More on moles and secret deplomacy

Mr Evarist Saliba (The Sunday Times, November 21) lays bare his prejudice against the Labour Party and its supporters. Mr Saliba chose to mention, out of context, Raymond Caruana's burial "after being killed by MLP supporters".

In the total absence of a court sentence finding any Labour supporter, or anyone else, guilty of the death of Raymond Caruana, Mr Saliba took upon himself the role of judge and jury.

He had already done this when he managed to remove Labour sympathisers from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the pretext that these persons were real or potential moles.

Mr Saliba said that he was deeply offended by my actions concerning a court case "involving Malta Shipbuilding and the owners of a Dutch registered ship". I do remember a court case about a Dutch crane that had collapsed at the Marsa Shipyard, but I do not remember speaking to Mr Saliba about it.

Even if this were the case, the minister had every right to know what information officers in the ministry were passing to the lawyers defending the Dutch case. Moreover, had I spoken to Mr Saliba, I would have done it in the most civil manner, as it is not in my nature to behave otherwise.

Mr Saliba's memory fails him badly if he still thinks that he phoned me to inform me that I was being transferred. Mr Saliba did contact me by phone a few days after I started working at the post office and asked me to give a hand-over to my successor at the Vienna CSCE follow-up meeting. I called at the ministry and Mr Saliba received me standing up at the door of his office. Our conversation was very brief and courteous and he made no mention of the deep offence I had caused him with the Dutch incident he alleges.

Finally, Mr Saliba asked me if I was warned or charged when I was first transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1972. No, I was not. I was not transferred there under the cover of a memo that branded officers as moles. I had asked for a voluntary transfer to the ministry, as was, and still is, the practice for general service officers. When a vacancy arose, I moved to the ministry of my own free will.