In his letter of July 25 Lino Bugeja forcefully criticised those few who try to belittle the true character of the Great siege of Malta of 1565.

The Siege lasted between May and September, causing thousands of casualties.

I think I can safely say that no single historical event, not even the naval Battle of Lepanto, attracted so much contemporaneous attention and publicity.

A two-volume work published 20 years ago listed 143 maps on the subject, most of which belonged to the last decades of the 16th century.

A few others have now been discovered and they will soon be printed.

Just in the year of the Siege itself, between June and December 1565, over 50 different siege maps updating events were disseminated in Italy, three in Germany, three in France, one in Switzerland, and one in Flanders.

This is apart from the countless letters and Avvisi printed and distributed in the same year in the main European countries, including England. Even a Turkish manuscript map was made showing the fall of St Elmo.

Bugeja quoted the famous dictum of Voltaire on the exceptional memory of the Great Siege, endorsed by several present non-Maltese authoritative writers.

It still lingers on in a particular international circle. Even now, when a Greek wants to offend a Turk the worst he can tell him is Malta Yok to remind him of Mustapha Pasha’s lame and deceptive excuse for not conquering Malta.