European geopolitics in the 1930s caused plenty of uncertainty. The British worried about riots in the Middle East, and the possibility of another major war with Germany. They hatched a secret plan to reinforce Malta’s money supply in case of war.

Geopolitical crisis

The 1938 Munich agreement was the result of Nazi Germany’s territorial claims. The mess caused by the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I led to this. The choice Europe’s major powers faced seemed simple: accept Hitler’s demands or go to war. Everyone preferred avoiding war, a choice Hitler banked on.

I’ve written the shocking story of the annexation of the Sudetenland which was one of the results of the Munich agreement.

Meanwhile, in British controlled Palestine, the 1936-1938 Arab revolt continued with terrorist attacks¹. In 1937 Arab gunmen had assassinated Acting District Commissioner Andrews in Nazareth². The British authorities set up military courts to try these case³. New regulations were also in force allowing the British to detain political prisoners in any part of the Empire³. The UK sent troops to Palestine to reinforce the number of boots on the ground.

Faced with these geopolitical realities, the British authorities began to worry about Malta. What if Hitler started a war? What if the Palestinian riots spread to British-ruled Egypt? Malta would be one of the places where the Mediterranean could be controlled from. The British knew Malta was critical for the region.

This wasn’t a new thought, because the House of Commons had discussed this on 10 March of the same year. The British Secretary of State for War had called for further reinforcement of Malta against potential enemy action in the Mediterranean⁴.

The first concern was simple: How do we keep the money supply going?

The plan

In September 1938, before the European leaders met in Munich, the UK government hatched a secret plan to reinforce Malta’s money supply⁵. The British chartered a flight from London to Malta, via Lyons and Corsica⁵. The details of the flight were secret⁵.

Its mission was to carry a consignment of freshly-minted banknotes to Malta. This would ensure the island would be able to keep going in the event of a new European or Middle-Eastern war⁵. The flight path through Corsica was a specific choice; the British were wary of flying to Italy because of Mussolini’s fascist regime⁵.

After refuelling in Lyons, the plane headed for Corsica but bad weather prevented it from approaching⁵. Refusing to stop in Italy, the pilot plotted a course around the weather towards Tunis⁵.

In Tunis, the pilot and co-pilot realised they couldn’t leave the money in the plane while they rested⁵. They also couldn’t tell anyone what they had⁵. Stashing all the money in unlabelled sacks, the two carried everything to a nearby hotel. They stuffed their room with banknotes and guarded everything while they rested⁵.

The next day dawned with clearer weather. The pilots plotted a course for Malta⁵. They landed on 30 September 1938, while the European leaders were signing the Munich agreement preventing a European war⁵.

The result

In the end Malta did not need that boost to its money supply in 1938. It took another year before a European, then worldwide, war kicked off. The issues in the Middle East merged with the war and took on a life of its own afterwards. The current geopolitical climate in the Middle East is a direct result of all that.

References

1. Hughes, M. (2009) The Banality of Brutality: British Armed Forces and the Repression of the Arab Revolt in Palestine, 1936–39, English Historical Review Vol. CXXIV No. 507, pp. 314–354[↩]
2. Cohen, Hillel (2009). Army of Shadows: Palestinian Collaboration with Zionism, 1917–1948. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-25989-8[↩]
3. Kelly, Matthew (2017). The Crime of Nationalism: Britain, Palestine, and Nation-Building on the Fringe of Empire. Oakland, California: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-29149-2[↩][↩]
4. Army estimates 1938; Hansard record; UK Parliament; 1938-03-10[↩]
5. Consiglio, John A.; 2006; A history of banking in Malta. – Valletta; Progress Press[↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]

Remember: links were correct at time of publication.