MALTA, FLAG OF

vertically divided white-red national flag with a George Cross in the upper hoist corner. The flag has a width-to-length ratio of 2 to 3. In the late 11th century Roger I, the count of Sicily, supposedly granted the simple white-and-red coat of arms of Malta on which its flag is based. That legend is unsubstantiated, but it is known that the Knights of Malta, who ruled for centuries, used a red flag with a white cross (either the normal variety or the special Maltese Cross). After Britain came to control Malta in the early 19th century, the Union Jack predominated. On December 28, 1943, the unofficial white-red flag of Malta was augmented by the addition of a blue canton bearing a representation of the George Cross, a military decoration granted by King George VI of the United Kingdom for the heroic defense of Malta by its inhabitants during World War II. When Malta became independent on September 21, 1964, the blue canton was omitted, and the George Cross, represented in two shades of gray, was given a red fimbriation (narrow border). A white-bordered red flag with a central white Maltese Cross is displayed by privately owned vessels registered in Malta. Whitney Smith Government and social conditions Government The 1964 Independence Constitution, under which Malta was a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary state, was amended in 1974 to make Malta a republic within the Commonwealth. Its head of state is a president appointed by the Maltese Parliament, which is elected by universal adult suffrage for a term of five years and is basically derived from the British model. Local features include a single chamber with 69 members, while election is by proportional representation from 13 electoral divisions. An amendment adopted in 1987 guarantees a majority of seats to a party receiving more than 50 percent of the total votes in the general election. The two major parties are the Nationalist Party and the Malta Labour Party. The president acts on the advice of the Cabinet, which consists of the prime minister and other ministers (some assisted by parliamentary secretaries) and is collectively responsible to Parliament. There is no municipal government in the islands. Maltese law, which was codified mainly during the period from 1854 to 1873, is largely based on the Napoleonic Code and Napoleonic law. Procedural common law and some commercial and maritime affairs are regulated by English principles, but judiciary precedent is not binding. Maltese is the language of the courts. Civil and criminal jurisdiction is almost exclusively vested in the Superior Court and the Court of Magistrates. The chief justice and judges of the Superior Court are appointed by the president on the advice of the prime minister, and their duties are apportioned throughout the court system. The magistrates, who are appointed in the same way, sit in the lower courts. Between 1964 and 1972, Malta's main defense dispositions were those contained in a 1964 Anglo-Maltese defense agreement, with the United Kingdom guaranteeing mutual assistance. Since then, through a constitutional amendment, Malta has followed a policy of neutrality and nonalignment and maintains its own regular armed forces. Education The Labour government radically altered the education system, which was previously structured on British models and strongly influenced by the Roman Catholic church. Compulsory education was extended to include all children from the ages of 6 to 16. An attempt at establishing an extreme form of the comprehensive system was abandoned; streaming (the grouping of students by age and intellectual ability) and examinations were at first discarded but later reintroduced; purely technical institutes were not compelled to follow the program. At the tertiary level, a student-worker scheme was introduced in 1978, students working for six months and studying for six months, thereby linking admission to institutions of higher learning to the availability of employment. This system was largely revoked by the Education Act of 1987, and admission to institutions of higher learning is now based completely on competence. The University of Malta, founded as a Jesuit college in 1592 and established as a state institution in 1769, was refounded in 1988. It offers courses in most disciplines and has a prestigious medical school. Its modern campus at Tal-Qroqq also houses the International Maritime Law Institute and the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies. The historic Old University building in Valletta is now the seat of the university-linked Foundation for International Studies and its associated bodies, the International Environment Institute, the Mediterranean Institute, and the Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Marine Contamination Hazards (created by the Council of Europe). Malta is also the site of the Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean Sea, operated jointly by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). History The earliest archaeological remains date from about 3800 BC. Neolithic farmers lived in caves like those at Dalam (near Birzebbuga) or villages like Skorba (near Nadur Tower) and produced pottery that seems related to that of contemporary eastern Sicily. An elaborate cult of the dead of Stone Age or Copper Age culture evolved about 2400 BC. Initially centring around rock-cut collective tombs such as those at Ggantija (near Xagra) and Hagar Qim (near Zurrieq), it culminatedprobably through contacts with the cultures of the Cyclades and Mycenaein the unique underground burial chamber (hypogeum) at Hal Saflieni (near Raal Gdid). This culture came to a sudden end about 2000 BC, possibly as a result of invasions. The culture that replaced it, of southern Italian flavour, is evidenced today only by fragmentary remains. Bronze Age tools and weapons have been found at Borg in-Nadur (near Birzebbuga) and Tarxien Cemetery (near Raal Gdid), while Iron Age relics from about 1200 to 800 BC include cart ruts at Bingemma (near Nadur Tower). Between the 8th and 6th centuries BC, contact was made with Semitic cultures. Evidence is scanty, however, and a few inscriptions found on Malta constitute the only indication of a Phoenician presence. There is more substantial proof of the Carthaginian presence in the 6th century BC; coins, inscriptions, and several Punic-type rock tombs have been found. It is certain that in 218 BC Malta came under Roman political control. Originally part of the praetorship of Sicily, the islands were subsequently given the status of municipium and were thus allowed to coin their own money, send ambassadors to Rome, and control domestic affairs. According to tradition, St. Paul was shipwrecked in Malta in AD 60 and began to convert the inhabitants. The Maltese have been Christians uninterruptedly since that time. With the division of the Roman Empire, in AD 395, Malta was given to the eastern portion dominated by Constantinople. Until the 15th century, it followed the more immediate fortunes of nearby Sicily, being ruled successively by Arabs (who left a strong effect on the language), Normans (who advanced the legal and governmental structures), and a succession of feudal lords. In 1530, however, it was ceded to the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (the Knights Hospitalers), a religious and military order of the Roman Catholic church. Malta became a fortress and, under the Knights' grand master, Jean de La Valette, successfully withstood the Ottoman siege of 1565. The new capital city of Valletta became a town of splendid palaces and unparalleled fortifications. Growing in power and wealthowing mainly to their maritime adventures against the Turksthe Knights left the island an architectural and artistic legacy. Although there was little economic and social contact between them and the Maltese, they managed to imprint their cosmopolitan character on Malta and its inhabitants. In 1798 Napoleon Bonaparte captured the island, but the French presence was short-lived, and the Treaty of Amiens returned the island to the Knights in 1802. The Maltese protested and acknowledged Great Britain's sovereignty, subject to certain conditions incorporated in a Declaration of Rights. The constitutional change was ratified by the Treaty of Paris in 1814. Malta's political status under Britain underwent a series of vicissitudes in which constitutions were successively granted, suspended, and revoked. British demands for Malta's military facilities dominated the economy, and the Dockyard became the colony's economic mainstay. The island flourished during the Crimean War and was favourably affected by the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Self-government was granted in 1921 on a dyarchical basis whereby Britain shared power and responsibility with Maltese ministers who were elected by the legislature. But the battle over the relative roles of the English, Italian, and Maltese languages took its toll, and in 1936 the islands reverted to a strictly colonial regime in which full power rested in the hands of the governor. During World War II, the islands repelled the Axis powers against severe odds, having been one of the most heavily bombed targets of that conflict. As a result, it was awarded the George Cross, Britain's highest civilian decoration. Self-government was granted in 1947, revoked in 1959, and then restored in 1962. Malta finally achieved independence within the Commonwealth on Sept. 21, 1964. It became a republic on Dec. 13, 1974. The withdrawal of British military and naval personnel from its famous Dockyardassociated with the achievement of independence from the United Kingdom in 1964created economic and political problems for Malta. From 1964 to 1971, Malta was governed by the Nationalist Party, whose attitude was firm alignment with the West. In 1971, however, when the Malta Labour Party came to power, its policy was nonalignment and special friendship with China and Libya. In 1979 the total closure of the British base and the end of the British alliance were celebrated by the Maltese government as the arrival of real independence; however, the existence of serious problems, especially with regard to the guarantee of full and productive employment and the deepening division between local political parties, was acknowledged. The Nationalists were returned to power in 1987 with a policy of seeking full membership in the European Community and transforming the economy into a modern, technologically oriented structure. Malta's growing international importance was acknowledged when it was chosen as the site of the first summit meeting between Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President George Bush in 1989. Salvino Busuttil The economy Malta's only exploited mineral resource is the globigerina limestone that is used as building stone, although the country has offshore reserves of petroleum. Its other assets are its deep harbours, an adaptable, skilled labour force, and a strategic position as both a fueling centre and, until March 1979, a military and naval base. The economy, therefore, has been somewhat artificial and until 1979 determined by the vicissitudes of war and peace in the Mediterranean. In the 1950s Britain began the retrenchment of its naval and military forces on Malta, a move that necessitated a drastic diversification of the economy. A series of five- and seven-year plans were supported by government grants, loans, and other fiscal incentives to encourage private investment. Industry and tourism Economic plans professed to build on a tripod basis of industry, agriculture, and tourism. In fact, however, industrial growth lagged behind these plans, resulting in the successful establishment of only a few multinational corporations (mainly producing textiles). From 1971 the government increasingly took over weak enterprises, sometimes closing them. Since 1987 new development has concentrated on manufacture of industrial components, including computer parts, instruments, and other high-tech goods, as well as a large variety of consumer products (toys, cosmetics, detergents, processed foods) and more traditional goods such as lace, silver filigree, pottery, glassware, and canework. Foreign investment in manufacturing is encouraged and facilitated by the Malta Development Corporation. Tourism is a major source of income. The influx of tourists and some immigration spurred the building of hotels and housing, but there are questions about the islands' capacity to cater to an annual total of tourists greater than the country's population. Besides shipbuilding and transshipment services, the establishment of backup facilities for oil companies and of other outlets for traditional Maltese skills in cross-cultural dealings produced jobs and foreign currency earnings that boosted the Maltese currency, making it one of the strongest in the world. The land Relief Malta Island measures about 17 miles at its longest distance from southeast to northwest and about 9 miles at its widest distance from east to west. The main physical characteristic of Malta is a well-defined escarpment that bisects it along the Victoria Lines Fault running along the whole breadth of the island from Point ir-Raeb (west of Nadur Tower) to the coast northeast of Gargur. The highest areas are coralline limestone uplands that constitute a triangular plateau, Ta' Zuta (829 feet [253 metres]), to the west. The uplands are separated from the surrounding areas by blue clay slopes, while undercliff areas are found where the coralline plateau has fallen and forms a subordinate surface between the sea and the original shore. The total shoreline is 85 miles. To the north the escarpment is occasionally abrupt and broken by deep embayments. To the south, however, the plateaus gradually descend from about 600800 feet into undulating areas of globigerina (derived from marine protozoa) limestone less than 400 feet high. On the west are deeply incised valleys and undercliff areas, while on the east are several valleys that descend to the central plains. The Dockyard complex in Grand Harbour, Malta, showing (from foreground) French Creek, Senglea, The west coast of Malta presents a high, bold, and generally harbourless face. On the east, however, a tongue of high ground known as Mount Sceberras separates the bays of Marsamxett and Grand Harbour. These deepwater harbours contribute to the strategic importance of Malta. They are associated with nine seasonal creeks that include those of Sliema, Lazzaretto, Msida, and Newport. The northern shore is again bare and craggy, characterized by its coves and hills, which are separated by fertile lowlands. In Gozo the landscape is characterized by a broken coralline plateau to the north and by low-lying globigerina limestone plains and hills to the south. The highest point, in the west, is 578 feet. The total shoreline is 27 miles. Drainage and soils Malta possesses favourable conditions for the percolation and underground storage of water. The impermeable blue clays provide two distinct water tables between the limestone formations. The principal source for the public supply of water has been the main sea-level water table. The absence of permanent streams or lakes and a considerable loss of rainfall, however, have made water supply a problem. This problem has been combated with an intensive reverse-osmosis desalination program. About 70 percent of Malta's daily water needs are supplied by desalination plants throughout the islands. Maltese soils are mainly young or immature and thin. By law, when soils are removed from construction sites, they must be taken to agricultural areas, and level stretches in quarries are often covered with carted soil. Organic refuse from the towns is also used. Consequently, the soils are unusual and are partly a manufactured medium. The people The islands' ethnic and linguistic composition reflects the heritage of many rulers. A European atmosphere predominates as a result of close association particularly with southern Europe. About 95 percent of the islanders are Maltese-born, and the remainder includes mostly persons of English and Italian descent. During the 20th century, the increasing rate of Anglo-Maltese marriages added a new dimension to the ethnic structure of the population. Maltesethe medium of daily conversationis a distinct language that resulted from the interaction and fusion of North African Arabic and a Sicilian form of Italian. It is the only Semitic language that is officially written in Latin script; it became an official language of Malta in 1934. English, the other official language, is the medium of instruction in the schools. Italian was the language of church and government until 1934 and is still understood by a sizable sector of the population. Although Roman Catholicism is the state religion, there is full freedom for all religious beliefs. The islands are an independent province of the church, with two dioceses at Malta and Gozo and two bishops serving the cathedrals at Valletta and Rabat (Victoria). There are two Roman Catholic cathedrals, at Mdina and Valletta, and an Anglican cathedral, at Valletta. There is a mosque at Corradino Heights. Malta has one of the highest population densities in the world. The population has somewhat stabilized, however, with a considerable decline in the birthrate since the 1950s. The death rate has remained fairly stable, having fallen only slightly, while the infant mortality rate has dropped significantly. Emigration, formerly encouraged and even financed by the government, has also tapered off; the primary destination of emigration is Australia. The majority of the country's immigrants are repatriates. The age structure of the population is fairly evenly distributed, and the life expectancy is about 74 years.