Anzac memorial

It is most fitting that a memorial be erected to the Australian and New Zealand servicemen who died in defence of Malta or on the island in the two world wars. In the write-up Veteran War Heroes Battle Mepa Over Anzac Memorial there are, however, a few totally incorrect statements that need correction. Neil Phillips who is referred to as "a former member of the Australian Army and of the Royal Australian Air Force" is quoted as saying that five Australian battleships "known as the 19th Destroyer Division were sent to Malta to help to defend the island" and that "it was Anzac troops that helped defend Malta against the bombing". These statements are completely wrong.

There were no battleships in the Royal Australian Navy as anyone with only a little knowledge of the Commonwealth navies will know and, anyway, battleships are not formed in destroyer squadrons. Australia had two cruisers in the Mediterranean, Sydney and Perth, and a few destroyers which were withdrawn to the Far East when war broke out with Japan in December 1941.

They escorted convoys to Malta during the first year of the war. In December of that year, a few days before Christmas, the Royal Navy cruiser Neptune was mined off Tripoli with the loss of 554 Royal Navy officers and men and 150 from New Zealand, that is all but one of the crew, and the biggest loss in the war for New Zealand. There was not a single Anzac soldier involved in the defence of Malta. However many young Australian and New Zealand airmen perished in the fighter defence of Malta and in operations from Malta. Most of these are commemorated on the RAF Memorial at Floriana as they have no known grave. But there are 24 members of the Royal Australian Air Force and seven of the Royal New Zealand Air Force at rest in military cemeteries on the island.

During the First World War Malta was converted into a hospital centre and rest area for thousands upon thousands of the wounded and sick from the Dardanelles. Many Anzacs recovered here but 202 Australians and 72 New Zealanders lie buried in Malta. During that period, the Australian Red Cross built the Australia Hall at St Andrews as a recreation centre for its co-nationals. It lies now gutted after it was taken over by the Labour Party for a mere pittance, a memorial to Malta's disgraceful disrespect to the Anzac nations and an excellent example of its politicians' lip service to friendship between the two peoples.