Deadlock in Malta

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28792, 13 January 1959, Page 8

Deadlock in Malta

In Malta, Britain is setting a notable example of integrity. Politically, she has had no alternative to continuing emergency rule in the island, where representative government was suspended last April. Economically, she has promised very substantial aid, though it has been rudely rejected by the Maltese leaders, and though selfish gains to, Britain will be nil. It is therefore absurd for a Valletta newspaper to compare British rule in Malta with a Communist dictatorship. The Maltese continue to be their own worst enemies; and, but for the patient forbearance of Britain, they would now face national ruin. It is impossible to believe that the policies of Mr Dom Mintoff, leader of the Maltese Labour Party (the strongest in the island), represent the sober thinking of his supporters. In the world’s press, the problems of Malta have been overshadowed by those of Cyprus. Comparisons between them are often regrettably glib. Unlike Cyprus, Malta is of no interest to any Power other than Britain. Unlike the Cypriots, still mindful of their former Turkish oppressors, the Maltese have no tradition of conflict with a foreign ruler. Religious influences in the two islands are totally different; and no-one visualises Archbishop Gonzi as a second Makarios. Malta is much smaller than Cyprus, much more thickly populated, and much more dependent on imported foodstuffs. In Cyprus, peace depends on political reconciliation; in Malta, on economic stability. Though Malta’s difficulties are economic—resulting from the redundancy of the island’s huge naval dockyards—they have expressed themselves in a constitutional deadlock. The imaginative project of integration with Britain —drafted in .1950—seems quite dead. Even the. Constitution of 1947 has gone. When the leaders of the three Maltese political parties were invited to confer at the Colonial Office last month, it was hoped that the impasse might be ended. But the conference became a fiasco when Mr Mintoff and Dr. Borg Olivier refused to confer in the same room as Miss Mabel Strickland, whose Progressive Constitutional Party is stronger

in ideas than in supporters. The real bombshell, however, was thrown by the irascible Mr Mintoff. He demanded immediate independence for Malta. All ties between Malta and the United Kingdom, -he said, must be severed; British aid must cease; British forces and installations must be withdrawn; and Malta must be treated in all respects as a foreign country. In short, Malta must commit economic and probably national suicide. , Out of consideration for the hardships they would inflict on the Maltese, Mr MintofFs demands Were rejected; and Britain stood firm on Malta’s continued association with the Commonwealth. Mr MintofFs party won the last election for the Legislative Assembly by a substantial majority. The party then advocated integration with Britain. Still unexplained is how Mr Mintoff can now justify his change of face to his supporters. Malta is said to produce a smaller pro’portion of the wealth on which it lives than any other country in the world. Yet living standards are reasonably good. Domestic exports amount to roughly £850,000 a year; imports (including food and manufactures at £8 million each) cost more than £2O million. Malta’s economic dependence on Britain is so great that, if all ties were broken, the island could survive only by entering into some similar, and presumably equally dependent,

arrangements with another country. This view is held by both Conservatives and Socialists in Britain. The British Government has not shirked its moral responsibility for finding new employment for Valletta’s 12,000 dockyard hands. It has prevailed on a commercial firm to take ovey the running of the dockyards this year; and efforts to attract much-needed ancillary industries are continuing. Political unrest jeopardises endeavours to put the Maltese economy on a less artificial basis. If Mr Mintoff makes good his threat to organise a passive resistance campaign, even the dockyard project, may founder. All now depends on the good sense of the Maltese people, on whom alone tiie full consequences of irresponsibility will fall.