Miss Mabel Strickland OBE (1899-1988) former politician and owner of several newspapers. Het father Lord Strickland (1861-1940) was a colonial governor and Prime Minister of Malta.
We first met on 18th May 1973 in her Bentley. Her secretary asked me to present myself at the headquarters of the Allied Newspapers in St. Paul Street, Valletta. The receptionist told me to wait in Miss Strickland’s car, which was parked in front of the building. The driver instructed me to ‘sit on this side. The other side is Miss Mabel’s side’.
After she arrived she told me: ‘So you’re the young professor from Denmark who is going to study us’. I told her I did not come from Denmark, but she considered this a small detail. I also to told her a was not a professor, but this happened to be another small detail: ‘You will be some day’.
In the meantime the driver took us to her residence, Villa Parisio in Lija, where I met her faithful factotum, Miss Connie. I instantly liked her.
In the car we discussed Archbishop Gonzi. Miss Mabel: ‘I fought him for 25 years and I fought with him for 25 years. I told hem he should retire, but he did not hear or (with a twinkle in her eyes) pretended he did not hear it.’ And then she put her elbow into my belly like a jolly old aunt.
A bit later I was invited to join het for luncheon. Other guests were her relatives Lord and Lady so and so (I do not remember their names). He was a member of the British House of Lords.
At the table Miss Mabel told her how proud she was when Dom Mintoff inspected seemingly unmoved a guard of honour during his recent visit to Red China. ‘Lorry Sant seemed to be a bit nervous. Dom enjoyed alle cultural events, while Lorry was bored. Dom was bored during the official receptions, but enjoyed signing the official documents, while Zhou Enlai was unmoved’. She had seen a film of the visit.
Later she introduced me to a certain Mr. Victor Cauchi, ‘the man of the Dockyard Monument. I should have realized that most of the old Stricklandians now vote Labour. I should have supported Mintoff in wanting integration.
I am a great admirer of Mintoff, but I strongly disagree with his politics.
The pity for this country is that the Nationalists are no good alternative to Labour. When Dr. Ganado and I were in Parliament we acted as the conscience of the Nationalists and they listened to us, but things have gone worse since Borg Olivier had a clash in his personal life four years ago (his wife left him). They should remove him a their leader, the sooner the better.’
During luncheon the Lord told us some salient information about the negotiations between Mintoff, the British Government and NATO about the dismantling of the British military base of Malta. The will be dealt with in another post.
(originally posted on Facebook on 18th August 2023)