Heartfelt thanks in order (1)

In the rankings for the most stupid suggestion ever to appear in The Times, the exalted president of the Nationalist Party Victor Scerri (British Apology In Order, November 21) has now streaked past Tony Zarb with the latter's banal effort to embarrass the government during CHOGM.

Dr Scerri goes one better. He wants to embarrass Her Majesty the Queen by raking up an episode, that is best left forgotten, in the very interest of his party. For him to try to re-write history, by suggesting that the internees did not represent a danger to the allies' war effort, is just a travesty of the facts as I know them to be.

His party used to try to reassure the Maltese that with the Italians' love for Malta we can expect a bombardment of flowers and not coloured anti-personnel bombs disguised as toys and aimed at innocent Maltese children.

The great wrong to the Maltese people was that perpetrated by the fascist symphatisers and not those who removed them to where they could do no harm.

Dr Scerri should propose a heartfelt thank you to Her Majesty for the gallant British efforts to save Malta from starvation and Nazi domination. His party's known supporters were actively undermining the convoys that were so vital for our survival. Treachery was rife, too many young lives were lost to a watery grave in their attempt to run the gauntlet of German and Italian shipping aided and abetted by local fifth columnists. Dr Scerri should know better than rake the embers of his party's highly questionable past.