I refer to the article ‘Malta and the Spanish Civil War’ (The Sunday Times of Malta, November 6).

The heightened presence of the Royal Navy in Malta during the Spanish Civil War was the result of the Nyon Conference in Switzerland which set up naval patrols to thwart attacks on neutral shipping by Republican or Nationalist forces or their proxies, Italy, Germany and the Soviet Union.

The Republican and Nationalist navies were themselves at each other’s throats in what are now largely forgotten naval skirmishes. The patrols were also ostensibly meant to deny the warring factions supplies of arms from their proxies.

French and Royal Navy warships were assigned patrols off the west coast of Malta, which was under Nationalist control. Ships on the Nyon Patrol carried international stripe markings, red, white and blue, on B and X turrets, as in this July 26, 1937 photograph of HMS Hood in Malta.