Prime Minister George Borg Olivier’s refusal to accept a colonial version of Malta’s flag to be flown in London during the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II is well known.
What is more obscure, however, is Borg Olivier’s struggle to establish the supremacy of the Innu Malti, considered by many Maltese at the time to be their national anthem, and to ensure that it was honoured as protocol demanded.
Borg Olivier’s persistent efforts on behalf of the Innu Malti are revealed in Prof. Joseph Pirotta’s latest book, Nation, Pride and Dignity: Borg Olivier and the Na-tional Anthem.
Prof. Pirotta explained that the Innu Malti was first publicly sung at the Manoel Theatre on December, 27 1922, and then rapidly gained acceptance as Malta’s national anthem.
However, the fact that an ever-growing number of Maltese re-garded it as their national anthem was of no consequence to the British authorities. Officially, Malta, like the rest of the Empire, already had a national anthem – God Save the King.
The most the Colonial Office were prepared to concede was to accept the Innu Malti as the hymn of Malta – not the national anthem – and to tolerate its use at functions of a strictly local nature.
His pro-Innu Malti campaign was part and parcel of his much larger agenda
Borg Olivier was the first Prime Minister to officially challenge the British interpretation. From 1952 onwards, he boycotted all functions organised by the Maltese Imperial Government or the Armed Forces if they refused to mark the arrival of Malta’s Prime Minister by playing the Innu Malti.
He insisted that Malta’s national pride and dignity demanded nothing less.
Nation, Pride and Dignity: Borg Olivier and the Innu Malti reveals how his pro-Innu Malti campaign was part and parcel of his much larger agenda – shedding Malta’s colonial status and asserting Maltese national sovereignty.
Yet Borg Olivier deliberately refrained from turning his Innu Malti crusade into a casus belli. In his style, he shunned rabble-rousing measures, Prof. Pirotta ob-serves. His struggle continued after Independence in 1964, despite the Innu Malti’s entrenchment in the Constitution as the national anthem.
An incident during the Queen’s birthday celebration in 1966 is also revealed in Pirotta’s new book. As Queen of Malta, her official birthday was traditionally celebrated by a military parade featuring her symbolic arrival and the playing of the British national anthem.
Following Independence, Borg Olivier insisted that the symbolic arrival of the Queen should be acknowledged by the playing of the Innu Malti.
The military objected and, on Borg Olivier’s advice, the Governor-General, Sir Maurice Dorman, refused the army’s invitation to take the salute, while the Prime Minister and his Cabinet absented themselves.
Henceforth, the sovereign was saluted by the Innu Malti during the annual Queen’s Birthday Parade.
Nation, Pride and Dignity: Borg Olivier and the Innu Malti, published by Midsea Books, will be launched on Thursday at 7pm at the Aula Magna, University of Malta, Valletta. Members of the public are welcome to attend.