The Cross Maltese

The jubilant crowds swarmed through the narrow streets of Valletta, the walled capital of Malta, in such numbers that the black Mercedes Benz was forced to a virtual halt. Inside the car, the driver lost his temper. "Save your applause for later!" he shouted, leaning out of the window. "There is work to do, and it will be done!"

Hot-tempered Dom Mintoff, 54, made that promise just before taking the oath as Malta's second Prime Minister since it became an independent member of the British Commonwealth in 1964. In the three weeks since then, he has shown that he meant business. The day after he was sworn in by the British Governor General, Sir Maurice Dorman, he called on Sir Maurice and told him: "The people here would like to have a Maltese as Governor General." "When would you like me to resign?" asked Dorman. "Tomorrow morning," said Mintoff, although he later relented and gave Sir Maurice four days to get packing.

Tripling the Take. The mercurial Mintoff was just getting started. He sacked the British police chief. He pronounced invalid the ten-year agreement allowing Britain to keep military forces on the island. He asked Washington to suspend further Sixth Fleet visits "pending revision of general agreements." For good measure, Mintoff also declared NATO's Mediterranean commander, Italian Admiral Gino Birindelli, persona non grata. Birindelli, an outspoken right-winger who kept his NATO headquarters on Malta, had accused Mintoff of planning to let the Russians use the island as a naval base.

Fearing just that, some Allied strategists quickly charged that Mintoff's maneuvers sounded like the start of a new Cuba. To other observers, however, it looked as if his main goal were simply to extract more money from Britain. Under an agreement signed in 1964, Britain has been paying a modest -L-5,000,000 (now $12 million) annually for its right to station forces on the island. Moreover, other NATO nations used Malta's harbor and facilities without paying the Maltese anything--even though Malta is not a NATO member and has no treaty or agreement with it. Mintoff is expected to ask the British to triple their subsidy.

The son of a Royal Navy ship's steward of Bulgarian ancestry, Mintoff graduated from Oxford with degrees in architecture and engineering. He campaigned for the June elections, in which his Labor Party won a narrow 28-to-27 parliamentary majority, on a vaguely neutralist platform. But he cannot hope to retain that majority for five years unless he can do something dramatic to win the voters' confidence--like filling their pocketbooks.

"Mintoff is using the shock treatment," said a Western diplomat after a visit to Malta last week. "He believes his people have to be kicked out of their dreamy complacency and lethargy. He also believes the British must be shocked into yielding to his demands."

Soviet Bid. The British have proved unshockable. For one thing, the island is no longer so important strategically as it was during the 16th century heyday of the Maltese Knights, or during World War II. Today U.S. warships use Naples as their main headquarters in the area, and Russia has no great need for a new base. For another, despite last week's visit to Malta by the Soviet Ambassador to Britain, Mikhail Smirnovsky, Mintoff insists that whatever trade concessions he may give the Soviets, they will never get a military toehold on Malta. "We will offer our services to the one who pays the most," he says, "except for three countries which we fear: Italy, the U.S. and Russia."

In any case, Mintoff is not likely to go so far as to kick the British out, since 3,000 Maltese employed at the base would immediately lose their jobs. That is a blow the poor and crowded (pop. 320,000) country could hardly sustain. Last week, when Mintoff canceled the Sixth Fleet visit, there was sorrow among the island's shopkeepers and the girls of "The Gut," the red-light district. According to one estimate, Malta lost $360,000 by keeping the sailors away.

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