The 1948 Gozo Commission : redesigning a future

Abstract

This dissertation is divided into three chapters. Chapter one starts by looking at the outcry for the restoration of a responsible government after the end of the Second World War which was fulfilled by the new constitution. New elections took place and post-war Gozo made its voice heard through the rise of two political parties with the aim of driving the Government to undertake the necessary actions to put an end to the problems that prevailed in the island. This chapter therefore describes the process which led to the setup of the Gozo Commission. Chapter two draws a clear panorama of the situation in Gozo by evaluating the report itself. The reality of Gozo was that the only time that it was put into the spotlight was during the elections. This chapter accordingly depict the reason why Gozo was seen as the forgotten island by describing its state of affairs and then goes into analysing the suggestions made by the Gozo Commission. Finally, the third chapter takes the approach of examining the impact and depict the role of the Gozo Commission. It describes the controversies faced by the Gozo Commission before the submission of the final report. Soon after the Gozo Commission brought its findings to an end, instability within the Government occurred which ultimately led to the fall of the Government. In conclusion, the main argument of this dissertation was that although Gozo was part of the Maltese Islands, it had experienced different levels of neglect in almost all aspects of life. This dissertation explained how Gozo resisted and sought to overcome its perceived insignificance compared to Malta by analysing the post war era.