CAB129-78 — Page 202

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(Signed)

PERTH.

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that Malta should in future be represented in the Parliament at Westminster." Following upon our recommendation in the preceding paragraph, and assuntingt2bepfapel we proceed to make Pragmentfon bn other constitutional and related questions below.

84. The proposals which we have received from the Maltese Govern- ment and other Maltese parties and witnesses are described in Chapters III and IV. We refrain from commenting on the question whether the Maltese Parliament should continue to be elected by proportional repre- sentation or should be elected in the same way as Members of the House of Commons. This is a matter for the Maltese themselves to decide. With regard to the other changes proposed, there is already broad agreement that the legislative scope of the Maltese Parliament should be widened and that there should be provision for regular and continuous consultation, both in Malta and in London, between the Maltese Government and Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, on matters which affect their mutual interests and responsibilities. We consider that reforms in these fields are desirable to ensure a more efficient and cordial relationship between the two Governments.

85. As regards the division of legislative functions between the Parliament at Westminster and the Maltese Parliament, we recommend that, subject to the principle of religious toleration as embodied in the Declaration of Rights of 1802 (Appendix F) and in recent Constitutions, the legislative authority of the Maltese Parliament should extend to all matters other than defence and foreign affairs, and, ultimately, direct taxation. As we have explained, the process of raising Maltese living standards will be slow and gradual, and the attainment of equivalence with the United Kingdom is difficult to envisage at the present time. For that reason we consider that the question of transferring powers of taxation from the Maltese legislature to the Parliament at Westminster should be left in abeyance for the time being.

86. We further recommend that the separation of authority for defence and foreign affairs from authority for those matters which are the direct concern of the Maltese Parliament and Government should not as at present take the form of two separate Maltese Governments, one composed of elected Maltese Ministers and the other of the servants of the Imperial Government. This does not, however, dispose of the necessity for an authority in Malta to carry out the decisions of the Parliament and Govern- ment at Westminster in the fields of defence and foreign affairs, and for the Maltese Government to recognise the need to ensure the efficient and speedy exercise of responsibility by Her Majesty's Government in those fields. We have not thought it possible, as part of our present task, to work out and recommend how this authority should be set up and staffed. This will require careful study, in consultation with the Maltese Government, but we suggest that the authority responsible for defence and foreign affairs in Malta should be organised on the following general lines.

87. The responsibility for Maltese affairs in London should be transferred to the Secretary of State for the Home Department, who should be represented in Malta by a United Kingdom representative, at the head of a staff constituting the United Kingdom agency in Malta, with the necessary powers, under the authority of the Home Secretary, to carry out the decisions of Her Majesty's Government in defence and foreign affairs and to consult and collaborate with the Maltese Government in matters of joint concern.

88. We have considered how the present definition of defence and foreign affairs as set out in Section 23 (3) of the Constitution Letters Patent might

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