https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/17862 2026-04-26T01:59:59Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/17929 Title: Dependence and independence : Malta and the end of empire Authors: Smith, Simon C. Abstract: The end of empire was rarely a neat or seamless process. Elements of empire often persisted despite the severance of formal constitutional ties. This was particularly so in the case of Malta which maintained strong financial and military links with Britain long after formal independence in 1964. Attempts to effect the decolonisation of Malta through integration with Britain in the 1950s gave way to more conventional constitution-making by the early 1960s. British attempts to retain imperial interests beyond the end of formal empire were answered by Maltese determination to secure financial and other benefits as a quid pro quo for tolerating close ties with the former imperial power. By the early 1970s, however, Britain wearied of the demands placed upon it by the importunate Maltese, preferring instead to try and pass responsibility for supporting Malta onto its NATO allies. 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/17928 Title: Deconstructing colonial health differentials : Malta and Gibraltar prior to World War II Authors: Sawchuk, Larry A. Abstract: This paper illustrates that based on key demographic measures of well-being, Malta lagged significantly behind that of Gibraltar prior to WW II. The majority of the observed differences can be attributed to substantially higher mortality rates in both infancy and children aged 1 to 5 years of age. Clear differences existed within Malta by residence location. The observed heterogeneity in childhood mortality showed two divergent trends with an improvement among urban dwellers and decline in survivorship among rural inhabitants. Factors responsible for the differences in well being at both the inter- and intra-population level are explored. 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/17919 Title: La Scuola Lombrosiana and the beginning of criminology in Malta Authors: Knepper, Paul Abstract: Joseph Semini, a police inspector, became Malta’s first criminologist when he published the first criminological text, Some Points on Criminology, in 1926. Although this text incorporates conceptual language borrowed from Lombroso, it would be wrong to dismiss it as an extension of the scuola positiva. Some Points on Criminology can really only be appreciated when framed within political affairs in Malta during the 1920s and 1930s. This article discusses Semini’s criminology in the context in which he wrote it; his perception of the problems that motivated his writing and the source of ideas that influenced his approach to them. Although the book appears to have had little influence at the time, it is significant because he pursues an alternative to colonial criminology. Colonial criminology relied on analogies with Great Britain to understand Maltese crime problems and sought to develop Maltese institutions of criminal justice from British models. In bringing what Semini took to be an international science of criminology to the Maltese context, he was able to conceive of a more authentic Maltese response 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/17909 Title: The fall from grace of an administrative elite : the administrative class of the Malta Civil Service and the transfer of power : April 1958 to September 1964 Authors: Warrington, Edward Abstract: The creation of the State of Malta in 1962 constituted a turning point in the uneasy, occasionally turbulent relationship between administrative and political elites throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This study outlines the concerns that exercised Malta’s administrative elite as plans were laid for the transfer of power from British to Maltese ministers under the Interim Constitution (1959) and the Blood Constitution (1961). It examines the role played by the Head of the Civil Service in the attempt to forge an ethic of political neutrality for the civil service of a polity deeply divided by partisan loyalties, as well as the claims and campaigns of the Society of Administrative and Executive Civil Servants in response to challenges to the status hierarchy arising from other professions in government. The displacement of the administrative class from a position of constitutional primacy, and the erosion of its status among the professions employed by government are indubitably linked. The fate of the administrative elite that ‘fell from grace’ as Malta attained statehood signalled the passing of the Island’s traditional order. 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z