenient that the mastodons of to-day, the Hoods

There can

be few never written before the end of officers or men of the cently over 80 per cent, of the the last century, but until re- Navy. who, by the time Maltese spoke nothing else. It they have about five or the courts but English is of is now the official language of six years' service, are course the language of the not well acquainted with Government and is spoken by more and more of the people as the Islands of Malta; well as their own language. and there can be fewer The Maltese joined the British still who have come to Empire of their own free will in 1817. and have been loyal know them and their citizens of it ever since.

By bent, they are mostly and sailors-an a very real affection for island ruce as prolific as they both. The islands them- are, inevitably looks largely to the sea for its livelihood, Many selves are small, almost of them have served in the treeless and at first ap- Royal Navy in peace, and even more in war, when they have pearance arid. Anyone volunteered in large numbers for visiting them for the minesweeping and like duties. They are good colonizers too, first time. in summer and there are Maltese communi- might be excused for ties in many Mediterranean describing them -as countries as well as much fur- young men of the Navy, there is no more home-loving in one of those confident person than the Maltee. and. "

though he will go elsewhere to generalisations from in-

earn a living, he pines for his sufficient experience own beloved-island if he stays has its beautiful church. That of which the fortifications of La common to youch, have away from it for too long. That, of Musta, indeed, built by the Vallette and his predecessors perhaps, is how he has managed villagers themselves, possessed arise abruptly. Yet its contours known to do-as smelley to preserve his individuality the third largest dome in Chris- dust-heaps. But a clo- through so many centuries, tendom when it was finished in and the War-spites, use it fresly ser acquaintance unde- table in a tiny island placed, as the last century-it may have and deftly as did the three- ceives them.

Malta is, at the centre of the lost its proud place by now. deckers of Nelson or the galleys The visitor is inclined to won- built some 30 years ago partially of the Knights. Breakwaters Malta itself is rocky Middle Sea. Gozo and the islets are just

der how it is that a tiny and for protect it from the ragings of the same-and much of the

the most part indigent island can Euroclydon, which blows rock of which the surface is

support, as many of the priestly straight into its entrance facing composed lends itself to the

caste as he sees in walks abroad. the north-east; but not compiute- excavation of cellars which, Malta was conquered by the One gains the impression now. ly, and even now a gregate may suspend boat communication in in mediaeval times, were time that England was, and it days that priestly influence is the harbour for days on end. found to be ideal for the remained an appanage of the waning, though not, it would. The galley harbour of the storage of wheat; they are mounrch of Aragon until it was seem, the piety of the islanders; Knights is now still used for the same pur- granted by the Emperor Charles and the more spectacular cere- dockyard, which has overflowed in 1530 to the Order of St. monies of their church have just the creek between the cities of pose.

John of Jerusalem, which had as much appeal to them as to all Vittoriosa-so-called since it Hence grew up an entre- just been expelled by the infidel other Mediterranean peoples, withstood the siege of Suleiman pot trade, but a rule was from its stronghold of Rhodes, St. Paul, of course, is the the Magnificent--and Senglea. made by the island authori- Before the Order was firmly patron saint of the island-was It now extends through a tunnel ties that ships coming to buy established there it had to with it not its good fortune to save to the next arm of the Grand corn would only be permit: Turks in 1665; but, the infidel great co-Cathedral of Vailetta, graving docks were there con- stand a tremendous siege by the him from the tempest ?-but the larbour, and even farther. Two ted to trade if they were was beaten off by the devotion and its matchless tapestries, structed late in the last century, ballasted with soil, which of Grand Master de la Vallette were dedicated by the Order to and since the last War a large must be left behind, and his Knights, at the cost of their own St. John..

floating dock was moored in the Grand Harbour itself, at the Many of Malta's fertile some 9,000 Knights and men-at-

Malta, it will be gathered, is same time that arms, and the island remained.

an aerodrome fields thus consist of im- ander the Order's quasi-eccle- rich in relies of the Middle Ages, was made at Hal Far, near the ported soil spread on the na- siastical sway until it

but not of that period of history other harbour of Marsa Scirocco, tive rock, drawing, its ferti- brought to an end by Napoleon alone. li possesses some of the lity from the lime and phos- og his way to Egypt in 1798, most-complete-and-Interesting

temples that phates of the latter.

La Vallette built the beautiful neolithic city of Valletta, on what had known; and in at least one lime- hitherto boen a barren rocky stone cave there were found the

Though ships have grown man- ridge between the two parts of fossilized skeletons of

while flects have dwindled, the In order that it. shall not the magnificent Grand Harbour; moths and their contemporaries

the larger mammals. resources of Malta have kept be blown away by the winter and he and, his successors con- mong

Malta, like other, strong places gale-the Euroclydon of St. structed the fortifications, the The student of any historic or pace with both movements. But prehistoric period will find some of which the defences were made great ditches of which are a Paul, now known as the donderful sight to this day. So, thin of interest to him in Malta. in the days before air forces, Gregale, from the north-east are the auberges the community SHIPS AND AIR has its weak points to-day. Con- alternates with equally vio- houses of the different Langues,

sidered as a fortress, it is as

way, lent gales from other quar- or national contingents, of the

strong as it ever

if not ters with great frequency

The feature of Multa which stronger, and it would be a bold during the

It is perhaps because they makes it sú valuable to this enemy who would attempt its three were for so long under ecclesias country, is that which made it reduction and capture. But it is months of the year-the tical rule that the Maltese are attractive to the Order of St. one of the most thickly popu Maltese husbandman digs up such a pious race. There are no John-its magnificent harbour, thus an attractive target to an lated places in the world, and some of the rock and builds more devoted sons of the Roman

Church than they, and every It is small by modern ideas; enemy who counts terrorism high walls round his tiny village, despite the poverly for no large sheet of water, but among his weapona.

the most part of the villagers, narrow creeks, from the shores Yet even so, Malta has its These walls are all that the visitor see from the, roads or looking over the country from an eminence, and he is inclined to assumej

THE GREGALE

fields.

first

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 flour- ishes, so that the oranges of Malta rival the best of those of Spain.

ATTRACTIVE PEOPLE

The Maltese are an attrac-t.

·tive race. · Of middle stature, awarthy without any of the -nogrold admixture to be seen in

Sicily, they are industrious] and laughter-loving. There in nothing of the Italian in them, for they rarely marry outsidej thoir own raca; their langunge suggests Arabic rather than any Romance tongue, but philolog- fata pronounce it to be even earlier than in Saracenic form,] and to be probably the purest aurvival of "the language of Phoenicia and Carthage. It was

Order.

was

FORCES

FUNNY SIDE UP

By Abner Dean

SNITZ & SON • CLOTHIERS.

SNITZ & SON

15

VERY FAIR

LOCAL 734

Cup, thật by Bikkel Toulart Kratosis, Léo

~"A grand bunch of folke, Local: 734!!!-

are

His Majesty's

-AIR-DEFENCE- PROBLEM

or-

natural advantages. The

linary method of building a house is to excavate the cellar and so obtain the materials of building: for the coralline lime- stone is easily shaped with a saw. It follows that the con- [struction of air-raid shelters is Jeasy 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 minde have been but moderate; though indeed the magnificent defence of the R.A.F. fighters has been chiefly responsible for that satisfactory result..

Even so, when the enemy afr bases in Sicily, possesses only 60 miles away, and a numer ous air force, Malta's utility as ja naval base is inevitably severe- ly restricted, and that restriction has 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 con- vincingly demonstrated a week for two since; and sen power, re- Inforced by the staunchness and courage of its loyal peoples, will preserve to them the free status that membership of the British Commonwealth of Nations con- fora.

December 14,

1940.

13

HR

ere's

THE

ØST!

"We agree-blast all wing forwards who always leave the real work to chaps like you, BUT --you've pinched our mug!"

Announcing

Christmas &

HONG

OUR FORTHCOMING

SEASONABLE FESTIVITIES

New Year 1940/41

KONG HOTEL

- PHONE 30281-

CHRISTMAS EVE — Tues. Dec. 24th - Gala Dinner Dance Till 3 a.m. Dinner $8. After dinner cover charge $4.

BOXING NIGHT

Thur Dcc. 26th

Dinner Dance Till 2 a.m. Dinner $7: After dinner cover charge $3,

NEW YEAR'S EVE — Tugs, Dec. 31st — Gala Dinner Dance Tili 3 a.m. Dinner $8. After dinner cover charge $4.

NEW YEAR'S DAY--Wod. Jan. 1st—Special Toa Dance $1.00 5 to 7 p.m. With "NICK.KORIN & HIS SWING BAND" at all the above functions.

PENINSULA

PHONE 58081

HOTEL

CHRISTMAS NIGHT Wed. Dec. 25th Gala Dinner Dance Till 2 a.m. Dinner $7. After dinner cover charge $3.

NEW YEAR'S EVE

Tucs. Dec. 31st Gala Dinner Danco Till 3 a.m. Dinner $8. After dinner cover charge $4. With "ART CARNEIRO & HIS ORCHESTRA at these functions.

REPULSE BAY HOTEL

.....

PHONE 27775-

CHRISTMAS-DAY-Wed, Dec. 25th-Special Luncheon $4.50-1-to-3-p.m. NEW YEAR'S EVE - Tuos. Doc. 31st - Cala Dinner Dance. Till 3 a.m. Dinnor $8. After dinner cover charge $3.

NEW YEAR'S DAY—Wod. Jan. 1st-Special Luncheon $4.50. 1 to 3 p.m. With "GEO. PIO-ULSKI & HIS ORCHESTRA" during luncheons.

EARLY RESERVATIONS SUGGESTED

THE HONG KONG & SHANGHAI HOTELS LTD.

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