Being a supporter and member of the Nationalist Party for well over three decades, I thought it was my duty to attend the meeting held on the Granaries in Floriana marking Independence Day. The main speaker was party leader Adrian Delia.
However, I disagree that Ġorġ Borg Olivier secured absolute independence for Malta, no longer relying on the British forces. They still had a military base on the island, for which they paid about £3 million annually, the Maltese government having had to pay back about £1 million, which meant Malta was receiving about £2 million a year from the British government. Many Maltese were still employed in the Royal Navy, the British Army and the Royal Air Force.
Malta was no longer a colony of the British butwe had constitutional independence only as we still depended fiercely on the British government.
Where would Malta stand had the British government decided to suddenly pull out and give up its military base, as it had been doing elsewhere?
When Labour was returned to power in 1971, Dom Mintoff thought wisely about his seven-year plan to make Malta a true and sovereign independent state by informing the British that fresh talks were to start soonest about the military base and payments due.
During the negotiations many, especially from the PM side, feared the British would leave without paying a penny and urged him to accept the British financial offer, which amounted to half of what Mintoff had already managed to secure.
Mintoff was no idiot, he knew how important Malta was for both the British and Nato because of its strategic position.
After tough negotiations, London agreed to pay £21 million a year for seven years and Malta could built the proper infrastructure that kept it on its feet when the British left, as agreed, in 1979.
It was said that the US and Nato had forked out some of the money as they considered our island a means to spy on what was going on in the Middle East.
It is untrue that Mintoff kicked the British out of Malta. It was for the reasons mentioned above that the British felt it was better for them to leave as per the agreement with Mintoff.