Those who believe that the Labour policy of a little tbazwir here and a little tbazwir there is a modern phenomenon, are simply mistaken. Read what Evarist Saliba had to say in his book: No, Honourable Minister pp 109/110. Let us go back to 1972 when Dom Mintoff had just been elected prime minister. Thirty-six years ago Germany was still divided between the German Democratic Republic (East) and the Federal Republic of Germany (West). I quote:

“... I had a telephone call from Carmel Mallia, our ambassador in Rome, telling me that I should inform the Belgian ambassador that we were going to vote in favour of the admission of the GDR (East Germany). This was totally unexpected. .... I enquired whether he was aware that our vote would offend the FRG (West Germany) and the answer was yes. In fact, Mintoff expected Bonn (capital West Germany) to protest and eventually he would explain our position by saying that I had misunderstood the instructions given to me!”

Giov. DeMartino

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