The Threat of Invasion

As we have seen, the Italian government had attempted over many years to undermine the military value of the British naval base at Valletta by seeking to weaken Maltese acceptance of British colonial rule. From a strategic point of view, concern about the proximity of such a powerful enemy base, together with other British and French Mediterranean possessions, was expressed in a major policy statement that Mussolini delivered to the Fascist Grand Council on 4 February 1939. In this statement, which Ciano referred to as ‘The March to the Sea’ speech, ¹ Mussolini argued that Italy found herself imprisoned in the Mediterranean, and went on to say: The bars of this prison are Corsica, Tunis, Malta, Cyprus. The sentinels of this prison are Gibraltar and Suez…. The task of Italian policy…is to first of all break the bars of this prison.’ ²