Mario Costa (Count Roger Did Not Give Malta Its Colours, August 9) has better wait until he had access to his library before trying to ridicule two well-known Maltese historians. He would learn that the "certain Laferla" he mentions is none other than Dr A.V. Laferla, Director of Education in the 1940s and that the author of the Outlines of Maltese History was not Mgr Lapira, but Mgr Salv. Laspina, historian and teacher of history.

Rather than referring readers to an essay by Prof. Mario Buhagiar, perhaps when Mr Costa will have access to his library, he would be able to quote how Prof. Buhagiar demonstrates conclusively that the Count Roger bestowal of the colours is a recent fabrication by 'a certain Laferla' and why, according to Prof. Wettinger, this story "is now universally acknowledged in academic quarters an impossibility".

Perhaps Mr Costa will also be in a position from his library to give us outright documented information as to the origin of the Maltese red and white flag. Thus "this piece of history will be laid to rest once and for all".

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