Joseph M. Pirotta:Fortress Colony: The Final Act 1945-64, Vol. IV, 1961-1964,
Midsea Books, 1,187 pp., 2018. 

Seventeen years in the making, this is a well-illustrated monumental book by all accounts – and not only for its sheer size. It is the fourth and final volume of an outstanding scholar’s unimaginably detailed and definitive history of the two decades leading up to Malta’s independence. When I read the first three volumes, packed with en­grossing detail, I could not put them down and eagerly awaited the promised fourth. The 17-year wait was well worth it.

In his foreword, Giovanni Bonello rightly describes this as an epic book in all senses, chronicling the last three years of what in effect was a 100-year-old process leading to independence, and the various actors, leaders and led.

Joseph Pirotta, thanks to his indefatigable and persevering research, has unearthed a lot of hitherto unpublished material. As Bonello rhetorically asks: is there anything that escaped him?  

At the start of the 1960s, Malta was in an unenviable situation – the island was under direct colonial rule after the self-government Constitution was withdrawn in 1959; the economy depended to a large extent on British defence spending, with the Services and the government being the two major employers, the naval dockyard in the process of being converted to commercial ship-repairing, few industries and hotels to speak of, and emigration the only solution for thousands who every year sought work and a brighter future abroad. 

The final three years of British rule were also marked by a bitter politico-religious dispute between Dom Mintoff and his Malta Labour Party (MLP) against the Maltese Catholic Church led by the redoubtable Archbishop Michael Gonzi; negotiations leading to the restoration of self-government after the end of direct colonial rule following Mintoff’s resignation as prime minister in 1958; Nationalist Party (PN) leader George Borg Olivier and his (underrated) perseverance and negotiating skills after he demanded Malta’s independence on becoming prime minister in 1962; the ambivalent attitude of British officialdom to­wards Maltese demands and aspirations, and the scaling down of Malta’s usefulness to Britain as a military base and its effects on the island’s economy. 

The report by a commission led by Sir Hilary Blood on a self-government constitution for the island was met favourably by the two small parties – Mabel Strickland’s Progressive Constitutional Party (PCP), which was against independence, and Herbert Ganado’s Democratic Nationalist Party (DNP), which had broken away from the PN and which prioritised a sound economy over independence.

The Blood Constitution, however, was strongly opposed by the major parties – the PN and MLP. Both campaigned vigorously for independence, with the PN wanting defence and financial agreements with Britain, membership of the Commonwealth and ties to the West, and the MLP envisaging a neutral Malta, outside the Commonwealth, seeking aid and support from all quarters.

The PN by this time was being thoroughly reorganised, while the MLP, under its charismatic leader Mintoff, though embroiled in an acrimonious battle with the Church, had an impeccably efficient organisation with a strong presence throughout Malta and Gozo. Min­toff was also leading a ‘freedom movement’ against British rule after his plan for Malta’s integration with Britain failed.

Indeed, Mintoff’s struggle with the Maltese Church was motivated by his desire to reduce its overpowering influence on Maltese society and its failure to back his call for independence, while accusing Gonzi of siding with British interests and preferring colonial rule to independence.

This as an epic book in all senses, chronicling the last three years of what in effect was a 100-year-old process leading to independence, and the various actors, leaders and led

With the Cold War at its height, the MLP’s membership of the Socialist International and of the Afro-Asian Peoples’ Solidarity Organisation (AAPSO), widely viewed as a Communist front organisation, alarmed many in Malta, not least the Archbishop, who deep down was against independence as he feared Mintoff would one day regain power and turn Malta into a ‘Cuba of the Mediterranean’.  

Pirotta dwells on the Church’s role, and particularly the part played by the Capuchin friar, Fr Feliċjan Bilocca, in the formation of a new ‘Labour’ party, the Christian Workers Party, in 1961, led by the MLP’s former general secretary, Toni Pellegrini, who, Pirotta reveals, was expecting money from Britain in order to go along with the idea. Pellegrini accused Mintoff of being dictatorial and of waging a senseless war against the Church.

Ever the faithful chronicler and objective, professional historian, Pirotta supports every single statement he makes by quoting from a vast array of sources, including official British papers, including weekly intelligence reports and Colonial Office documents, official correspondence, local and foreign newspapers, taped interviews with leading protagonists, including Mintoff and Gonzi, while obviously giving his own interpretation of events and assessment of personalities.

Pirotta gives a detailed description of how the politico-religious dispute evolved, culminating in the interdict imposed by the Church on April 8, 1961, on members of the MLP executive following the party’s publication of a statement of policy which the bishops found offensive in their regard.

The new Constitution drafted by the Blood Commission and promulgated in 1961 did away with ‘re­served matters’ (such as defence and foreign policy, in which the Maltese government had no say) and implied a further step towards independence, but without jeopardising British defence interests. 

The Constitution referred to a State of Malta, with the resident UK Commissioner having a final say on defence and foreign affairs. Pirotta argues that the British government tried to sell it as an advance on the 1947 Constitution. However, the new Constitution received a lukewarm reception from the Maltese political parties, which objected to the UK Commissioner’s overriding powers in many areas that overlapped with those of the Maltese government. On the other hand, it did include a Bill of Rights, and provided for a Legislative Assembly of 50 seats (up from 40) and a Broadcasting Authority. 

Pirotta concludes that the Colonial Office came to view independence as inevitable, even though the Defence Ministry opposed it.

Though most of the six parties (a new one, the Christian Democratic Party, was led by George Ransley) were reluctant to contest the general election under the new Constitution, they all did eventually.   

As expected, the election, held in February 1962, was dominated by the Church-MLP dispute, with the five ‘pro-Church’ parties – which were not averse to sniping at each other – receiving the blessing of the powerful so-called ‘Junta’ of Catholic lay organisations. The Junta directed voters to give preferences to all candidates of the five anti-MLP parties to minimise vote wastage and to ensure that Mintoff did not obtain even a relative majority of seats and thus be given the chance to form a government.

In their pre-election pastoral letter, the bishops spoke of voters’ responsibility to vote for parties upholding Catholic principles but did not specifically impose mortal sin on those who voted MLP, even if confessors were to tell penitents that it would be a mortal sin if they voted for anti-Church parties.  

Pirotta, who served as chairman of the Broadcasting Authority for a number of years, explains how the then newly set-up authority’s policy regarding political broadcasts was strongly opposed by Mintoff, who objected to his scripts’ vetting by the authority’s legal advisers.

Unsurprisingly, the general election held on February 17-19, 1962, attracted the highest voter turnout since 1932. The PN, with 42 per cent of the vote, obtained 25 seats thanks to the Junta directive, the MLP shrank considerably but still obtained 33.8 per cent of the vote and just under 51,000 votes (whom Mintoff promptly dubbed “soldiers of steel”) and 16 seats, while the Centre parties (CWP, DNP and PCP) were disappointed in obtaining only nine seats between them.

The Church hailed the result as a great victory, yet Mintoff’s position as leader of his party remained as strong as ever, and Pirotta concludes that the Church’s hold on the faithful had, in fact, weakened and continued to do so the longer the dispute with the MLP lasted.

With half of the 50 seats in Parliament, Borg Olivier was able to form a government, also because the new Constitution made it possible for the Speaker, who had a casting vote, to be chosen from outside Parliament (Paolo Pace, an unsuccessful PN candidate, became Speaker).

The PN leader’s aim was to demand independence, safe in the knowledge that this was what the main Opposition party, the MLP, wanted too. However, he first wanted to win control of the police and of judicial and civil service appointments. Indeed, he made these a condition for accepting to form a government.  

Borg Olivier won control of the police, with recommendations by the Public Service Commission on civil service appointments made to the Prime Minister, rather than the Governor

Thanks to his tough negotiating skills, Borg Olivier won control of the police, with recommendations by the Public Service Commission on civil service appointments made to the Prime Minister, rather than the Governor.

The progress of Borg Olivier’s lengthy negotiations with the British Government in London was kept secret even from his Cabi­net colleagues, Pirotta re­veals. But his efforts (and British reluctance to deal with Mintoff as PM) clearly paid off.  

Pirotta dwells at some length on the Dockyard, which the Admiralty had handed over to C.H. Baileys, a Welsh firm, in 1959 for conversion to commercial use on condition it would employ the 6,000 workers the Admiralty planned to shed. Yet despite British government subventions, Baileys did not keep their side of the bargain and the conversion process stalled. Clearly, Baileys were mismanaging British government funds. 

The Dockyard was placed under a Council of Administration, Baileys were made to leave, and Swan Hunter were appointed managing agents in 1963, but despite eventual nationalisation by the Maltese government, Malta Drydocks (as it came to be known) was to continue to gobble up huge amounts in State subsidies – a constant headache to successive administrations until it was eventually privatised, with a considerably downsized workforce, in 2010. 

On June 26, 1962, Borg Olivier led a Maltese government delegation for what turned out to be extraordinarily lengthy talks with the Colonial Secretary, Reginald Maudling (soon replaced by Duncan Sandys) regarding Budget subsidies and financing of projects to create jobs to make up for the planned discharges following British Defence cuts in Malta, and in any case to delay those cuts. However, the British Treasury, though pressed by the Colonial Office, was in no mood to meet the Maltese Prime Minister’s demands, and the talks dragged on, with Borg Olivier threatening to resign unless his requests were met.

The stalemate took a dramatic turn on August 20, when Borg Olivier – clearly exasperated by the failure of the talks – formally demanded independence for Malta. Sandys was ready to accept this demand, as long as the British government was able to safeguard UK and Nato defence interests in Malta. Meanwhile, the Admiralty agreed to postpone the discharges, but no Budget aid was forthcoming except for a contribution of £100,000 for recurrent expenditure, which Borg Olivier angrily turned down, saying he was not there “to make a silver collection”.

The Nationalist administration realised the challenge it was facing: to make the economy grow through industrialisation, ex­ports, tourism, agriculture and fisheries and investment. Pirotta explains the incentive schemes and the various initiatives taken in all these sectors, together with the setting up of the Malta Deve­lopment Corporation and the Central Bank, as recommended by UN expert Wolfgang Stolper in 1963.  

These initiatives were complemented by considerable investment in education as the school population continued to rise: new schools, expansion of teacher training, technical education and vocational training, the opening of MCAST and plans for a new university (the foundation stone of which was laid by Duncan Sandys on the morrow of Malta’s independence).

Emigration continued for a few years before and after independence, and efforts were made to increase immigration quotas in established receiving countries. The housing problem started to be tackled with the building of housing estates, while infrastructural projects were undertaken, such as a new power station at Marsa, an improved road network, a deepwater quay and a grain handling plant and silo.

The successful transformation of the island’s economy from one hea­vily dependent on British Services spending to one based on industry, tourism and agriculture depended on the outcome of Borg Olivier’s plan to obtain a defence agreement that would guarantee the jobs of thousands of Maltese still employed with the British Services, while providing security for the island at a time the Cold War was at its peak, and a financial agreement on the best possible terms to enable the economy’s transformation to proceed.

Pirotta shows that even before obtaining independence, Borg Olivier was aiming at membership of the Common Market (as the European Community was then known), but this was not to be realised yet. 

(To be concluded)