Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1526669
INDEPENDENCE maltatoday | SUNDAY • 15 SEPTEMBER 2024 IN a few words - alas, too few to do justice to my subject - I am here to commemorate, as this beautiful medal is also intended to do, an event which is undoubt- edly the greatest one in Malta's modern history: the achievement of independence. In doing so, I beg forgiveness if I seem to over- indulge in the use of the first per- son singular. But, to some extent this is unavoidable given that the events running up to Independ- ence I had the good fortune of being right at the forefront and literally in the thick of it all. I think it is right to say that as a nation we have always had a marked individuality. Some as- cribe it to the sea surrounding us on every side; others would go deeper. We have one of the most ancient flags in Europe and we often like to recall the glori- ous days when our forefathers at the end of the 18th century rose against the French, who had dis- possessed the Order of St John, and of their own accord offered their homeland to the British Crown. It was the Judicial Com- mittee of the Privy Council itself which in the memorable case of Samut vs Strickland clearly af- firmed that Malta came to Brit- ain by the voluntary secession of the Maltese. I like to repeat this because some unfortunately tend to for- get it. There was a time, not too long ago, when integration with Britain was formally being nego- tiated by the two governments. That would have involved the gradual incorporation of Malta into the political, financial and social structure of the United Kingdom while retaining its local autonomy and legislature, but we eventually and perspicaciously preferred to assert ourselves as an independent sovereign state. The constitutional history of Malta in the British period is well known to us all. I have often in my writings compared it to a snakes- and-ladders playing board with some highs and several lows, the latter occasioned by several fac- tors which it would take too long to elaborate on here. Suffice it to refer to our prime strategic po- sition, which at different times, and for different reasons, has been both an asset and a liability. Among the more hurtful of these lows was the constitution imme- diately preceding independence, that of 1961, and this not because it was more stringent than oth- ers, but because it essentially in- volved a large measure of distrust prompted no doubt by some im- mediately preceding incidents, but hurtful all the same. This was known as the Blood constitution. The story of Malta's independ- ence must therefore start from here. Determined to resign On his being invited to form a government after the 1962 elections, Borg Olivier accept- ed only after being assured that talks would be held in London concerning certain objection- able clauses of this constitution. Everyone knew, that he was de- termined to quit if he did not succeed in securing their remov- al. As Attorney-General and at the same time also a professor of constitutional law I flew with him to London for the neces- sary constitutional discussions. In fact, we found an inflexible Secretary of State in Reginald Maulding, but personally I am firmly convinced he was really thinking that any talk of resigna- tion was merely political bluff. I could see it in his eyes. Eventually there was complete deadlock. On a miserable Sunday evening, practically as we were packing our luggage for an emp- ty-handed return to Malta, the following day, I tentatively sug- gested to Borg Olivier over a cup of tea at the hotel that I was prepared to go and have a word in private with Sir John Martin, then Deputy Under Secretary of State, whom I knew very well, at his residence. With Borg Olivier's half-heart- ed consent, and after ringing up Sir John, I rushed to his house. After the first greeting, his wife Rosalind prudently withdrew and I explained to him the very real gravity of the situation, as- suring him in all sincerity that there was in fact no question of bluff. Sir John listened very at- tentively and said that even at that very late hour he would try to get in touch with the Secre- tary of State. On my return to the hotel Sir John rang up to say that a meeting was fixed for the following morning. Talks were in fact happily resumed and were eventually also crowned with success in the form of an amend- ing Order in Council. This rap- prochement was instrumental in facilitating the passage to inde- pendence, especially by building up the necessary mutual trust. Asking for independence That success was not, however, to be repeated in the econom- ic talks with the new Secretary of State Duncan Sandys which followed shortly afterwards es- pecially in the context of im- pending Service discharges. But, from my previous experience of these talks I knew for a fact that the Treasury is always the hardest nut to crack. The British Government showed itself quite intransigent and at one point, after protracted and sometimes acrimonious discussions, we knew we had reached breaking point. There was nothing else to be done. Then one evening as we were sitting rather despondently in our hotel, all of a sudden Borg Olivier, in a calm but resolute voice, announced that he was asking the British Government for independence. After consult- ing his Cabinet from London, he instructed me to prepare for him a letter to the Secretary of State formally asking for our country's independence, using the terms 'as a matter of urgency'. It was a momentous deci- sion, particularly for a cautious statesman for whom nothing was really and truly urgent. I excitedly rushed upstairs to my room, grabbed a sheet of azure hotel notepaper and in no time at all drafted a short but very firm letter in which, with regard to the desired independence, I deliberately used the word 'de- mand'. The draft was approved straightaway. It was then typed and immediately sent by hand to the Secretary of State. It was 20 August 1962. Drafting the constitution On that same day, Sandys re- plied that he would arrange a meeting between the two gov- ernments as soon as practicable to consider this proposal. Even- tually in the first half of Decem- ber 1962 discussions were held in London between the Secre- tary of State and a Malta Gov- ernment delegation led by the Prime Minister, Borg Olivier, with me at his side, on the pre- paratory measures necessary for the holding of an independence conference in London, at which all parties would be invited to send delegates. Sandys then told Borg Olivier that there would have had to be a draft of a pro- posed constitution to serve as a basis for discussion. Even as Borg Olivier was staring at him, Sandys, who knew of my consti- tutional law training in Britain, probably from my dear friend and great constitutionalist Stan- ley de Smith, just smiled and said 'you have Cremona'. This I know from the delighted Borg Olivier himself when he instructed me to start working on the draft. I worked hard on it, and this af- ter office hours, with numerous books and papers scattered over the largest table in my house, and even on the carpet, which in consequence, in my wife's considered but unshared opin- ion, ended up moth-eaten. But, I was able to transmit the draft to the prime minister as early as 16 April 1963. Sandys had some very nice words to say about it in his open- ing speech of the independence conference held in London on 16 July 1963 and it was then adopt- ed as a basis for discussion in the following days, when some amendments were in fact agreed. Actually, Malta is the only coun- try in the new Commonwealth whose independence constitu- tion was drafted by a local jurist. JJ Cremona hosted at Girgenti by then prime minister Joseph Muscat in 2019 (Photo: DOI, Jason Borg)