25 JUNE 1932, Page 3

Nationalism in Malta Lord Strickland's Constitutional Party has been heavily

defeated at the Malta elections and Sir trgo Mifsud and his Nationalist colleagues arc in office once more. The suspended constitution having been restored, it was clearly for the electorate to vote as it chose, and the withdrawal of the Catholic Bishops' ban on Lord Strickland and his party was apparently too recent to have full effect. The demand for the teaching of Italian in the elementary schools will no doubt be revived, but with little prospect of success. The recent Royal Commission was quite decided about the unwisdom of any attempt at trilingualism, and the action of the Colonial Secretary in recognizing English and Maltese only as official languages was entirely reasonable. More will be heard of Maltese controversies yet, and it is as well to reduce things to their right proportions by remembering that the total population of the island is less than that of Nottingham or Portsmouth.