The Circolo Gozitano was the venue of the Sette Giugno commemoration under the patronage of Speaker of the House Anton Tabone.

During a dinner organised by the Circolo, president Grazio Mercieca revealed how the club had commissioned George Vella to print a portrait of Giuseppe Bajada to honour the memory of this Gozitan victim of the 1919 riots.

With the help of another noted Gozitan historian, Anton F. Attard – himself a member of the club, it was discovered that the image attributed to Giuseppe Bajada in all the prominent literature and reproductions on the subject is not of him.

Mr Vella investigated the matter further with the relatives of the deceased who live in Xaghra, Gozo, and who hold other pictures of the deceased in their possession.

In this manner, the real appearance of the victim has been established, and what has up to now been a grave historical error has been corrected. A genuine portrait of Giuseppe Bajada now hangs in the club’s premises.

Mr Speaker recalled how, in the recent history of the Maltese nation, Gozitans were always in the forefront. It was not by accident that one of the four victims in 1919 had to be a Gozitan. There were other Gozitans who were also arrested for participating in the riots. That event led to the realisation of the first self-government in 1921. When the Maltese Constitution was being debated in the Maltese Parliament prior to 1964, four of the Gozitan MPs rose up to give their support for the new Constitution. That sort of support was not repeated in any other district of Malta. Then again, when the necessary amendments to bring about the Republic of Malta were being debated in parliament, the Gozitan members gave their full support.

Nature had determined that, geographically, Gozo be separated from the island of Malta. But that separation enriched the socio-political and cultural aspects of the Maltese islands, because who could imagine the Maltese nation without Gozo? It is important that Circolo Gozitano continues to stand for all that which is Gozitan and provide the space, opportunity for free expression and thought which is perhaps nowhere else evident in the island.

Mr Speaker said the Circolo has all the attributes of what he referred to as “a social laboratory”.