Malta : the halting place of nations : first account of remarkable prehistoric tombs and temples recently unearthed on the island

Abstract

Malta is but a tiny island, less than a hundred square miles in area, with no special beauty of hill or dale, almost without tree or stream, yet by the inscrutable decree of Destiny it has been called to fill a great role in the history of the world. Situated in the narrowest part of the Mediterranean, it lies in the direct route from Gibraltar to Port Said or the Dardanelles, midway from Italy to its turbulent colony of Tripoli and from the French territory of Tunis to their watchtower at Corfu, at the mouth of the Adriatic. Nature has thus ordained that Malta, by reason of its position, should form a center from which naval activity in this sea can be controlled. "Some are born great . . . and some have greatness thrust upon them." It is to the latter class that Malta belongs. Since the outbreak of the World War, Malta has resembled the Tower of Babel after the confusion of tongues. In its harbors transport after transport has anchored, each crowded with troops of varied race English, Scot, Irish, Welsh, Australian, New Zealander, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese marine, Serbian, Montenegrin, Greek, Cretan, Hindu, Bengali, Gurkha, Pathan, men from Ceylon and the Straits, Maori, Chinese, Annamite, Tonquinese, Egyptian, Moor, Arab, Tunisian, Congolese, Senegalese, Zouave and Chasseur d'Afric, gay Bersaglieri in seemingly unending procession. Here also came, as prisoners, Austrians, Bulgars, Turks, and Germans, some from the famous Emdcn. Malta was indeed a Haven of -Refuge, and all too soon they passed onward, some to .find a watery grave, many more to die by murderous poison gas, by fiery burning oil, or by more merciful shot and shell. Soon Malta became the Island of Hospitals, where the sick and maimed, the fever-stricken and blind, found such rest and comfort as this world can give. Ere long this privilege was denied, as the enemy submarine spared neither hospital nor passenger ship, woman nor child.