Professor Joseph Pirotta has discovered that, contrary to the somewhat weak image that Prime Minister Gorg Borg Olivier has – especially in relation to the British – he actually waged a 15-year-long battle for Malta’s national anthem and flag to be officially recognised by the British.
Professor Pirotta was Head of the International Relations Department at the University of Malta, and is now spending the majority of his time conducting research, publishing books and discovering the truth about Malta’s rich history.
Gorg Borg Olivier was Prime Minister of Malta between 1950 and 1955, and again from 1962 to1971. He governed the country while Malta was still under British rule and played an integral part in securing its independence.
In his latest book, which deals with how Prime Minister Borg Olivier resisted the British and respected Malta’s pride and dignity, Professor Pirotta reveals a number of previously unknown facts about the extent of his fight.
His book will be launched on 7 April at 7pm at the Aula Magna conference unit, at the Valletta campus of the University of Malta. Speakers on the night will include Judge Giovanni Bonello, former Ambassador Dr Joseph Cassar, and Laurence Grech former editor of the Times of Malta.
Discussing the fascinating findings of Prime Minister Borg Olivier’s struggle with the British with The Malta Independent on Sunday, Professor Pirotta said: “In the course of my research I came across documents which have never been published before, and which show that, without anybody in this country being aware of it, Prime Minister Gorg Borg Olivier conducted a 15-year battle with the British authorities and the British armed forces to agree to play the Innu Malti whenever there was an official non-Maltese government occasion. I do not think anybody is aware of this.
“In the 50s, we had what was called a diarchy, which is two governments at the same time. We had the British imperial government and the Maltese elected one. The British imperial government was headed by the Governor and on all official occasions he attended or which were organised by the British services, he would be greeted with God Save the Queen, but they refused to greet the Prime Minister with the Innu Malti. The British point of view was very simple: Malta had one national anthem and that was God Save the Queen. The Innu Malti was played, no doubt about it, but it was tolerated. It was not recognised as Malta’s national anthem.
“When Prime Minister Borg Olivier came to power for the first time in the early fifties, he found that not only was the national anthem not recognised by the British authorities, but not even the Maltese flag was recognised. In fact during the coronation ceremonies, he refused to attend as Malta’s Prime Minister in London unless the Maltese flag was flown.
“Once he had achieved that (in fact the British Government recognised the Maltese flag as late as 1954), he turned his attention to the national anthem. He was a person who believed that the Maltese were a nation in their own right, that as a nation we had pride and dignity, and that that pride and dignity had to be recognised – and recognised officially. From 1952 onwards, he refused to attend any function or official function by the British services and authorities unless he as Prime Minister – or anybody else who might be Prime Minister – was welcomed with the Innu Malti. The British were absolutely against this; even during official ceremonies when there might be some occasion when the Maltese anthem was played, the orders were that the Maltese anthem was not to be saluted by the troops.”
Asked about their reluctance, Professor Pirotta said it was “because accepting a separate national identity is the first step towards accepting the right to sovereignty. This was part and parcel of Borg Olivier’s overall political objective: to achieve sovereignty.”
Situation reaching “farcical levels”
“We had this ongoing battle which in a sense sometimes reached farcical levels. For example, every June a large parade was held by the services to celebrate the Queen’s official birthday. During that ceremony the Queen’s symbolic arrival would take place in the form of the British flag. Once the flag was unfurled it would be saluted with God Save the Queen. Borg Olivier said that he would not attend these ceremonies, and neither would his Cabinet, unless his arrival was also greeted with the Maltese national anthem. The British refused, so Borg Olivier refused to attend.
“On one particular occasion in 1954, because of the circumstances that arose and in spite of orders that had been given, Governor Gerald Creasy found himself saluting the Maltese national anthem by mistake. To his embarrassment, he was asked to officially answer questions raised by the House of Commons and House of Lords as to what had taken place.
“This gives you some idea that the issue was not something treated lightly. After independence, when the national anthem was actually entrenched in the Constitution, the army still refused to play the Maltese national anthem during the Queen’s birthday parade. Borg Olivier refused to have the British anthem played, saying that Queen Elizabeth was Queen of Malta and “there was no greater honour paid to the Queen then playing the Innu Malti for her”.
“We reached another farcical stage in 1966 when the British army decided to organise a separate Queen’s birthday parade while the official one organised by the government of Malta took place in Floriana. They organised their own little parade at St Patrick’s Barracks, but neither the Prime Minister, nor any member of his Cabinet, nor the Governor-General on the Prime Minister’s advice, attended. It was an experiment where they obviously tried to force the Prime Minister’s hand; it did not work and they eventually dropped it. It gives you some idea of how strongly they felt about it, and how strongly Borg Olivier felt about it.”
One of the things that the book also shows clearly is how very attentive the British were whenever they received any correspondence for Borg Olivier, examining it under a magnifying class, on the lookout for any trap he might be setting for them in connection with the playing of the Innu Malti. For him, it was a question of national pride and dignity.
Borg Olivier’s refusal to gain political mileage from his fight
“Now the funny thing is this, Borg Olivier could have made a great political casus belli out of it, but he never said anything! Firstly, he was not the kind of person to blow his own trumpet; secondly he also avoided creating situations which might have led to instability in the country. He felt very strongly about this.
“The only time he spoke publically about what he had done was extremely briefly in December 1974 when Parliament was debating the amendment to the Constitution. One of the clauses was that the Innu Malti would no longer remain entrenched in the Constitution. Borg Olivier felt very strongly about this and argued against it. At one point, Justice Minister Anton Buttigieg, who was piloting the bill, turned to him and said: ‘You are more British than the Queen.’ Borg Olivier took exception to this and replied: ‘You’re telling me? You’re accusing me of being more British than the Queen? I used to insist with the British that they play the Innu Malti before and after independence’.
“That is all he ever said about it, nobody picked it up, nobody – including all the historians and myself – had known anything about it or given it importance until I came across these documents in the national archives. I carry out research there but not everything is catalogued because of a lack of personnel. When you find documents like this you study them carefully and then put them in the correct context.”
How Borg Olivier is remembered
“I think this is important because, unfortunately, there are still too many people in this country who think Borg Olivier was a weakling. All the documentation you come across shows the opposite. Prime Minister Mintoff once said about him that when he put his mind to it, not even all the British cavalry could move him an inch, and Mintoff knew what he was talking about. This is very, very true – you would not see him moving back one inch. He’d keep going at it, emphasising his points, answering everything politely, not losing his temper, not calling anybody names, and he was always a gentlemen, but he would not give an inch, a proper statement.
“The battle was won in the sense that the British came to recognise that it was a lost fight, so some time in 1963 they accepted that the Innu Malti should be played together with God Save the Queen. After independence, Borg Olivier insisted that it should not be played with or alongside, but instead of, because Malta was now sovereign – and, again, he got his own way.”
Significance in terms of Malta’s road to independence
“If he hadn’t fought, nothing would have happened before independence. The British thought Malta’s flag was a blue background with a circle in the middle in which there was a shield with the white and red of Malta, and the George cross. That was the official flag according to the British; they allowed the flag to be flown but it was not recognised.
“Its significance is that it is part and parcel of the desire that had begun to grow rapidly on the island that we should have a real say in our own affairs. You have to remember that from the very beginning when he became Prime Minister in the early 50s, Borg Olivier was already insisting that Malta depended economically on the British, but they [the British] depended on us militarily, so his interpretation was that we were not in an inferior position and should ensure that we received a fair return for our contribution.”