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16 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 2 FEBRUARY 2020 MATTHEW VELLA IN Maltese history, the name of 'Terinu' occupies a place both in political lore as well as for the or- igin of the neologism of devious- ness that is the 'terinata'. In what is an exceptional treat- ment of the history of Maltese politics in the 1920s, Victor Aq- uilina unveils the face of Ettore Bono, the waiter who falsely claimed in a sworn affidavit of having seen prime minister Ger- ald Strickland wearing the ma- sonic apron. Doing the bidding of the staunchly anti-British, anti-Prot- estant and anti-masonic Na- tionalist Party, Bono's affidavit was meant to undermine Lord Strickland, a Catholic and the leader of the Constitutional Par- ty, by indelibly associating him with 'blasphemous' freemasonry. The photo of Bono is found in the National Archives' collection of passports from 1915, whose details are listed as the following on the full passport: born on 25 June, 1867, he lived at 42, St Al- phonse Street, Sliema. At age 48 he applied for a passport to trav- el to Egypt. He was described as being 5 foot 2 inches tall, of 'me- dium, wrinkled' forehead, brown eyes, broad nose, 'wide' mouth (sic), regular chin, greyish hair, a reddish complexion and oval face with a scar under his lower lip. The passport comes with a sworn declaration from Bono himself saying: "I, Ettore Bono, do hereby declare that I am a British subject and that I have never sworn allegiance to any other King." Ettore's diminutive became employed in politics when poli- ticians are hounded by false al- legations, giving rise to the back- formed noun 'terinata'. "A terinata in Maltese political language means the spreading of a false story against a rival in a last-minute attempt to influence voters," Aquilina writes in Lord Strickland: Plots and Intrigue in Colonial Malta. "It is a neol- ogism derived from Terinu, the nickname of Ettore Bono, the man who made political histo- ry just before the 1928 general election when he swore to afars restatement that he had seen Strickland wearing Masonic re- galia at a dinner some 30 years back." Strickland, a member of the House of Lords and leader of the CP, was embroiled in a tus- sle against the Italophile PN and its clerical allies for most of the 1920s, spuriously accused of fa- vouring British rule through the spread of protestantism and ma- sonic subterfuge. "The plot against Strickland, or what his party deputy Augustus Bartolo described as 'the most damning plot that had ever dis- graced the country's history'" – (now where have we heard this one before…?) - was hatched by PN activists in a last-minute at- tempt to sway voters from the Constitutional Party in the 1927 election. There could have hard- ly been a more damaging accu- sation at the time than calling someone a Freemason," Aquili- na writes. Freemasonry then, as is now, was considered to be anti-cler- ical and anti-Catholic. And Strickland had long been brand- ed part of the British colonial es- tablishment and therefore held in suspicion. The statement was signed in- side the PN's propaganda of- fice at the Prime Minister's of- ficial residence – the Auberge d'Aragon – where Terinu's statement was sworn before the public prosecutor, as well as Ugo Mifsud, the co-leader of the PN, education minister Mgr Enrico Dandria, treasury minister Car- melo Mifsud Bonnici 'il-Gross', and justice minister Carlo Mall- ia. 20,000 copies of the affida- vit were printed and distribut- ed across Malta and especially in Gozo, in some places at the door of parish churches or in the church seats. The inflammatory accusation was that while working as a wait- er, Bono had witnessed Strick- land in full masonic regalia at the lodge on 27, Strait Street, Vallet- ta, on Maundy Thursday. Terinu was then taken away into a safe house on St Ursula Street, Vallet- ta, to protect him from reprisals. Terinu had been convicted at least 50 times already for drunk- enness, described by Strickland's ally Augustus Bartolo as a pimp who had put his own wife and daughters on the street. Indeed, in the case filed against the print- ers, a former freemason who de- nied Strickland having ever been a registered mason presented crucial evidence that Terinu's story was a hoax. Terinu was sentenced to a month's impris- onment with hard labour for perjury, reduced to 20 days on appeal. Lord Strickland: Plots And In- trigue In Colonial Malta by Vic- tor Aquilina is published by Kite NEWS Terinu: a liar's face revealed Here's the face of Terinu, author of the freemasonry slur the PN used against Strickland in the 1927 election