A lot of literature has already been published about the Sette Giugno riots which occurred on a Saturday of the year 1919. The riots claimed the lives of four people: Carmelo Abela, Manwel Attard, Giuseppe Bajada and Wenzu Dyer. The third victim, Giuseppe Bajada, hailed from Gozo and is of particular interest because he is closely associated with the attempts of the government of the time to send its surplus Maltese population to English-speaking countries like Canada and Australia.

Giuseppe Bajada

Bajada was born at home on Tuesday, March 8, 1881. He was the first among seven siblings. The family lived at 32, Bullara Street, in the village of Xagħra, which at the time was referred to as Caccia in Gozo. Probably he attended the village’s primary school which had opened some 25 years or so previously, because emigration records show he was literate. He may have also attended the night classes the government had set up purposely for the would-be emigrants.

In his early 20s Bajada travelled to Malta to seek better opportunities for work. He could easily settle there because his relatives had already established themselves, with their families, in Msida. Bajada took up residence on Capucchins Street, Żabbar, a stone’s throw away from Cottonera – the three adjacent cities – the hive of work activity. During the first years of the 20th century there was a lot of work in Malta in connection with the construction of the Grand Harbour breakwater and the building of one of the dockyards.

In the meantime, the colonial government was establishing its contacts with the British Dominions around the globe and trying to convince them to accept emigrants from Malta. It endeavoured to break the decades-old tradition of Maltese emigrants seeking work in nearby Mediterranean cities such as Algiers, Tunis and Marseille. The local civil authorities were always faced with a shortage of job opportunities for Malta’s ever-growing population every time large infrastructural projects came to an end.

A 1987 photo of Bajada’s youngest sister Giovanna and her husband Joseph, today both deceased. Photos: National Archives of Malta, Fortunato & Nerik Mizzi Foundation, National Archives of Gozo and Joseph Camilleri

An opportunity arose in April 1913 when the International Eucharistic Congress was organised with great pomp in Malta. Among them there was Bishop Joseph-Médard Emard of the Valleyfield diocese in Quebec, Canada. He was assisted also by another Canadian priest, Fr Phillip Casgrain, formerly a soldier stationed in Malta at the beginning of the 20th century. Fr Casgrain was very familiar with Malta and even learnt the Maltese language. At one point, Mgr Emard was invited by the Malta Emigration Committee for a meeting during which he was encouraged by the Maltese authorities to be a voice with the Canadian authorities for new Maltese emigrants to be let in and establish themselves in Canada.

Bajada applied for a passport in May 1913 with Canada listed as his destination. Perhaps Bajada was enticed to emigrate to Canada because of the discussions and government propaganda at the time for emigrants to venture to this transatlantic land following Mgr Emard’s commitment to the Maltese emigrants’ cause some days before. At the time, Bajada’s mother was dead and his father was a widower left looking after his six other siblings, the youngest being 12-year-old Giovanna.

Bajada embarked on the ss Ville d’Alger in the Grand Harbour on his first step of the long voyage to Canada, the first port of call being in Tunis and then Marseille, France. Together with Bajada there were a number of other Maltese emigrants on board the ship to Marseille.

Bishop Joseph-Médard Emard of the Valleyfield diocese in Quebec, Canada. Giuseppe Bajada may have been enticed to emigrate by Mgr Emard’s commitment to the Maltese emigrants’ cause.

From Marseille, Bajada boarded a train and travelled north to the French region of Normandy until he reached the port of Le Havre. There he undertook a medical check-up and other details, including his financial means, were assessed. On Saturday, June 14, he boarded the passenger ship ss Chicago to New York, arriving on Tuesday, June 24.

On disembarking the ship, the port authorities went through the passenger arrivals list and as per the usual procedure for immigrants, wrote down personal characteristics of each of them. Bajada was registered as being five feet tall, of good complexion, and having auburn hair and brown eyes. His race was described as being of the “Italian south” rather than being registered as “Maltese”.

Bajada spent five days in New York before catching a train for his final destination of Montreal, Canada, on Sunday, June 29. Not much is yet known about his sojourn in Montreal or whether he sought jobs in another place. It is presumed that he came in contact with a local-based association that catered for the new immigrants and helped them seek shelter and eventually a job. Two communities of Maltese were already established in Canada: one in the Dundas and McCaul streets area, and the other in the west Toronto junction.

Bajada spent about three years in Canada before returning to Malta. Probably this was unplanned due to his father’s sudden passing away at the Gozo hospital on Monday, January 3, 1916, at the age of 60. Bajada arrived in Malta on Sunday, August 27 of the same year on the board the ss Mossoul passenger ship directly from Marseille port.

He had planned to emigrate again to Canada by May 1919

On his arrival, Bajada found huge commercial activity going on around the Grand Harbour as Malta had become the land of refuge for thousands of people during World War I which was raging throughout the European continent. At the time Malta was considered the ‘Nurse of the Mediterranean’. Bajada stayed in the Maltese islands for the next two years. But he had planned to emigrate again to Canada by May 1919.

However, at one point in time Bajada befriended two men from his home village – Carmel Hili and Francis Gauci – who had both applied to emigrate to North America for the first time. They rented out a shelter at Floriana together so that they would be a stone’s throw away from the point of embarcation at the Grand Harbour, leaving Malta on Sunday, June 8, 1919.

It was Saturday, June 7. At around 5pm the three of them walked up Castille hill, Valletta, probably for a stroll along the streets of Valletta just to kill the time. At that time there were riots going on in Valletta arising from a number of accumulated circumstances over a long period of years, mainly the demand for self-government as well as the recent rising of prices of bread and lack  of employment.

Bajada’s 1907 passport application when he had originally intended to emigrate to England but had second thoughts for some unknown reason and stayed in Malta.

Bajada and his friends were overwhelmed by curiosity and closely followed the upheaval taking place. They went towards Old Bakery Street following rioting people who went to attack the home of the merchant and importer Anthony Cassar Torreggiani. The mob, comprising around 1,000 people, broke into and destroyed the interior of Cassar Torreggiani’s house.

On the behest of the unarmed police a group of Marine soldiers were deployed to Old Bakery Street to control the mob. The soldiers poised themselves into an attack position with their bayonets and guns pointing in the direction of the mob. Noticing this, the mob was taken aback and sought shelter in nearby streets and in door entrances.

Bajada presumed that the soldiers were only harassing the mob and did not really mean to actually shoot live ammunition. In fact, in a somewhat high voice, Bajada said to the people next to him that the soldiers were of no danger and their bayonets were loaded with blank cartridges.

Suddenly some people behind Bajada started to throw pieces of wood, metal and broken glass. On noticing Bajada jesticulating his arm and without receiving any orders from their superiors, the soldiers fired at Bajada, presuming him to be one of the ringleaders.

Bajada suffered life-threatening injures and was carried away to the Civil Central Hospital in Floriana where he succumbed to his injuries and died some two hours later. Another innocent person present, Manwel Attard, was killed on the spot. Other people were also injured by the firing squad though their injuries were not life-threatening. After the lapse of a short period of time, Wenzu Dyer also fell victim to the gunshot wounds at St George’s Square in front of the Grandmasters’ Palace. The following day another person, Carmelo Abela, was seriously injured by a soldier’s bayonet during the riots and died 15 days later.

A 1989 photo of nephews of Bajada. Today most of them are deceased.

One of Bajada’s friends, Francis Gauci, was brought in as a witness by the hospital authorities to identify Bajada’s lifeless body. Gauci asked for Bajada’s belongings, including the blood-stained passport and the key to the Floriana shelter which Bajada kept in his pocket and where they had their belongings. Gauci and Bajada’s other friend Hili were obviously still under great shock and were not in a position to proceed with their travel plans the following day, so they cancelled their trip.

On Monday, June 9, 1919, Bajada, together with the other two victims, was laid to rest at the Addolorata Cemetery after a high Mass at Floriana parish church.

Acknowledgement

Much of the information in this article was obtained from interviews with people whose relatives happened to be present at the scene of the riots on June 7, 1919. A publication about Giuseppe Bajada is set to be issued by early September, including research carried out in the national archives and private collections.

Aaron Attard-Hili is lawyer at the office of the Judicial Assistant at the Courts of Law in Gozo. He is a researcher in local history and is currently researching and compiling the history of Sette Giugno with particular reference to Giuseppe Bajada. He was commissioned with the design of a free-standing memorial marking the event and Giuseppe Bajada next to his former residence at Xagħra.