GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



297 



Commissioner is Sir William F. Haynes Smith. 

 The area of the island is 3,584 square miles, with 

 209,280 inhabitants, of whom 47,920 are Moham- 

 medans and the rest Orthodox Greeks. The rev- 

 enue in 1900 was 200,038, and expenditure 

 134,082. The only debt is an advance of 314,- 

 000 made by the British Government in 1899 for 

 railroads and harbor and irrigation works. The 

 products are wheat, barley, olives, wine, cotton, 

 carobs, silk, linseed, cheese,. wool, and hides. The 

 imports in .1900 were valued at 289,902, and ex- 

 ports at 204,851. Of the revenue 54,221 were 

 derived from tithes, 35,002 from the property 

 tax, 30,571 from customs, and 28,300 from 

 excise. Of the expenditures the heaviest items 

 were for police and public works. Since the Brit- 

 ish occupation revenue has exceeded expenditure, 

 but the surplus and over 700,000 more con- 

 tributed by the British Government was required 

 to pay the Turkish tribute of 92,799 and 4,000,- 

 000 okes of salt. Live animals and foodstuffs 

 constitute two-thirds of the exports, which go to 

 Great Britain, Turkey, Egypt, and France, while 

 the two former supply the bulk of the imports. 

 The product of wheat in 1900 was 1,500,000 

 bushels; of barley, 2,000,000 bushels; of wine, 

 3,750,000 gallons, of which 1,250,000 gallons were 

 exported; of brandy, 241,000 gallons. 



Malta has been the base for the repair and re- 

 fitment of vessels of the British Mediterranean 

 squadron, but much of this work has been trans- 

 ferred to Gibraltar. The -island has an area of 

 117 square miles. The revenue in 1899 was 354,- 

 205; expenditure, 351,354. The Governor in the 

 beginning of 1901 was Lieut.-Gen. Sir Francis 

 Wallace Grenfell. He was succeeded by Lord 

 Congleton. Cotton, oranges, figs, and honey are 

 the chief products, and there are manufactures of 

 matches, cotton goods, and filigree work. The 

 number of vessels entered in 1899 was 3,500, of 

 3,297,712 tons; cleared, 3,500, of 3,292,942 tons. 

 Parliament voted 1,000,000 in 1901 under the 

 provision for naval and military works to build a 

 needed breakwater. Malta has been a British 

 colony over a hundred years. The people volun- 

 tarily accepted British sovereignty, and have al- 

 ways claimed the right of self-rule, which England 

 has not admitted, the island being primarily a 

 naval and military station. In 1887 a Constitu- 

 tion was conferred which gives to a limited class, 

 estimated at 10 per cent, of the population, the 

 right to elect members to the Council of Govern- 

 ment, which has control over expenditures. The 

 elected members having refused to agree to new 

 taxes which the British Government decided to 

 impose in Malta, the taxes were decreed by an 

 order in Council. This angered the people of 

 Malta, who protested that they could pay no 

 higher taxes, their former wealth having decayed 

 under the military government, which was con- 

 stantly becoming harsher and more grinding. An 

 order in Council substituting the English language 

 for the Italian as the official language of the 

 country stirred up a deeper and more universal 

 feeling of resentment and indignation. In meet- 

 ings held on May 5 and June 2, 1901, the people 

 of all classes showed a unanimous sentiment, both 

 against the imposition of new taxes so long as 

 Malta is deprived of the right of self-rule in local 

 affairs and against the abolition of Italian as the 

 language of government and of the courts. Malta, 

 it was contended, on the occasion of its self-ces- 

 sion, received from the King of England a solemn 

 promise that the rights of the Maltese would al- 

 ways be respected, and among these rights the 

 maintenance of the Italian language in its ancient 

 position was considered to be one of the most 



vital. The change of the official hm linage has 

 been in contemplation for some years? In IS!)}) 

 a deputation was sent to London lo protest 

 against the substitution of English for halian, 

 which was coupled in the minds oi the people. 

 with a supposed plan to wean them from the 

 Roman Catholic faith and make Prol.estn.nl -< of 

 them. They were greatly agitated in iH'.m l.y a 

 decree legalizing mixed marriages and marriages 

 by Protestant clergymen, against which the Holy 

 See protested. The native clergy were greatly 

 incensed at the adoption of English as the official 

 language, which will not go into full effect till 

 after the end of fifteen years, and all the educated 

 class, who use the Tuscan tongue, resisted the 

 change with equal heat and earnestness, and to 

 the astonishment of the English the common 

 people were not less wrought up about the mat- 

 ter. It was expected that the poorer classes, who 

 speak Maltese, a mixed patois which is not ex- 

 actly Italian, which the English are prone to be- 

 lieve is rather a variety of Arabic, would wel- 

 come a change that would wipe out one of the 

 social distinctions between them and the aristoc- 

 racy. They are so eager to learn English, which 

 in trade at home and when they seek their for- 

 tunes in foreign countries is more useful to them 

 now, that in the schools, in which they choose 

 what foreign language they will take, 97 take 

 English where 3 select Italian. In 1899, when an 

 English officer, Col. Hewson, brought the ques- 

 tion to a test by refusing to sign depositions 

 written in Italian on the ground that he did 

 not understand the language and was conse- 

 quently sent to jail for contempt of court, Mr. 

 Chamberlain announced the decision of the Gov- 

 ernment to make the English language optional 

 in all the courts, and to insist that summonses, 

 warrants, and the like served on English-speaking 

 persons should be written in English as well as 

 Italian. An order in Council gave British sub- 

 jects not born or naturalized in Malta a right to 

 use the English language in proceedings against 

 them. In 1901 an order in Council announced the 

 abolition of Italian as the official language and 

 the sole use of English after a fixed period. When 

 mass-meetings were held and petitions were ad- 

 dressed to the British sovereign, Government, 

 Parliament, and people, and all the Maltese 

 seemed to be of one mind and to regard what 

 the Foreign Office represented to be a reform as 

 a blow at the existence of the Maltese as a dis- 

 tinct people, Mr. Chamberlain supposed that they 

 were misled by the false representations of aris- 

 tocratic ringleaders who desired only to preserve 

 the ascendency of their caste. The elected mem- 

 bers of the Council of Government, acting in con- 

 junction with a national committee that had been 

 formed, framed a petition to the King on Aug. 

 8 protesting against the additional taxation that 

 Mr. Chamberlain had announced on July 30. Two 

 days later a popular demonstration took place in 

 which the British flag was torn down and police 

 arid soldiers were called out to curb the excesses 

 of the multitude. The elected members of the 

 Council refused to sanction the expenditure of any 

 public money if the Maltese were to be taxed with- 

 out representation, and to have English foisted on 

 them in the place of their own official language. 

 Mr. Chamberlain had gone so far that he was un- 

 willing to recede, and saw no solution of the dead- 

 lock except to legislate for the colony by means of 

 orders in Council. If the elected members of the 

 local Government should persist in their attitude, 

 he suggested the abrogation of the Constitution 

 of 1887. 

 Aden, the chief coaling station on the Suez 



