The Malta Conflict Wild scenes took place in the streets
of Valetta on Whit-Sunday on the occasion of the sermon by Archbishop Caruana, Bishop of Malta, in the Cathedral. Large crowds had assembled for the excitement of again denouncing Lord Strickland. The Archbishop's sermon, however, was comparatively restrained. He simply stated that in Roman Catholic countries the civil auth- orities obey the bishops—since the Church is never wrong. There were counter-demonstrations in the precincts of the Cathedral and the police had their work cut out to quell the anti-clerical forces. There were cries of " Long live Strickland," " Down with Mussolini " and " Down with Italy," which seemed to reinforce the recent state- ment by Sir Augustus Bartolo that Italian national influences are behind the present " mediaeval " conflict of Church and State powers. No solution of the deadlock has yet been found, but we were glad to have, on Monday, Lord Strickland's reply to the Vatican's charges. The issue is evidently between divergent ideas as to pace and method in administering self-government during the transition from autocracy to democracy. * * * *
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