Floating bookshop awaits trading permit ruling

The floating bookshop Doulos docked in Grand Harbour yesterday but its crew do not yet know whether they can offer the 500,000 books on board for sale because an application for a trading licence is still pending.

The parliamentary secretary in the Finance Ministry, Edwin Vassallo said yesterday he was doing his utmost to ensure no such permit will be issued. The crew hope otherwise as do Maltese bookworms.

Whether or not it gets its permit - the application is for books to go on sale tomorrow at noon, the ship will stay in Malta as planned until June 9, going ahead with its programme of talks, festivals, seminars and concerts.

During their stay here, crew members will be working with refugees and will visit the prisons.

All 299 crew members, including the captain, are volunteers, hailing from 45 nations.

The ship's crew includes Annagreet Knies, a Dutch resident of Malta, who has been on the ship for the past nine months.

Mr Vassallo said when contacted: "We have our legislation and this should be followed. One needs a licence to trade. This is a shop in the form of a ship but it still requires a trading licence, which it does not have".

He added that the ship was not being hindered from continuing with all its other planned activities.

Last week, the Association of General Retailers and Traders protested to the government about the ship's visit, arguing that the planned sale of books would seriously distort the market.

However, Mr Vassallo denied that pressure by the GRTU had influenced his position.

A spokesman for the ship's representatives, Cassar & Cooper, said the sale of books was the only source of income for the ship, which, although completely manned by volunteers, had extensive running costs.

The Doulos, and its sister ship the Logos, he said, had been coming to Malta for the past 15 to 20 years and had always held book fairs here.

People involved with the ship's visit argue that the Doulos, which is registered in Malta, is about much more than books.

"There are programmes, teams that go on shore, services and crew members sharing the bible and the message of God's love with people of all ages."

The ship, built 88 years ago, belongs to GBA, a German owned company. In the early 1970s it was used to bring missionaries and literature to India.

It has arrived in Malta from the Canary Islands and will go on to Manfredonia on the eastern coast of Italy.