Exhibition on Gozo Civic Council

My compliments to the National Archives’ Gozo Section, in Vajrinġa Street, Victoria, for putting up an exhibition retracing the life of the Gozo Civic Committee, later the Gozo Civic Council, which was established in the late 1950s.

Both Anton Tabone and Anton Vassallo were energetic, truly patriotic presidents of the council. They were loved by one and all and succeeded to do a lot for Gozo and merit the Gozitans’ acknowledgement.

In his write-up about the exhibition – accompanied by three nostalgic photos related to the Council and exhibition, reproduced on the centre pages of The Times (July 19) – Rev. Dr Joseph Bezzina stated that “The council was unceremoniously dissolved by an Act of Parliament on December 4, 1973”.

Indeed, the council was dissolved without any fuss. This took place after the Labour government (which came to power in June 1971) held a referendum only in Gozo, in which the Gozitans were asked to vote on whether they wanted a council which could impose taxes specially designed for them.

Naturally, the turnout was very poor. A Gozitan friend of mine who was an insider in the Labour Party, soon after the referendum and before the council was dismantled, tried to convince me: “The Gozitans are not interested in the council. I doubt if they ever were!” I wonder if any documents related to this referendum feature in the exhibition.

On a similar note, in April 1971, the community of Santa Luċija – where I had settled three years earlier – drafted a statute for a Santa Luċija Civic Committee. In February 1972 the first committee was “elected”; I was on it. The committee used to meet regularly and organise activities, among them a Santa Luċija Week. However, the committee died a natural death … the authorities were not interested in encouraging these committees which were formed in several other towns and villages, through a genuine apolitical civic pride and interest.