I do not know how old Norman E. Grech happens to be but Rosanne Spiteri Cutajar tells us she is 25 years old (or should it be young?) and shows it by her naïve arguments in joining Mr Grech in wanting the removal of the George Cross from our Malta flag.

This argument comes up from time to time and each time I have received phone calls, e-mails and letters in protest from members of the George Cross Island Association from the UK, Canada and Australia on this issue. They just cannot understand the reasoning of people like Mr Grech and Ms Spiteri Cutajar and their ilk and, as national chairman of the GCIA, they have asked me to put forward their point of view. They are appalled that these anti-George Cross correspondents do not understand the damage they are causing by seemingly forgetting the sacrifices their forebears made in order for the people of Malta to be awarded the George Cross.

Anti-George Cross correspondents might like to know that some 7,000 Maltese civilians, Maltese and Allied servicemen and women sacrificed their lives in order for us Maltese to be able to live in freedom. The word freedom is so easy to be bandied about now 64 years since the award of the George Cross to a battered Malta living under daily heavy bombardment from German and Italian planes. Malta was the most bombed country during the last war.

I just wonder if Mr Grech or Ms Spiteri Cutajar have any relations still alive. Like me there are still many Maltese and Commonwealth ex-servicemen and women, veterans of the World War II siege of Malta, who would be disgusted should the George Cross be removed from the Maltese flag. Nineteen years ago the George Cross Island Association was set up in the UK with now five branches in the UK and one here in Malta. Every year since 1992 we have a reunion in April when we hold an ecumenical service and wreath-laying ceremony at the Siege Bell Memorial, in Valletta, led by the President of Malta. It is of interest to note that some 90 to 100 UK members come here on these occasions - some in wheelchairs or hobbling along with the help of their sons or daughters. These are the men and women who, together with their Maltese counterparts, helped Malta win the George Cross.

They come to Malta not as foreigners but as friends - our brothers and sisters. For them it has become a pilgrimage, for many they come to see the country in which their fathers or grandfathers lived (and where many died) during the siege.

But enough of these sentiments. The George Cross on our flag is there as an honour so that we will remember the sacrifices made in time of war and so that never again will anyone in the world have to live under the signs of the Swastika or the Hammer and Sickle.

For the record and for the information of all correspondents, they might like to know that that wonderful veteran of the siege of Malta, President Emeritus Censu Tabone, is the president of the George Cross Island Association. Also for the record, correspondents might also like to know that the George Cross is also to be found on the Malta emblem and the seal of Malta. So please, let us keep the George Cross on our flag.

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