I read with interest, disappointment and considerable anger Paul Calleja's article of September 11.

I think the majority of his countrymen and women and the so-called imperialist British that fought and died for his country and the free world would disagree with his lame lament.

Does he really believe that by keeping heads down and mouths shut, the world war would have simply passed by Malta and that everything would just have been hunky dory? Does he really think that just the then fascist Italians would have come to Malta alone?

Wake up, Mr Calleja. The German Nazis would have turned the country into a nazi stronghold given half a chance. His fellow countrymen would have been subjected to ethnic cleansing of one sort or another. Those that were not forced to work in labour camps in occupied Europe would certainly have been forced to work on fortifying Malta and Gozo for the, as he himself put it, eventual opening of the second front by the British and Americans.

Does he really think the German Nazis and Italian fascists would have just run away? I don't think so. Malta and Gozo would have been subjected to a similar type of seaborne invasion as happened to Sicily, its "buildings" destroyed and its people killed, but not terrorised, by Nazis and fascists. Does he not realise the fact that Fortress Malta played a very important part in shortening the war in north Africa and also in Europe? Just how many millions of tons of arms and ammunition would have arrived in north Africa had it not been for submarines, ships and planes based in Malta to cease this flow, manned, I hasten to add, by many Maltese servicemen and women who were free people who chose to fight against nazism and fascism? They chose not to bury their heads in shame and keep their mouths shut in the hope that it would all go away.

I have to agree with him on one point, however: yes, the Maltese suffered heroically and endured the Axis onslaught as did millions of other people throughout the free world for the benefit of not just the British war effort but for the benefit of a world free from nazism and fascism.

As for his remark about the George Cross, it is better to have a national flag with a medal of bravery, a pat on the back and a kick in the groin, as he so aptly put it, than having a Nazi flag with a picture of Adolf Hitler in the corner, a bayonet in the back and no Maltese people left to kick in the groin.

If Mr Calleja believed the majority of Maltese people do not consider the George Cross medal was an honour to have been received, then simply run a poll of the population and if it decides this medal is no longer appropriate to the Maltese people and its flag, simply return the medal to the "Imperialist British Government" with a note that it is no longer required and strike it from the Maltese flag.

Simple! End of story.