The first British governor

I thank John A. Mizzi for his contribution (October 24) where he shared a picture of a diary entry dated September 1799 to prove his original point (October 19) that Ball was the "first British Governor of Malta", at a time (between 1798 and 1800) when Malta was technically and internationally regarded as a (turbulent) French outpost by right of conquest, despite the rights of High Dominion competent to the King of Naples.

Assuming - as Mr Mizzi implies - that the person issuing the appointment (General Acton) was acting on British not Neapolitan authority, and regardless of the legal value of this "British appointment", how sad to realise that General Acton and/or Ball were so arrogant and deluded to think they had a right to impose a "British" Governorship on the Maltese when they had no authority to do so!

How good of Mr Mizzi to be the person responsible for showing us the proof which, on further thought, implicates that Ball may not have been so sincere when he (Ball) protested in 1800 because he, as representative of the King of Naples and as representative of the Maltese, was not a signatory to the French Act of Surrender to General Pigot.

In the light of Mr Mizzi's revelation, I find it difficult to continue claiming that Alexander Ball was an "indisputable champion of the rights of the Maltese" and I sincerely hope that Mr Mizzi will make the full contents of Ball's diary known before any official commemoration, if any, lest we give Alexander Ball more accolades than he really deserves.

Until then, I think we can at least agree that the first publicly known British Governor to Malta was not Alexander Ball (maybe hero, maybe proven villain) but Thomas Maitland, whose appointment dates to 1813.