Our heroes 100 years ago – HOW SAD TO SEE THEIR BRAVERY DIRTIED BY THOSE TRAITORS THAT CRAWL BENEATH
From this (above) to this (below), 60 years later.
On the 7th of June (Sette Giugno) one hundred years ago today, 1919, many hundreds of men thronged into Valletta, unarmed, but hungry and angry, to protest at their brutal treatment by the British Authorities.
The First World War had just ended and Malta and the Maltese had played their valiant part, both in the British armed services but also at home, Malta having become “the nurse of the Mediterranean” treating the thousands of wounded and injured allied servicemen, from Gallipoli and many of them Anzacs i.e. from Australia and New Zealand.
Malta’s reward for its valiant efforts was to be left in hunger and poverty. Food and paraffin were scarce and the final straw was broken when the price of flour and bread went up.
Our forefathers would have none of it and they revolted in Valletta on 7th June, 1919. The British armed forces on duty panicked and a young officer lost his nerve and ordered the soldiers to shoot into the crowd.
Whether four or six men were killed is still under debate today, but four certainly were: Manwel Attard, Karmnu Abela, Guze Bajada and Wenzu Dyer. Many others were wounded or injured in the rampage that followed.
Their heroic sacrifice paved the way for a new beginning. Shortly after, Malta was granted its own Parliament and then slowly but surely came the long road to Independence in 1964 and total Freedom in 1979 – 60 years later.
So today, we salute the courage of their heroism and bravery and the way they laid down their lives for their country.
YET, how sad to see that today, in direct contrast, one hundred years later in 2019, there are some men and women who claim to be Maltese, yet they are doing their best to dirty and tarnish Malta’s image, collaborating with foreigners to draw censure on their own country and working 24/7 to damage Malta’s economy and the interests of the people of Malta and Gozo.
What a shameful, dirty slur on those that bravely sacrificed their lives and the many, many more since then who have worked to upraise and embellish their homeland instead of putting in all their endeavours to damage and harm it.
Sadly and truly – shame on them.
ALBERT JEROME FENECH
