Over the years, and especially in recent years, it has been a joy to see high quality restoration work gradually bring St John's Co-Cathedral back into its own and all praise is due to those responsible.

It is good to see too that plans are now in hand to expand the museum of the Co-Cathedral so that more of its treasures (especially the famous tapestries) can be properly housed, displayed and admired. This is indeed long overdue.

I urge the government, the Church and the Foundation of St John's to think very carefully about the scheme as it now appears to stand. The cemetery on the side of Merchants Street is the resting place of many brave men who died fighting in 1565 to save Malta, and Europe (and, so it was believed at the time, Christendom itself) from conquest by the Ottoman Turks. This site is very sacred to Maltese, Europeans and Christians and it must never be tampered with or marginalised by accretions, however well designed.

This is not to say that the museum should not be enlarged - far from it. Vast underground chambers may seem very sexy and but it is as well to remember that storm water drains can (and often do) clog up and pumps can (and do) fail. As Robert Burns so eloquently put it, "The best laid plans o' mice an' men Gang aft a gley!" Treasures such as the tapestries should never ever be exposed to the risk of flood damage no matter how remote.

They should be kept above ground - always. Opposite the cemetery there are a number of beautiful, but sadly derelict and semi-derelict buildings, whose upper storeys cry out for conservation and rehabilitation.

Why not put the additional museum space there and, as it were, kill two birds with one stone? It is high time the old houses in Valletta had a facelift and this would be a wonderful opportunity to launch such a programme. It might even cost less than the gargantuan excavation currently being contemplated.