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150 years since Malta came under the Crown, will be continued in the future and that the inability of Parliament to enter into any convention or binding agredmage to evolfe3polvers deriving from that althority 9fa1no fear that it will invade those legislative fields which are accepted, in practice, as the direct concern of the Maltese Government and people.
65. We were impressed, during our visit to the Islands, by the extent to which defence requirements in Malta are inextricably bound up with the everyday life of the community and thus impinge on the domestic concerns of the Maltese people; and we have had ample evidence of the difficulties which have arisen in the past in the exercise of the Governor's jurisdiction in reserved matters. It would be unrealistic to expect that difficulties will not be encountered in the future in determining whether a matter properly lies within the respective competence of the Maltese and the United Kingdom Parliaments. This is a problem which has to be faced in any division of functions between two Legislatures and there is no cut-and-dried solution of it.
66. There are now two distinct governments in Malta, each having legislative and executive powers and operating concurrently within its defined sphere. When this system was instituted in 1921, it was thought possible that the respective
the respective spheres of the Imperial and Maltese Governments could be clearly defined and that neither in administration nor in legislation would there be any confusion between their functions nor any doubt as to their respective responsibilities. Practice has proved otherwise.
67. Nearly all the friction has arisen from disputes on the interpretation of reserved matters, principally over what is a matter of defence. The Maltese people are naturally jealous of their powers of self-government and they have been suspicious of the matters reserved to the Maltese Imperial Government being interpreted in such a way as to impinge on those powers. The ever-widening sphere of defence, complicated by the introduction of Allied forces, and the wide scope of the reserved matters as enumerated in the Constitution have thus undoubtedly involved a practical restriction of Maltese self-government.
68. The wider the scope of the authority of the Maltese Parliament and Government, the greater is the possibility of a conflict of interests and jurisdictions between them and the Imperial side. The very nature of govern- ment in Malta makes it impossible to devise a Constitution which would entirely separate the requirements of defence from those matters which are within the authority of the Maltese Government, in such a way as to remove all possibility of conflict.
69. In the course of their evidence, several witnesses expressed the opinion that it would be desirable for us to limit our constitutional recom- mendations to those matters on which the three political parties in Malta are in broad agreement. This, it was argued, would meet the needs of the present situation and would avoid the danger of splitting the Maltese people on the one really controversial issue--the ultimate constitutional status of Malta. However, we are satisfied from the evidence we have heard that both the main parties in Malta are deeply concerned about this question. The desire for prestige and feelings of self-interest are naturally involved; but, given recognition of the wish for an advance in the present constitutional status of Malta, they have a right to know the direction in which it will be possible for them to move and the ultimate goal which they may expect to reach. Some means should rightly be offered them to satisfy these aspirations for a further constitutional advance and for the prospect of stability in the future.