A brief study of the Sette Giugno

Abstract

The Sette Giugno was not the event of a single day or two. In its novel, or revolutionary aspects, it lasted from the suppression of the Consiglio Popolare to the rise of Sir Filippo Sceberras, but just as its effects carried forward to the First Autonomous Constitution, so its causes stretched back into the dawn of the Twentieth Century, if not earlier. Since British rule was established in the Islands, it was pointed out that Malta became British with the good will and consent of the Maltese who voluntarily assented to the protection of Great Britain. In the Declaration of Rights of the Inhabitants of the Islands of Malta and Gozo of June 1802, it was declared that... "the right of legislation and taxation belongs to the Consiglio Popolare, with the consent and assent of His Majesty's representatives, without which the people are not bound". When this right was denied, and when Britain started to consider Malta as an important post, as a great military and naval arsenal, and nothing else, the Maltese led by their intellectual citizens strove to obtain what was lawfully theirs and to protest against any usurpation. The riots that occurred in 1919 were due both to economic and political reasons. The high cost of living and the increase in unemployment that followed the conclusion of the Great War of 1914-1918, had intensified the general discontent among the masses. This intensified the demand for a constitution in the political field, and when a leader appeared in the person of Filippo Sceberras, the demand could no longer be ignored and the longed for Constitution, which partially met the demands of the National Assembly of Malta, was granted in April 1921.