Dħalna f'Madrid: The Spanish Civil
War as viewed from Malta
Giorgio Peresso
Introduction
The Spanish Civil War pitted a legitimate Republican government supported by the Soviet
Union and international volunteers against Nationalist rebels made up o f elements o f the
armed forces supported by the Church, landowners and the middle class and backed
by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. It was in principle a civil war but ultim ately it had
an im pact well beyond its borders and was itself considerably impacted by direct and
indirect interventions from outside. Extensive press coverage and the use o f 'modern'
propaganda techniques such as photo journalism , film s and posters took the horrors
o f a w ar fought on European soil into the homes o f m any in the West and beyond and
made the reputations o f iconic figures in the English-speaking world such as Robert
Capa, Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gellhorn and George Orwell.1* Involving numerous
civilian casualties, house-to-house fighting in urban areas, aerial bombings o f civilian
targets, and other techniques of warfare th a t would become the norm in the conflagration
that would subsequently engulf m uch o f the world, its course was followed closely in
m any countries including Catholic Malta. This short com m unication looks at how this
phenomenon was perceived in the island's media.
The advent of war
Following the proclamation o f the Republic in Spain on 14 April 1931, Spanish affairs
occupied an im portant place in the Maltese press. The wave o f iconoclastic violence
1
The role o f the international media as regards the Spanish Civil War has been extensively researched D Deacon's British
News Media and the Spanish Civil War and P Preston's We Saw Spain Die. Foreign Correspondents in the Spanish Civil War,
both o f which were published in 2008, are tw o of the m ost recent contributions in this field.
Giorgio Peresso
against the clergy in Spain was closely followed during a turbulent period in Malta's own
history w hich was characterised by politico-religious clashes, albeit o f an altogether
different kind. The departure from the country o f King Alfonso XIII on the same day
w ithout form ally abdicating was extensively reported, especially by the pro-British paper
The Malta Herald, while the fatwa-sounding pronouncement o f the Primate o f Spain,
Cardinal Segura, who declared 'May the curse o f God fall on Spain if the Republic takes
over', made headlines in Malta.2
King Alfonso XIII had visited Malta three tim es.3 Alfonso’s presence in Malta on one
occasion happened during the critical stage when both the British government and the
Vatican were trying to heal the wounds caused by the im position o f m ortal sin in the 1930
elections. These elections were suspended as these sanctions were bound to benefit the
pro-Italian Nationalist Party at the expense o f the pro-British Constitutional Party. Fresh
elections were due to take place in June 1932. The king met Archbishop Mauro Caruana
tw ice and later reported to Governor David Campbell the details o f their discussions.
The governor left an account o f these meetings.4 The king's line 'was his interest in the
Malta troubles owing to the troubles he him self had in Spain.' Alfonso disclosed that
the archbishop felt th a t 'his party should win the elections' (emphasis by the governor).
Moreover, a key point featured in the intransigent political clim ate was the position o f
the Church in Malta concerning the Italian language. The archbishop was categorical in
expressing th a t the Church would not say that the elimination o f Italian from elementary
schools constituted an attack on the Roman Catholic religion. This contrasted sharply
to w hat the Nationalist Party, especially one spokesman, M onsignor Enrico D'Andria,
was saying in public.5 The Malta 'troubles' appeared a storm in a teacup compared to
Alfonso's past troubles.
The main daily new spaperffcirculating in Malta at the tim e were The Times o f Malta
and The Daily Malta Chronicle both published in English and appealing to local and
expatriate readership and the popular Maltese-language daily ll-Berka (The Lightning).
The newspapers grouped under the aegis o f Progress Press (The Times o f Malta and
ll-Berka) favoured the pro-British views held by the Constitutional Party, the leader o f
which was Gerald, Lord Strickland. On the opposite side o f the fence there was the
Catholic newspaper Lehen is-Sewwa (The Voice o f Truth) as well as the Italian language
paper Malta, belonging to the Nationalist Party. The English and Maltese language press
together w ith Lehen is-Sewwa depended on Reuters' Service while Malta was linked to
the Stefani news agency o f Rome as their source o f foreign news. W hilst the readers of
Dħalna f'Madrid: The Spanish Civil War as viewed from Malta
recipients o f Italian Fascist government subsidies. In fact the Defence Security Officer
Major Bertram Ede reported that Lehen is-Sewwa had been established as a daily with
Italian support under sem i-clerical approval to disseminate their propaganda while Malta
printed 'exactly w hat it is told by the Italian consul.'6 This explains why these tw o dailies
explicitly supported the Francoist cause which had been espoused so decidedly by
Mussolini.
The reporting of the Popular Front's victory
The five years subsequent to the proclamation o f the Second Republic were often
associated in Malta with the physical assaults upon the clergy and property of the Catholic
Church in Spain. The Republic's practical failure to tackle the Church’s vast power was a
non-event in the Maltese press. ll-Berka o f 14 February 1936 alerted the Maltese public
that, irrespective o f whoever won the election, whether the left or the right, persecution
o f the Church or civil war was to be expected. ll-Berka was categorical about the election
result. The victory o f the Popular Front on 18 February 1936 was reported extensively
by all newspapers. Flowever, ll-Berka was unequivocal about the choice of front-page
headlines: 'lr-rebħa tad-demokrazija fi Spanja' (The Victory o f Democracy in Spain).7 The
highly tense scenario in Spain meant th a t a coup could be expected at any time. The
spark that ignited the powder keg was the assassination o f the Leader o f the Opposition
Jose Calvo Sotelo on 13 July 1936. The next day The Times o f Malta inform ed readers
that Calvo Sotelo would have been 'the leading possible dictator in the event o f the right
wing parties returning to power'.8 The paper later announced the m ilitary rebellion that
started on 1 7 -1 8 July as 'Civil War in Spain - Three Prime Ministers in a day'.9 The
news com ing from Spain overshadowed that o f the Berlin Olympic Games w hich were
inaugurated at the same time. On 20 July 1936 the Lehen is-Sewwa reported a full-scale
revolution in Spanish M orocco with the title ‘Rivoluzzjoni cbira fil Marocc Spaniol'. The
news was repeated by the Nationalist paper Malta on 21 July 1936 declaring 'R ivolta
militare nel Marocco spagnolo'. All newspapers in Malta reported the stages o f the war
daily, but ll-Berka placed m ore emphasis on the happenings in Spain than its sister paper,
The Times o f Malta. All newspapers in Malta reported the atrocities and that the Spanish
State was being hijacked by com m unists. The indignation about the plight of the Catholic
Church caused the opening o f a public subscription by M onsignor Salvatore Manduca
in aid o f the 'miserable Spanish priests' who were 'victim s o f com m unist barbarism ’.10
English newspapers tended to read other newspapers, those o f il-Berka included persons
w ho only read a Maltese newspaper. Lehen is-Sewwa and Malta were perceived to be
2
The Malta Herald. 27 April 1931; this paper ceased publication on 8 January 1932
6
NAM, Charles Bonham-Carter to J H Thomas, 20 April 1936. Report by Bertram Ede attached, 17 April 1936.
3
A. Espinosa Rodriguez, Series o f Talks on Malta's Relations with States: Spain. M inistry o f Foreign Affairs, Malta 2011.9
7
ll-Berka. 27 February 1936
4
National Archives o f Malta (NAM), Despatches to Secretary o f State fo r the Colonies, David Campbell to Cunliffe - Lister, 3 May
1932.
8
The Times o f Malta. 14 July 1936.
9
Ibid , 21 July 1936.
Ibid.
10
Lehen is-Sewwa. 5 September 1936.
5
134
135
Giorgio Peresso
Dħalna f'Madrid: The Spanish Civil War as viewed from Malta
Maltese Catholics support the rebellion
The pilgrimage was a huge success. The speaker addressing the faithful, Monsignor
Initially, local papers merely reproduced the news supplied by foreign agencies. As the
Carmelo Bonnici, ended his message on a trium phant note: ‘We shall now all return to our
events in Spain tended to become a European problem, local input was added to the
com m entary about the Spanish question. The focus o f Maltese newspapers generally
circled around local affairs. The more im portant headlines o f Times o f Malta in July 1936
were mainly about local and imperial issues. Titles included: 'A new constitution' (15 July);
'Italians in Malta - the closure o f the Istituto di Cultura' (16 July); 'W ithdrawal o f Italian
Consul in Malta' (16 July); 'Rome celebrates end o f sanctions imposed by the League of
homes serene w ith the blessing o f Christ waiting from one m om ent to another the not
tone o f the reporting about the Siege o f Madrid. The headlines were heralding Franco's
possible victory. Ganado highlighted th a t the clergy and the Catholic Action m ovem ent
backed Franco, ju s t as in 1565 Christian Europe had supported Hospitaller Malta against
an Ottoman invasion. He added that Malta's leading thinkers endorsed his paper's stand
Nations'; and 'God save the King - attem pt on His Majesty's life' (17 July). Subsequent
and fully supported Franco.16
to this date, the press supporting the Constitutional Party favoured the Republic while
the conservative press favoured the rebels. The Spanish affair became another polarized
wrangle in the division o f journalism into tw o opposing poles. The Strickland and the
Catholic press elucidated their readership not only w ith photos but also with cartoons.
Lehen is-Sewwa displayed the charging bull sym bolising the rebels while the bullfighter
stood for the Republican governm ent claiming that in the bullfight it was the bull that
won: ‘Fil glieda tat-toru, il barri rebah'." Frequently the Republicans were tagged as the
'Red terror’. One journalist, Herbert Ganado, editor o f the Lehen is-Sewwa at the time,
wrote 'whichever side w ins in the Spanish Civil War (whether the Government or rebels)
the establishm ent o f a m ilitary dictatorship was inevitable'.’2 Although ll-Berka did not
The epic o f the siege o f the fortress o f the Alcazar in Toledo, where around 800 Civil
Guards resisted all assaults by superior Republican forces until relieved by Francoist
troops, inflamed the public's imagination. General Francisco Franco was not personally
in charge o f the relieving forces but his much-publicized walk through the ruins o f the
fortress with its com m ander Colonel Jose Moscardo Ituarte did m uch to confirm him in
his new role as com m ander-in-chief and generalissimo.17 The Alcazar was compared to
St Elmo, its defender Colonel Jose Moscardo Ituarte to de Valette, and the Republicans to
the besieging infidels. Even ll-Berka in its issue o f 7 October 1936 showed photographs of
Franco paying tribute to the besieged o f the epic o f the Alcazar w ith Moscardo depicted
support the Spanish Nationalists who were identified as Fascists, nevertheless it printed
the full text o f the appeal by the originator o f the public rallies, the Dominican friar Gerald
M. Paris, the director o f the Xirka ta' l-isem imqaddes t'Alla (The Guild o f the Holy Name of
Jesus).’3 The congregation gathered for w hat became known as Pellegrinaġġ Nazzjonali
Pro Spanja Kattolika (a national pilgrimage in favour o f Catholic Spain) at the Granaries in
Floriana. On 26 August 1936 P^ris issued an appeal rem iniscent o f the calls to holy war
o f yore. It w ent as follows:
Contrary to certain rumours being spread by our fellow Maltese, who, either through ignorance
or through malice, are showing their bias towards the enemies of God and Humanity by claim ing
that the Civil War in Spain is a rebellion of the Catholics against the legitimate government 'of
the workers'!.] In truth the conflict is between the powers of darkness and light, between the
devil and God, between disorder and order, between false and truth, between libertine anarchy
and religion, but more precisely between Communism and Catholicism."1
11
Ibid., 18 November 1936.
12
Ibid., 5 September 1936.
13
Militia Christi. 11 January 1931.
14
tl-Berka, 1 September 1936, 'Kullħadd għal Furjana': 'Kuntrarjament għal ċerti għajdut ta' ċerti ħutna Mattin, li jew b'malizzja
jew b'injuranza. qiegħdin ju ru x-xaqliba tagħhom lejn l-Egħedewwa t Alia u tal-Bnedmin, billi jinsinwaw iili l-gwerra ċivili ta'
Spanja hija ribeljoni tal-Kattolci kontra il-Gvern leġittim u ‘tal-ħaddiem a’, in verità l-Gwerra hija bejn il-potenzi tad-dlam ijiet u
tad-dawl, bejn id-demonju u Alla, bejn id-disordm u l’ordni, bejn il-falzità u s-sewwa, bejn il-libertinizm u anarkiku u reliġjon ta'
kull xorta, iżda preċisament bejn il-Kom m unizm u u l-Kattoliċiżm u '
136
so distant signs o f a victory fo r Catholic Spain.'1
16 The newspapers continued raising the
5
as the heroic commander.
The fervour o f the Catholic masses was once more manifested during the celebration
o f the feast o f Christ the King held on 25 October 1936. The announcement to the crowd
about the fall o f Aranjuez brought jubilation and the spontaneous chanting o f 'Christus
vincit, Christus imperat. Madrid was the expected zenith. The euphoria was followed
by the recital o f the Te Deum, culm inating in the reading o f a telegram from the dean
o f the Cathedral Chapter o f Mdina, M onsignor Albert Pantalleresco, congratulating
General Franco. It read: ‘Catholic Malta gathered in its thousands on the occasion o f
the feast o f Christ the King in com m union o f Spirit prays for final victory of the arm s for
Catholic Spain’. Although The Times o f Malta reproduced the photos o f the Pellegrinaġġ
Nazzjonali, it lambasted Pantalleresco fo r exploiting an annual religious celebration and
turning it into a political rally.18 Pantalleresco was not the only one to use a religious
celebration to further a political agenda. Giorgio Borg Olivier, the future prime minister,
then a law student and president o f the students’ union, replaced an English inscription
w ith an Italian one in the laying o f wreaths during the occasion.19 He was disciplined by
the University authorities fo r this conduct. Adding to the cauldron was the football match
between the team o f Cospicua St George's (Saints) and the Paola team, Hibernians. The
15
Leħen is-Sewwa, 9 September 1936.
16
M Refalo, M y Century (translation o f Herbert Ganado's Rajt Malta Tinbidel), Vol 3, Malta 2006,109.
17
M Gallo, Storia della Spagna Franchista. Bari 1972,51.
18
The Times o f Malta, 28 October 1936.
19
Ibid,, 29 October 1936, Editorial.
137
Dhalna f'Madrid: The Spanish Civil War as viewed from Malta
Giorgio Peresso
Malta Football Association was taken to task fo r the scheduling o f matches on the holy
day o f the feast o f Christ the King, thus reducing the size of the congregation.
A peak o f intense emotion was reached when, on 9 November, the Lehen is-Sewwa
announced trium phantly ‘Dħalna f'Madrid’, as if it was the masses o f Malta who had
entered Madrid. Judging from the headlines o f the other newspapers, on the other hand, a
Francoist victory appeared in jeopardy. Malta was cautious in enunciating a likely Catholic
victory: ‘Squillo di vittoria Cattolica'. Lehen is-Sewwa’s banner headlines in fa ct proved to
be wishful thinking and Ganado was haunted fo r the rest of his life by his zealous craving
fo r a Catholic victory. He was quick to dem onstrate th a t he had reported w hat Reuters
had transm itted to him. After all, the rebels' radio stations in Spain were announcing
that General Mola, the officer who had planned the m ilitary uprising before control o f the
rebels had passed to Franco, was preparing to enter Madrid’s central square, Puerta del
provided a big propaganda boost for Franco. However, the Nationalists' delay in the
attack on Madrid to lift the siege o f the Alcazar had allowed the Republicans tim e to
organise their defences. When the Nationalists did attack Madrid at Casa del Campo and
the University City, they were met w ith ferocious resistance. The arrival on the field o f
units o f the International Brigades thw arted the Nationalist assault and Madrid remained
in Republican hands until the end o f the Civil War.
While the pro-Franco sentim ent among the clergy in Malta was quite overwhelming,
there were discordant voices. A keen observer o f the Maltese scene, the Italian ConsulGeneral Raffaele Casertano, informed his superiors in Rome that, in spite o f the
archbishop's categorical instructions for special prayers, triduum, fund-raising and other
events, there was some resistance from a few parish priests to follow the Curia's lead in
th is respect.24
Sol, in trium ph riding a w hite ch a rg e rto celebrate the victory.20
In any event, the delay in the fall o f Madrid did not discourage Malta's fervent Cathol ics
and the heavy Nationalist aerial bom bings o f civilians were justified by Maltese supporters
as unavoidable. The morale o f Maltese Catholics was kept high w ith the publication o f the
contents o f a letter o f 6 November 1936 from P. De Langranis, Franco's ch e f de cabinet. It
was prom inently published in Lehen is-Sewwa of 21 November 1936 and read as follows:
On behalf of His Excellency the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the National Armed
Forces that are struggling against the Marxist rabble, I sincerely thank you for the prayers of
the Maltese Catholics on the occasion of the Feast of Christ for the triumph of Catholic Spain.21
The newspaper used sim ilar vocabulary to that used by Franco's aide when it declared:
We highly cherish this letter, f i e Spanish Nationalists not only appreciated our prayers but
demonstrated that their ideals matched ours in as far as ensuring that Catholic Spain is freed
from the Red curse.22
On 5 October ll-Berka inform ed its readers that the troops o f General Franco and
General Mola were united in a com m on front to win Madrid. Henceforth, w hat had been
described by some as 'The Siege o f Madrid' gave the sensation that the rebels were
heading for a victory. Still, Mola had been unable to move beyond the Somosierra passes
m ostly because his troops were ill-equipped. Yet Franco's troops com ing from the south
o f Spain had been rapidly advancing tow ards the capital.23 By 3 September they had
captured Talavera de la Reina. ll-Berka o f 5 September announced that Franco’s troops
were 25 miles from Madrid. Lehen is-Sewwa was not alone in anticipating a rapid fall o f
Spain's capital. General Varela's liberation o f the fortress of the Alcazar on 29 September
Wanderers in Spain
While the spirit o f solidarity towards the Francoist cause was widely manifested, those
supporting the Republicans would seem to have kept a low profile, concerned perhaps
lest they be tainted by the 'Red' brush and there are no very visible signs of a counter­
argum ent and we have to look beyond the island itself for someone with a Maltese
connection, albeit not Maltese himself, w ho took a clear anti-fascist stand against the
Spanish Nationalist rebels.
Umberto Calosso, an Italian academic, journalist, politician and anti-fascist who
taught Italian at St Edward's College during the 1930s was in Spain at the tim e o f the
Nationalist uprising and volunteered to join the Italian contingent fighting w ith the
Republicans. From Spain he reported his observations in the Paris-based anti-fascist
journal Giustizia e Libertà as well as the Manchester Guardian.25 He served in the Ascaso
Column together with anarchist university professor Camillo Berneri, republican lawyer
Mario Angeloni and other volunteers subscribing to a variety o f political creeds. The
Hispanist Hugh Thomas, in his The Spanish Civil War, declares that the Italian Ascaso
Column 'received a baptism o f fire at Monte Pelado in the Sierra Galoche on 28 August,
a victory during which their com m ander Angeloni was killed’.26 Calosso, who did not fire
a single shot, was nevertheless good at driving a Ford and at keeping morale high with
his distinctive wit. On his return to Malta, he went straight to the Blue Sisters Hospital as
he returned badly wounded. The Spanish connection tainted his reputation with the local
24
Archivio Storico Diplomatico Esteri, Archivio di Gabinetto 1923-43, busta 781 Corrispondenza del Console Casertano (Ottobre
1936-O ttobre 1938) lettera riservata no 10035/27, del Console Casertano al M inistro degli Affari Esteri, 'oggetto Situazione
religiosa a M alta’, 7 Novembre 1936.
20
P Preston, Franco, a biography, London 1993, 200.
21
Lehen is-Sewwa, 16 March 1939
22
Lehen is-Sewwa, 21 November 1936
23
H Thomas, The Spanish Civil War. London 1986,381
138
25
Carlo Verri, Guerra e Liberta, XL Edizioni, Palermo, 2011, 54-75. Enrico Accai, Viaggio attraverso I'antifascism o volontario
internazionale e guerra civile spagnola. la sezione italiana della colonna Ascaso', unpublished doctoral dissertation,
26
Thomas, 381.
Dipartimento di storie e culture del testo, Universita degli Studi della Tuscia, 2010,273.
139
Giorgio Peresso
Dħalna f'Madrid: The Spanish Civil War as viewed from Malta
clergy during the rest o f his tim e in Malta. He confided in his m entor Benedetto Croce that
‘la Spagna m i ha rovinato presso i fascio-preti' (Spain has ruined m y standing w ith the
fascists-priests).27
There is also docum entary evidence attesting to the presence in Spain during the Civil
War o f at least tw o other individuals w ith a Maltese connection but, contrary to Calosso
w ho was a confirm ed an ti-fa scist and wanted to be there, these tw o individuals would
seem to have ju s t happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong tim e and their story
has no real bearing on the Civil War itself apart from the fact th a t its outbreak converted
them into refugees overnight.
As m any as 500,000 people may have left Spain as refugees as a result o f the Civil
War.28 M ost were evidently Spanish but som e were not and the latter include at least tw o
Maltese nationals. The firs t was Agostino Levanzin, a Maltese-born man o f m any talents
w ho was a nutritionist, a lawyer and a journalist but is probably best known in Malta as
the w riter o f Is-Saħħar Falzun.29 Having lived in a num ber o f foreign countries including
the United States and Monte Carlo, he was convalescing in Majorca when the Civil War
broke out and, being a British subject, he was evacuated by the British authorities on
board HMS Resource. He wrote a rather long account o f the exploit to Sir Samuel Hoare,
the first lord o f the Admiralty, as soon as he landed in Monaco on 15 September 1936.30
He objected to the ill-treatm ent endured from the crew and highlighted that he was not
given the proper attention considering that he suffered from a dozen ailments. He also
complained about the scantiness o f the menu on board. In spite o f the claim that the
Royal Navy put his im mediate health condition in jeopardy, he lived to the ripe old age of
Estier, arriving on the island on 5 October 1936. He was granted a daily subsidy. Owing to
the im possibility o f finding w ork in Malta, the local Imperial authorities sent him back to
France on 31 October 1936.33 On his return to the continent, he spontaneously asked the
governor o f Malta to revoke the subsidy allotted.34
The Maltese-Spanish saga debated in London
It was normal practice fo r local issues to be raised in the House o f Commons at
Westminster. During a sitting o f the House o f Commons on 17 February 1937, Labour MP
Thomas Williams, asked the Secretary o f State for the Colonies, Mr William Ormsby-Gore
whether he was aware that Monsignor Pantalleresco had expressed a laudatory stance to
General Franco and his interfering in the Civil War was contrary to official policy. OrmsbyGore replied that there was no such thing as a public dem onstration in support o f the
insurgents in Spain. What Pantalleresco did, according to w hat the governor o f Malta
reported, was that the dean o f the Cathedral had read out a telegram which was sent
to Franco in the name o f a congregation at a Catholic festival. W illiams endeavoured to
equate the dean's pro-Franco gesture as being anti-British. At this juncture the secretary
o f state disagreed and soberly declared:
No, unless I concede that every Catholic who openly in this country expresses a preference for
one side or the other is anti-British, and that I decline to believe.
After all, many people take the other view, and are allowed to express their opinion. The
82 and, although he was apparently a defender o f workers' rights, he is not on record as
having had anything particular to say about Spain's war.
Government's position is non-intervention, but Honourable Members opposite seem to be very
much on the opposite side.35
The second case relates tojvliguel Cardona Balestra who was accompanied by his
wife Teresa and their daughter Elisa. Unlike Levanzin who was Maltese-born and -bred
and spoke English as well, Cardona spoke no Maltese since he was not even born on the
island. He held a British passport since his grandfather Antonio, who had migrated to
Corfu, was o f Maltese origin.3' On the orders o f the British consul in Barcelona, Cardona
and his fam ily were evacuated on 28 September 1936 from his home in Barcelona
where he lived and worked as a shoemaker. He embarked on board HMS Worcester on 1
October 1936 bound for London via Marseilles. On their arrival at Marseilles, the British
consul altered their direction to Malta32 and decided to send the fam ily on board SS Henri
The furore about the Civil War wanes as the end approaches
W ith Hitler increasingly hogging the front pages o f Maltese newspapers, reports
about developments in the conflict in Spain became less frequent. Ganado, using the
pseudonym o f 'Spectator', predicted a dom ino effect. The electoral victory of the Popular
Front in 1936 had coincided with Hitler's rem ilitarisation o f the Rhineland, thus breaking
yet another clause o f the 1919 Treaty o f Versailles. Before the Spanish Civil War had
ended, Austria had already been annexed to Germany while Czechoslovakia had ceased
to exist.36 Poland was being threatened, while Italy and Germany confirm ed their close
27
Archivio Centrale Storico, Busta 958. M inistero Interno, Umberto Calosso to Benedetto Croce, 9 April 1940
28
Perhaps inevitably, estimates vary as to the num ber o f refugees who fled Spain. Elena Castro Oury claim s these may have
been half a m illion in her La segunda republics y la guerra civil espaftola (1993), while Ramon Tamames and Sebatian
Quesada suggest 300,000 in their Imageries de Espaha (2008).
29
L. Bugeja, ‘Agostino Levanzin, m an for all reasons'. Sunday Times o f Malta 15 July 2012.
30
NAM, Lieutenant-Governor's Office (LGO), Confidential File 698/1936, Levanzin to Hoare, Monaco, 15 September 1936.
33
31
Ibid., LGO, 2903/1938, Michael, Teresa, and Elisa Cardona's petition to the Governor o f Malta. 22 October 1936.
34
Ibid., 15 September 1936.
32
Ibid., British Consul General in Marseilles to Governor o f Malta, 28 October 1936
35
Hansard. House o f Commons Debates, 17 February 7937, Vol. 320, c c l 756.
36
Lehen is-Sewwa. 16 March 1939.
140
political relations w ith a m ilitary pact. As the Civil War neared its end, Lehen is-Sewwa
was once more trium phantly announcing the advance o f the Nationalist troops in
NAM, LGO, 698/1936, British Consul General in Marseilles to Governor o f Malta. 21 February 1939
141
Giorgio Peresso
Catalonia and the fall o f Barcelona as 'Dħalna Barcelona'37 The focus in Malta as the
Spanish conflict entered its final phase was elsewhere, especially on events to do with
the Catholic Church such as the death o f Pope Pius XI,38 the election o f Pope Pius XII,39
as well as the Eucharistic Congress.40 Once again the Granaries esplanade in Floriana
was the venue for a large rally but the accent this tim e was on purely religious matters,
although the sounds o f a new war were already being heard. Air-raid drills had become a
regular occurrence since the end o f the Abyssinian War (19 3 5 -3 6 ).41 Other news had to
do with the proclamation o f a new constitution, but th is failed to grip the im agination of
the populace in the way the Spanish question had done.42
Conclusion
Thirty m onths after they had prematurely announced the fall o f Madrid, Maltese supporters
o f Franco's Catholic alliance were finally able to declare ‘Dħalna f'Madrid'43and a couple
o f days later this tragic rehearsal o f the Second World War was hurriedly sealed with the
headlines 'Franco jiddikkjara li il gwerra civili spiċċat' - 'Franco declares that the civil war
is over’.444
5Pius XII rejoiced at the victory and telegraphed Franco 'expressing thanks to
God for Spain's desired Catholic victory’.46
Media coverage o f the Civil War in the United Kingdom spanned the whole range of
opinions from the strongly pro-Franco Daily Mail to the pro-Republic Com m unist Party’s
Daily Worker, but the Maltese reading public does not seem to have been so spoilt for
choice. Indeed, vocal opposition to the Francoists in Malta is notable by its absence
although clearly not all were pro-Franco. For a large number o f Maltese, the Spanish
Civil War was mediated by a fervently Catholic press as a war between Catholicism and
Com m unism but, as was to happen to Franco, those w ho hitched their wagon to Fascist
Italy and Nazi Germany were eventually to pay a price. Leading exponents o f the Franco
cause such as Paris, Ganado and Pantalleresco were eventually interned, w ith the latter
tw o subsequently deported to Uganda once the Second World War broke out. The passion
shown in their campaign in favour o f the Francoist cause, although undoubtedly moved
prim arily by their Catholic faith, com prom ised the kind o f loyalty the Imperial authorities
expected from the otherwise docile Maltese population. The declaration o f war by Italy
com pletely obliterated news about Spain and the Maltese had the dubious honour o f
experiencing the horrors o f w ar at firs t hand.
37
Ibid., 26 January 1939, Special edition.
38
Ibid, 11 February 1939.
39
Ibid. 3 March 1939.
40
Ibid , 5 May 1939.
41
Ibid. 13 March 1939.
42
The Times o f Malta. 25 January 1939
43
Lehen is-Sewwa. 29 March 1939
44
Ibid., 31 March 1939.
45
The Times o f Malta. 3 April 1939.
142