60th Anniversary of Malta’s Independence
Monday, 16 September 2024
Mandavilla Function Centre, Horsley Park
Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC
To Cabrogal Elders of the Darug Nation, past, present, and emerging, I pay my respects.
It is an honour, Consul-General Buhagiar, to join you for this celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Independence of Malta. This anniversary forms part of a trilogy of events, which defines Malta’s sovereignty today. The other two events are its status as a republic, declared 3 December 1974 and the withdrawal of British troops at the expiry of the defence treaty between Britain and Malta on 31 March 1979.
These three sovereign events were unique in that they were peaceful, in stark contrast to the long history of invasion and occupation dating back to about 800 BC when it was occupied by the Phoenicians for some 600 years, and who gave it the name of 'Malat' – meaning 'Shelter'.
Its subsequent history is a history of the great colonising empires of the world: Carthaginians, the Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Normans, Sicilians, Swabians, Aragonese, the Knights’ Hospitallers, the French, and, lastly, the British.
One of the great empires which is missing, of course, is the Ottoman Empire – who attempted to invade from May – September 1565 – otherwise known as the siege of Malta. That siege has to rank as one of the great military victories of all time as a tiny army of hospitallers – some 6000 against an Ottoman army of 40,000 resisted the siege.
The story is told that when the Ottoman commanders returned to Constantinople to report to the Sultan, rather than admit their defeat, they laid out a map on the table, put a candle on the tiny dot which was Malta and said that the island didn’t exist. Even today there is an expression in the Turkish language to that effect and the Ottoman defeat is rarely acknowledged in Turkey’s history.
In its modern chronology, in WWII, Malta was one of, if not the most bombed countries in the world when, between 1940 and 1942, the British took advantage of its strategic position between Europe and North Africa. The bravery and loyalty of the Maltese people was recognised by King George VI, who bestowed the George Cross, in his words: “to bear witness to [your] heroism and devotion.”
Australians would mostly identify our relationship with Malta as stemming from post war migration. However, the relationship is much deeper. Over the course of two world wars, Malta has been a good friend and ally. 800 Maltese soldiers directly supported the Gallipoli campaign; Malta was a hospital base for wounded soldiers and ANZAC nurses during the First World War. Australian troops were there in those terrible years from 1940-1942, and over 200 Australians are laid to rest on your islands. This enduring bond is commemorated at your annual ANZAC Day service, held at the Pieta Cemetery.
Two things struck me as I wandered the streets on my recent visit: the familiarity of the surnames on shops and businesses: Borg, Zammit, Schembri, Farrugia, Fenech – which made me feel very much at home. Secondly, the Arabic nature of the language which I had not been expecting and which made be curious. Besides being the essential tool of communication, language is also about a people’s history and identity.
It is the only Arabic or Semite-based language in the world which uses the Latin Alphabet. The story behind that, I was told, was due to the Maltese resistance to having Latin imposed upon them as their spoken language – but as a compromise, agreed to the use of the Latin alphabet.
The first book translated into Maltese was, fittingly, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and the second was Dante’s Divine Comedy.
And it is here that there is another connection between New South Wales and Malta. Maltese became the official language in 1934, but the agitation for that had started more than a decade earlier. And it is at this point that there is another very important connection with Malta. The 23rd Governor of New South Wales, Sir Gerald Strickland (1913-1917) was not only born in Valletta, he helped frame the 1887 Maltese Constitution which established the Maltese Legislative Assembly.
Strickland returned to a Europe at war, and set about establishing and leading Malta’s Constitutional Party, becoming Leader of the Opposition, before winning the seat of Lancaster in the UK House of Commons. He became Malta’s 4th Prime Minister from 1927-32, and founder of the Times of Malta, a news channel which continues today.
And it was Strickland who, in 1932, removed Italian from use in the Law Courts and in public education – confirmed in 1934 by Order of the British, still the colonial masters of this tiny, historic and resilient island in the central Mediterranean.