Italian fascism and the mail in Malta

Abstract

The advent of Fascism in Italy disturbed profoundly the unstable political equilibrium prevailing in Malta. On October 28, 1922, Benito Mussolini led his "March on Rome". Italy became a fascist state and Maltese politics took a nasty turn. Previous Italian governments had steadfastly shown a benign interest in Malta. Inevitably, the geographical closeness between the two countries, the dominant use of Italian as a written language and the cultural links which history had forged over many centuries, kept our island well anchored to the Italian sphere of interests. This notwithstanding, in Italy there was no important movement towards annexation, nor, in Malta, towards unification. [excerpt]