On Thursday, 26 November, some sections of the press reported that the British coat of arms on the facade of the Main Guard on Palace Square had been lovingly restored as part of the Valletta Rehabilitation Project. We were informed that parts of it, eroded by the elements, had even been rebuilt. Not only that, but the clock which hangs just under it and which had not worked for years, had also been restored.

This is all fine and as it should be. All historical records are important and should be preserved for future generations. After all, as Santayana said, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

However, it was highly ironical, to say the least, that this happened at practically the same time that a monument of far greater artistic and historical importance was, for no discernible reason, removed from that same square and dumped in some out of the way warehouse where it will, no doubt, be left to rot.

The Sette Giugno Monument, designed by one of Malta's greatest artists, was practically the only artefact, except for the Addolorata Cemetery, which commemorated the events that many see as the first stirrings of a movement which was to lead, after many years and tribulations, to our real independence. Its artistic merit is uncontested; its location, in front of the imposing building that has symbolised the Maltese State for centuries, was ideal; the promises that it will be erected in another place ring false.

One cannot help wondering what were the real reasons for its removal. In the years that it occupied the site on Palace Square it embellished the ambience, served as a focal point and did not interfere with or restrict in any way the use of the square for other purposes. So why?

One would not like to think that its removal was implemented in a fit of petty pique arising from the fact that it had been erected under a Labour Government.

Victor Laiviera

Naxxar