THE TABLET April 26th, 1958. VOL. 211, No. 6153
THE TABLET
published as a Newspap«
A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW
Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria
FOUNDED IN 1840
APRIL 26th, 1958
NINEPENCE
The Opposition's Burden: The Handicap of the Old Socialism
World Shortage of Priests?: A Problem of Distribution. By J. P. F o restall
At the World f1air : Modern Architecture a t Brussels. By Lance Wright
The Future of the Kirk: The Debate on Reunion. By Frank MacMillan
Critics’ Columns : Notebook : Book Reviews : Letters : Chess
MALTA, MONEY AND MINTOFF
JN Malta Mr. Minloff has resigned in a temper, and the
Opposition leader, Mr. Borg Olivier, has declined to try to take his place. What Mr. Mintoff presumably intends is the dissolution of Parliam ent and an election designed to strengthen his hands against Great Britain. With this in view, he has returned the Caravaggio pain tings to St. John’s Cathedral, and has secured in return •a declaration from the Archbishop of Malta th a t the Church and the Mintoff Government are now good friends. Mr. Mintoff seems to have got the best of this bargain, for he knows his Labour Party is not strong enough for conflict simultaneously with the British Government and the Church in Malta. His future is now bound up with Maltese nationalism. He has to see how fa r he can lead the Maltese to follow the current fashion and th ink of independence—against all common sense, for it is not sensible for a quarter of a million people on a very small and not richly endowed island to seek to cut themselves off from the Commonwealth and stand on their own feet.
When Mr. Mintoff broadcast to the people of Malta there was an absurd disproportion between the language he used, about refusing to be a “ puppet ” Government and the need for a great patriotic struggle, as contrasted with the actual sums involved. On his own admission, whether the quarrel is over a million or two million that should be paid this year or that should be guaranteed to meet unemployment in two or three years time, the utmost he is entitled to say is that in his view Great Britain is close-fisted where she should be more generous. This has nothing to do with self-government, with being treated as a puppet and the rest of it.
Mr. Mintoff may have been dazzled, and be conjuring up visions of living like President Bourguiba of Tunis, with the representatives of the Great Powers seeking appointments with him to persuade him to be more conciliatory. He may see himself at the United Nations. But these are pipe dreams, and, to credit him, as we should, with more intelligence, it is probable that his idea is to demonstrate that he has the majority of the Maltese behind him, when he will call on the British Government to think again, and to reflect whether a restive and unco-operative Colony is not going to cost much more to administer than a contented one, and to conclude that, simply as a matter of money, it will pay Great Britain to meet his terms. On the other hand, if an election shows the majority of Maltese unprepared to do more than sip the heady wine of nationalism which he is proffering them, he will have shot his bolt, and not much attention will be paid to him.
We can be sure that the Church authorities in Malta will show themselves very circumspect. At first glance some of the clergy may think th a t it will be a good thing from their point of view, if an election finishes once and for all the project of integration with Britain, which they have always disliked from a fear th a t it would involve an assimilation of Maltese laws of marriage, and an impetus to all the Protestant and secularist influences which are so strong in Britain. But if they look a little further ahead they will not find much difficulty in discerning a greater alternative danger in nationalism pushed too far, and driven to invite all manner of outside interests into Malta. There is little attraction there for closer ties with Italy, no basis for closer ties with Moslem North Africa. The Russians might play, but otherwise Malta must always turn to the Western Powers, and to Britain above all. We hope the common sense of the Maltese people will save them from identifying them selves with the anger of one disappointed individual.
Events in Malta seem to have overtaken the British Council of Churches, which on Tuesday discussed Malta as though integration with Britain was round the corner. This was made the occasion for some rather excessive language about the lack of religious freedom there. From the motion a casual reader would not get at all a true impression ; would not imagine, for instance, that there was a flourishing Anglican Cathedral in Valetta, with Canons and all. or that through a great part of the last century evangelical Protestant literature of a very aggressive character was distributed constantly in attempts to convert the Maltese, parallel to those made in Ireland.
