Recognition of bravery (1)

I have walked and talked in Malta with my friend Joe Vella of California but I take issue with him regarding his letter (Symbol Of Repression, April 18) concerning the recent commemorations of the award of the George Cross.

I was taken to Malta 82 years ago, was educated there and served with a Spitfire squadron at Ta' Qali - though after the excitement. My two Maltese homes at Senglea and Rinella were both destroyed in the bombing and my Dockyard School above Cospicua was damaged.

Back in England our home in Gosport was badly damaged in the same air raid that burnt down my cramming school (Esplanade House) in Portsmouth.

I therefore regard the award of the GC as a mark of shared dangers and privations. It is true that the starving Maltese of 1942 could not eat the George Cross but it was a recognition of their bravery in a war that was not of their doing. Surely both Maltese and British were justified in fighting against Fascism and the Nazis?

Mr Vella refers to the subjugation of Malta but I would remind him that the Maltese had invited us in and pleaded for Britain to remain in the island despite our preparations to depart after the Treaty of Amiens.

I was a child of the empire but I hold no brief for imperialism and apologise for the condescending attitude of some Brits towards the Maltese during colonial times.

If Mr Vella finds the commemoration distasteful and wishes to perpetuate his own negative view of Malta's past then I would remind him of the Chinese proverb: "Happy the land that has no history".