Letters to the editor - August 2, 2021 timesofmalta.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from timesofmalta.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Police Day was commemorated at Santa Marija Cemetery chapel in Victoria, on July 15, with the celebration of Mass in memory of deceased members. The main celebrant was Diocesan vicar general Mgr Tarcisio Camilleri, assisted by Gozo Police Force chaplain Mgr Paul Cardona and Malta Police chaplain Fr Raymond Bonnici, OFM Cap.
Leading the congregation was police commissioner Angelo Gafà. Inspectors Charles Bernard Spiteri and Josef Gauci, superintendent Joseph Hersey, assistant police commissioner Stephen Gatt, deputy commissioner Ramon Mercieca and ex-superintendent Ray Zammit, representing the Association of Retired Police Officers (Malta), also attended.
After Mass, Mgr Camilleri blessed the police graves, followed by the laying of wreaths by police commissioner Gafà and sergeant Jonathan Vella on behalf of the Police Officers Union, among others.
The plague has never been endemic in Malta but it has been ‘imported’ several times from the Levant and spread rapidly throughout the islands with heavy loss of life. After the Order of St John was expelled from Malta in 1798, the first plague outbreak under the new British rulers occurred in April 1813. This is the basis of this month’s anniversary story.
Lieutenant-General Sir Hildebrand Oakes (1754-1822), Civil Commissioner of Malta, 1810-13, in a portrait attributed to Henry Raeburn (1756-1823), The National Trust, Killerton, UK.
One of the results of the economic war then being waged by Napoleon Bonaparte and France against Great Britain – his well-known ‘Continental System’ and the British response through Orders in Council – was a commercial boom in Malta, which became an emporium of commerce in the Mediterranean. J.D. Tully also noted that “one of the most material branches of this commercial intercourse was the trade carried on between Malta and the Levant,
Much is known and has been written about Malta’s first Governor, Sir Thomas Maitland (1760-1824), who was appointed to these islands in July 1813, and who, two-and-a-half years later, in December 1815, was also appointed Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. This latter appointment necessitated frequent and protracted absences from Malta during which the administration of these islands devolved upon the lieutenant governor, who from 1819 until 1825, was Sir Manley Power (1773-1826).
Hon. Edgar Bonavia, CMG, unknown photographer. Author’s collection
Maitland’s absences varied in length from anywhere between two to four months; however, for the 19 months between February 1820 and September 1821, the government of Malta fell on Power’s shoulders for all but 10 days of that period. Even though Power governed Malta diligently during his master’s absences, he is barely remembered in Malta today; Power garners no mention in either A.V. Laferla’s detailed two-volume Bri
Posted on March 10th, 2021
Rohan Abeygunawardena
th of February 2021 ‘’Ceylon Daily
News’’ published following news item;
‘’An ancient Ola leaf original copy of the Mahavamsa”
(Great Chronicle) currently kept at the library of the University of Peradeniya
is to be declared as a UNESCO World Heritage. The decision has been reached by
UNESCO experts upon verifying that all sections of the Mahavamsa” (the written
history of ancient Sri Lanka) were correctly conserved at the University
Library, Prof. Upul Dissanayake, Vice Chancellor of the Peradeniya University
told the media yesterday.’’ (https://dailynews.lk/2021/02/25/local/242520/ola-leaf-mahavamsa-be-declared-world-heritage)
According to same news item representatives of UNESCO have