Malta and her Place in the Commonwealth
| Date | 01 December 1956 |
| Author | Edith Dobie |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591295600900405 |
| Published date | 01 December 1956 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
873
MALTA
AND
HER
PLACE
IN
THE
COMMONWEALTH
EDITH DOBIE
University
of
Washington
EXT
IN
importance
to
the
cold
war
between
communism
and
democracy,
and
bound
up
with
it,
is
the
prevalent
upsurge
of
subject
~
peoples
demanding
self-government.
For
Great
Britain
this
is
not
a
new
problem,
but
rather
an
old
one
in
a
new
form.
From
the
late
eighteenth
century
to
the
end
of
World
War
II
the
history
of
her
Empire
was
largely
the
slow
transformation
of
dependencies
with
populations
of
European
extraction
into
an
association
of
British
nations.
Membership
in
this
Commonwealth
she
is
today
granting,
with
surprising
speed,
to
dependent
peoples
of
non-European
lineage
who
insist
upon
using
British
institutions
even
though
these
are
alien
to
their
tradition
and
culture.
This
involves
modification
of
these
institutions
to
meet
particular
local
condi-
tions.
India
and
Pakistan
have
joined
as
republics
(1949,
1956).
The
Gold
Coast,
while
still
adapting
tribal
customs
to
practices
of
local
self-govern-
ment,
has
been
permitted
to
reach
the
threshold
of
Dominion
status.
Malaya,
engaged
in
developing
multiracial
parties
on
lines
similar
to
those
of
British
parties,
is
to
have
responsible
government
by
August,
1957.
Against
such
a
background
recent
events
in
the
colony
of
Malta
are
bewildering
indeed.
A
people
boasting
of
their
European
civilization,
and
making
their
first
steps
toward
self-government
as
early
as
1849,
have
shown
themselves
far
from
skillful
in
working
British
parliamentary
insti-
tions
and
as
a
result
have
failed
to
give
a
clear-cut
decision
about
accepting
one
of
the
fundamentals
of
the
Commonwealth,
viz.,
equal
status
with
Great
Britain.
It
should
be
noted
at
once,
however,
that
there
are
and
always
have
been
two
obstacles
in
the
path
of
complete
self-government
for
Malta.
In
the
first
place,
the
colony
is
not
self-supporting;
with
an
area
of
120
square
miles,
a
population
of
317,000
(over
2,600
to
the
square
mile),
and
no
natural
resources,
it
has
been
receiving
and
must
continue
to
receive
large
annual
subsidies
from
Great
Britain
(at
present
something
over
four
mil-
lion
pounds
annually).
In
the
second
place,
since
in
the
course
of
the
twentieth
century
self-determination
has
come
to
include
the
right
of
with-
drawal
from
the
Commonwealth-Empire,
no
dependency
which
is
an
essential
part
of
Britain’s
imperial
and
international
defense
system
can
be
given
the
status
of
a
Dominion.
It
has,
however,
been
the
hope
of
those
interested
in
imperial
affairs
that
Maltese
leaders
would
devise
some
constitutional
arrangements
that
would
combine
the
advantages
of
local
self-government
with
a
dignified
though
necessarily
dependent
position
in
the
Empire.
Just
such
a
scheme
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