Word: mintoffs
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Ever since he became Malta's Prime Minister last June, scrappy, erratic Socialist Dom Mintoff has made a specialty of issuing nonnegotiable demands. In one of his first official acts, for example, he told the British Governor General to resign and to clear out of the tiny Commonwealth island nation within four days. Last week "Deadline Dom," as he has become known in some corners of Malta's diplomatic community, came up with what could be his ultimate ultimatum. Unless Britain agreed to come across with an immediate $11 million increase in the rent that it pays...
...demand was a sharp escalation in a bizarre campaign that Mintoff has been waging to gouge more money from Britain and other NATO countries that use Malta's superb naval and air facilities. With government indebtedness expected to reach a staggering $104 million by next spring, Malta is undeniably short of cash. Prime Minister Edward Heath offered to increase Britain's annual payments from $14 million to a generous $24 million, but Mintoff is holding out for $47 million...
Broken Agreement. When he threw down the gauntlet last week, Mintoff broke an agreement with Heath to continue negotiating at least until next March. Evidently, Mintoff figured that he was in strong diplomatic shape for an early showdown. He has been courting the Soviets for some time, and last week, after he fired his shot at Whitehall, he ostentatiously flew off for secret talks with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's anti-Western regime in Libya...
...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...
...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...