MALTA: Man Bites Lion

Sunburned Captain Eric Strologo of His Majesty’s Royal Artillery parked his truck in front of British headquarters and went inside. When he returned he found a young Maltese searching the truck for loot. He marched the boy off to the Military Police. They told him it was clearly a case for Maltese civil police. At police headquarters the boy was released, Strologo clapped in jail for unauthorized arrest of a Maltese citizen. That was July 14, 1943. Captain Strologo is still in jail.

Vainly the regimental colonel protested to Maltese authorities. He went to Britain’s Military Governor, General the Viscount Gort, who referred the matter to London. The Cabinet replied that “in view of the present tense relations with the Maltese population and urgent military necessities, it is impossible to intervene.”

Last April the case came up in court.

Strologo’s sentence: 13 months at hard labor, not counting the nine months already spent in solitary. Last week Lord Gort, on appeal, cautiously reduced the term to three months, of which two have now been served.

Explained a white-hot British officer:

“We walk on tiptoe on Malta. We dare not cross a Maltese citizen in any way. Military expediency demands appeasement of the pro-Fascist population.”