Desmond Zammit Marmarà’s account of Maltese-British relations (August 15) sickens me. People like him appear to have a chip on their shoulder.

I joined the Royal Air Force Medical branch in 1961, three years before Malta became independent. I can honestly vouch that there was absolutely no discrimination between me and other British medics. I was treated and posted in exactly the same manner in the six-year short service commission as anyone else.

I was also paid a lot more than had I decided to stay in Malta after graduating in 1958. My terminal grant enabled me to purchase a four-bedroom detached house outright and still have surplus money! To top it all, I was given a pension.

A close friend of mine who was in the same year as me at the Royal University of Malta decided to make the Royal Air Force a permanent commission. He retired as a group captain with a huge terminal grant and pension. Mr Zammit Marmarà should stop telling the Maltese a load of porkies and utter rubbish. I am surprised that such historical tripe was published.

Malta did very well under the British. Our religion and customs were totally respected. The government budget was always balanced by the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, year in year out, without question. Can this be said of previous foreign administrations?

Unfortunately the Maltese still have colonialism on their brain. We have been denied the rebuilding of the Opera House (the loveliest building in Valletta), and the dropping of the Royal title for the University, etc., as if it were something to be ashamed of. Future generations will come to regret such a mentality.