As expected, Henry Frendo (‘The Sette Giugno in Maltese history’, The Sunday Times of Malta, May 29), reacted to my letter, which suggested having the official name of the June 7 national holiday in Maltese. Unfortunately he started his letter by trying to shoot the messenger and not the message (“Daniel Cilia is a good photographer but his historiographical sensitivity is limited”).

Thanks to the hard work in 1988 by Prof. Frendo and others, we have five national holidays. Most countries have only one, some have two, and Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and South Korea have three. We are the only one with five.

June 7 is the only national holiday in the world that is officially referred in a foreign language. The September 8 national holiday used to be called ‘L’Otto Settembre’, yet now it is rightly called Jum il-Vittorja.

In a separate letter (‘A trip down memory lane’), Charles Xuereb says I do not know my Maltese history well.

I assure Mr Xuereb that I do. I know the 1919 period very well. Together with a specialised author I am preparing a book that narrates the true story of Maltese self-governance.

Unfortunately most books about Malta’s self-rule have been given a political whitewash, depending on the author’s political bias, including also whether the authors are pro-Italian or pro-British.

Mine was just a suggestion and I do not intend to turn this into some personal crusade. Thus my correspondence on this subject will end here.