Vatican assumed calls to Malta were 'tapped'

It was not just the British who were trying to work out Mgr Michael Gonzi's movements. Before he went to London for the meeting with Edward Heath in 1972, the Archbishop had flown to Rome for an audience with Pope Paul VI on the situation in Malta - without the Vatican's knowledge.

The Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Giovanni Benelli, is recorded as expressing to the British government "considerable irritation that the Vatican (like us) had known nothing of Gonzi's departure from Malta before he arrived in Rome".

Although the Pope had given Mgr Gonzi a sympathetic reception, no concrete solutions were forthcoming and the Vatican was also keen to ensure that the withdrawal of British forces went as smoothly as possible as the UK government was putting it under pressure to intervene.

However, Mgr Benelli communicated this hope in a letter, rather than divulge all the details in a telephone call, to Bishop Emanuel Gerada in Valletta - the Archbishop was in London - as he suspected the line was being "tapped" by the Maltese government.

And there was justifiable reason for concern since the British were bracing themselves for retaliation. The Foreign Secretary wrote: "We have no wish to leave a legacy of bitterness. But for obvious reasons, if physical harassment were attempted against us, a most serious situation would arise. We would have no alternative but to take whatever defensive measures were necessary to deal with it so the withdrawal could continue.

"I should be grateful if HM Ambassador to the Holy See would impress on the Vatican the potential gravity of the situation and would urge the Pope to use all his influence to persuade the Maltese that it is in everybody's interest that withdrawal should take place peaceably."

Thankfully, it did.