Nerik Mizzi […] openly support[ed] [Fascist] imperialism by supporting [the Fascist] war effort in […] Abyssinia.³¹ Mizzi’s views can be quoted directly and extensively from MALTA, the newspaper he edited. This was written in Italian and constantly propagated Italian culture, the cause for the official use of the Italian language in Malta and constant praise for the […] fascist government and its policies.³² Ivan Vassallo, who describes Mizzi as an Italian imperialist, offers a very comprehensive digest of Mizzi’s views, but fails to mention the British documents which show the extensive financial support that Mizzi received from the […] fascist government.³³

Henry Frendo states that many Nationalist Party members loved Italy and generally admired Mussolini,³⁴ and we can find many instances of open and public Maltese support for fascist Italy. For example, after the assassination attempt on Mussolini’s life in 1926, the Maltese Casa del Fascio in conjunction with the [Fascist] consulate organised several religious services to commemorate the event. In a Te Deum ceremony held in Saint Catherine’s Church in Valletta, a prominent Italian Jesuit, Vincenzo Furci, praised the Duce and extolled his virtues.³⁵

Another example is when several Maltese contributed to the ‘Oro per la patria’ campaign started in December 1935 after Italy lost a significant amount of gold reserves during the Abyssinian War. They included the son of Arturo Mercieca, Vittorio Mercieca, the Italian Consulate Legal Advisor Dr. A. Stilon de Piro (later interned), and Rosa Maria and Anna Mallia who were daughters of Carlo Mallia, once a Nationalist Minister and president of the King’s Own Band Club.³⁶ Nerik Mizzi made a donation as well, but his party did not.³⁷

[…]

It is also clear from the British government’s intelligence report that Mussolini himself pledged financial support to Mizzi. We already know that Mizzi had met with Mussolini twice in his lifetime—once in 1931 and again in 1936.⁵³ On 12 November 1936, Mizzi was in Rome and lodged at the Hotel Continental where he requested a meeting with the Duce. Mizzi met Mussolini on 30 November and requested, amongst other things, adverts and subscriptions for MALTA, and these demands were met.

Mizzi also asked for signed photos of the Duce, of Badoglio and H.E. Debono. The newspaper subscriptions were meant for institutes and bodies such as Casa del Fascio (the Italian funded Malta based clubhouse [yes, a clubhouse])⁵⁴ and the cultural institutes.⁵⁵

[…]

The early 1930s had started with Britain tightening its grip over Malta, but it was first the socialists who were purged before the British authorities turned towards Mizzi and the irredentists. In 1932, the Prevention of Seditious Propaganda Ordinance was passed. This was a bill enacted by the Imperial Government to prevent the possession and dissemination of any radical and political material and, in 1933, this bill would be used to purge socialists.

The socialists were also charged with the importation of foreign propaganda and trials led to the dissolution of the Socialist League. Mizzi and his collaborators were in government, however, and their widespread support meant that it would have taken more work to purge them. […] Mizzi was arrested in May 1940 while at the MALTA office in Valletta, expelled in 1942, but returned to Malta from Uganda in March 1945. Once returned, a rehabilitated Mizzi re‐took his post in the Council of Government.⁸³

(Emphasis added.)

While this next bit isn’t especially important, I… well… maybe after reading it you’ll understand why I’m including it here:

On 8 September, around fifteen fascists gathered at a demonstration in Ħamrun where they started chanting fascist songs. A crowd of street children soon gathered and starting molesting them, with the leader Victor Savona injuring his forehead in the process, probably from being hit or pushed to the floor.⁶⁷

…no comment.

Events that happened today (September 21):

1894: Anton Piëch, Fascist lawyer, was born.
1934: A large typhoon struck western Honshū, Japan, killing more than 3,000 people.
1939: The Iron Guard murdered Romanian Prime Minister Armand Călinescu.
1942: On the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, Axis scum sent over 1,000 Jews of Pidhaitsi to Bełżec extermination camp, while in Dunaivtsi, Ukraine, other Axis scum massacred 2,588 Jews. At Yom Kippur’s end, the Third Reich ordered Konstantynów’s Jews to permanently move to Biała Podlaska.
1944: Artur Gustav Martin Phleps, Axis lieutenant general, died in combat.
2012: Børge Willy Redsted Pedersen (a.k.a. Sven Hazel), Axis soldier, expired.