The long road to responsible government : Maltese politics and society under a non-representative constitution 1903-1919

• Main Author: Frendo, Henry
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Midsea Publication 1991
• Subjects: Malta > History > British occupation; 1800-1964; Autonomy; Representative government and representation > Malta; Newfoundland
• Online Access: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar//handle/123456789/28603

Strickland's transfer to the Leeward Islands was neither a concession nor a cure; it was one of the Colonial Office's last moves in a concerted attempt to ensure that when the 1887 constitution was revoked the blame could be seen to have been entirely that of the elected members themselves. Chamberlain agreed with Grenfell that the constitution was 'doomed to failure from the outset' as the elected members could hamper the governor by exercising control over finances while they themselves complained that they had no real power. In accordance with Chamberlain's view 'the more they reject the better, in June 1903 the education estimates which the elected members had refused to pass in April were again brought forward: had the official members lost their senses, asked Azzopardi, or did they think that the Maltese population and their representatives were mad? With Strickland out of the way, a new governor in the person of General Clarke, and the Coronation festivities over, the last signs of resistance in the Council served as the immediate pretext for the Letters Patent and Royal Instructions of 3 June which abolished the elected majority in the legislature and the unofficial element in the executive, making Malta once again a Crown Colony as under the 1849 constitution. Such a forced and arbitrary return to the old order is an act without a parallel in twentieth century British imperial history: the case of British Guiana in 1928 was rather like that of Jamaica in 1866,5 that of Newfoundland in 1933 was hardly comparable since Newfoundland, being utterly bankrupt, surrendered its status voluntarily. Cyprus lost its 1882 constitution in 1931 following an open revolt (partly provoked by fears of an attempt at 'dehellenisation') in which Government House in Nicosia was burned down. Under the administration of Governor Clarke and Strickland's successor Lieutenant Governor E. M. Merewether, the Council very nearly ceased to function as a significant body. peer-reviewed