The role of Maltese and English in Malta

Abstract

In 1934 I gave a talk on Anglo-Maltese Culture at the British Institute. At that' time, Malta was still a British Colony; the British and the Maltese were both close to the challenge of a common enemy against whom later on they fired their guns together in the same direction and for the same purpose. That purpose was the defence and victory of Democracy. The main point of my talk then was the creation of a Maltese culture out of the heritage of Malta and England, two islands with ,so much in common in spite of many differences which, I am afraid, have grown more serious since the enactment of some recent British legislation which involves the Christian conscience in acts of condemnation, rejection and resistance. At that time, most of us were still too colonial-minded to think that it would ever be possible for Malta to survive without a strong Power to back our economy. We had to choose between continued membership of the British Empire (now imaginatively replaced by the Commonwealth) and of the Fascist-Nazi Empire.