MALTA: Deadline Dom

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 for its Maltese bases,...