THE FUTURE OF MALTA
By CANON R. M. NICHOLLS
NOT least among the difficulties of post-war settlements in the Empire will be that of Malta. At any moment the question of the island's future self-government may be raised. The settle- ment will tax all the brains and tact of the Colonial Office and Parliament, and, indeed, of the Maltese also. Malta endured a vast amount of suffering during the bad war-years, from June, 1940, till about November, 1942, and deserves all possible con- sideration for her future welfare.
Before the war Malta was a very poor country. Her exports were infinitesimal. Though living was cheap, wages were very low. An ordinance, passed only a short time before the war, provided a minimum wage—the amount 35. per day. Probably the best-paid class were the domestic servants employed by the English com- munity. These young women, often very attractive, many of them doing their work well under kindly supervision, and sometimes very faithful, could obtain £4 per month without difficulty, and often kept a whole family of parents and younger children thereby. Though the Navy was there for only six months in the year, the dockyard kept several thousand men fully employed throughout the year, and while the Fleet was in harbour the daily victualling and the money spent on shore by nearly 20,000 men meant relative wealth to the Maltese. The military garrison and the small R.A.F.
station also contributed. Besides these, Malta had a " season " from November to July, which brought a very large number of visitors, and wives of naval men, both officers and ratings. Indeed, it is not unfair to say that Malta lived on the Services.
The Budget of pre-war days amounted to just over £I,000,000, and was largely raised by direct taxation. Almost every imported article paid 15 per cent, duty, and apart from shipments in bulk, every parcel received at the Post Office had to be claimed by the addressee, its contents opened and valued, and tax paid on the spot. The recipient had then to transport the now dishevelled package to his own house himself, or employ one of the many poor labourers who earned their living by hanging round the post office when the ships bringing the parcels mail arrived. During the war, owing to the absence of imports, the island was bankrupt, but the British Government stepped in and footed the bill. It made also a grant of Lio,000,000 as a gesture of appreciation of what Malta was suffering at the hands of the enemy.
For many years (as elsewhere within the Empire) there has been controversy as to the institution of income-tax—surely the fairest of all forms of taxation when properly administered ; an acrid cor- respondence in the Times of Malta revealed the determination of the die-hards to hold on to what they had got. A tax on real property was suggested as an alternative, and in the early days of the war a sort of beginning was made by an ordinance requiring a return to be made of the value of all house property. This was for the immediate purpose of war damage insurance ; but the view of the Government may have been wider than that. Incidentally, the Government owns a good deal of property, inherited from the Knights of St. John. The Roman Catholic Church, too, is a large owner of property, which is, curiously enough, vested in the person of the Pope. His Holiness elected to come into the insurance scheme, and publicly issued instructions to the clergy of the island to make returns as if they were private owners.
In many ways the politically-minded Maltese have this simi- larity with political India that their feuds are fierce, bitter and long-lived ; and they suspect one another even more than they do the Paramount Power. Immediate Dominion status is the demand, and, judging by the political turmoils of the past, it will not be easy to frame a constitution wherein the rights of minorities shall receive fair treatment. Much of the problem is ecclesiastical. Malta is more papal than the Pope. The Archbishop-Bishop may not unfairly be said to exercise an overwhelming control over most departments of life. The performance of plays, even by amateurs, may be banned by him if they do not meet with his approval Books by famous authors may bring trouble upon those who are bold enongh to have them on their shelves without sanction. On one notorious occasion a parcel of books addressed to a private indi- vidual was quietly destroyed by the post-office officials without explanation.
The minorities whose rights will need some protection in the new constitution are the non-Romans—the so-called Protestants, or others. Not that they are thus designated officially in Malta ; the official term used in legal phraseology for English Churchmen, Free Churchmen, Parsees, Hindoos or Salvationists, is "any other cult tolerated by law." This differentiation is, moreover, not merely a matter of wording. The Nationalist Government, which took office when a new constitution came into being after the report of the Askwith Commission, passed a law to defend religion against attack or insult. But it was a very one-sided law, for it decreed only half-penalties for offences against "any other cult tolerated by law." Thus, if you threw a stone and broke a Roman Catholic Church window, or insulted a Roman Catholic procession, you might get twelve months' imprisonment ; but the same crime com- mitted against non-Romans was punishable with only six months. Again, when wireless re-diffusion was installed by a private company, the subscriber was given a choice of programmes ; on one switch was a mixed programme of music, &c., gathered from various stations in Europe ; on the other was the B.B.C. Empire programme. But the Archbishop-Bishop banned the broadcasting of religious ser- vices, and the company had perforce to obey, in spite of the fact that a large majority of its subscribers belonged to the English community. When a service was due from Westminster Abbey or St. Martin-in-the-Fields the announcer would suddenly switch off (frequently a little late) and substitute dance music on gramophone records. Many months of agitation followed before the authorities could be persuaded to remove the ban.
Pesbaps the most difficult problem of all is that of marriage. At various times the question of civil marriage has been raised, but the Roman Church will have none of it, even for non-Maltese, though it is compulsory under civil law in almost every country in Europe. It is ridiculous, as well as tragic, that persons who belong to no church, or who cannot conscientiously use the formulae which the Church service requires them to repeat, or who have defied the discipline of their own Church, should have to go to England to be married, or make elaborate arrangements to get the cere- mony carried out in some British consular court outside. Further- more, it is a fact that there is no statute law whatever in Malta for non-Roman marriages. Many marriages are celebrated by Anglican clergy and by Free Church ministers, and have to be registered in the same manner as those of Roman Catholics. But there is no one save the minister himself who can say whether such marriage conforms to the law, for there is no law to which reference can be made.
The toleration of such anomalies indicates how formidable a business the forming of a constitution fair to all parties in Malta will be.
Previous page
