Internment : 1939-1945

Abstract

Internment. Venturing to tackle such a delicate and intricate subject I, inevitably, met with problems. Some I managed, though with difficulty, to overcome. Others I could not solve. The detentions and internments during the Second World War, 1939-42, some of which led to deportation, a.re still very controversial topics today. A number of the internees are still alive and some of these and their families are still sensitive to the subject. The available material, thus, needs to be handled with extreme care. Individuals are easily offended. It should be made absolutely clear to the reader that this thesis does not attempt to justify or condemn either those interned or those who were in any way connected with the colonial administration and internment. The aim of the thesis is primarily to try and find out why it was necessary from the British Government's point of view for a relatively small number of individuals in Malta to be interned and secondly to discuss the machinery set up to manage the internment system - especially the 'Appeal Procedure’. The main source of evidence for this thesis is a substantial number of original files relating to the internees discovered quite accidentally during research in the Archives at the Palace, Valletta. These are not catalogued nor are they in any way processed and at the time of writing they are not available for public inspection. Indeed, this thesis has been written and is presented on the strict understanding that it will not be open to scholars until the files in question are made public or until the question of internment has become an entirely academic issue. I was not so fortunate with other possible sources of information. An attempt to consult records concerning internees, mentioned in a parliamentary question, to be stored at the former St. Philip Neri School, was unsuccessful. The records in question are in the custody of the Curator of the Museums and he refused to permit me to examine the work. Nevertheless, in spite of the relative scarcity of main source materials used, this thesis does throw new light on the way internment was organised and how it operated. The records I was so fortunate to find in the Palace Archives are, mainly, the individual files of internees used during the appeal process during which the Appeal Board examined each case and made its recommendations. Other files also relate to the working of the Appeal Board. The documents reveal very clearly the close links between the higher echelons of the civil service and the Lieutenant - Governor's office who all worked together and were directly responsible to the governor. The key figure was the Defence Security Officer who apart from collecting the necessary evidence to justify the internment of an· individual was also the one who ‘recommended’ in the appeal procedure whether or not an internee could be released. Obviously, the thesis does not give a complete picture of internment in Malta - certainly not enough evidence survives in these documents to enable one to assess whether in the circumstances of the war the authorities were justified in interning the individuals concerned or not. Obviously, too much vital documentation has been destroyed or in London but not even open to the public. It could, for example, be most enlightening to examine the files kept by the D.S. o. These undoubtedly would reveal the complex machinery by which he compiled and assessed information about individuals and the action taken in each case. It is extremely unlikely that these files survive and probably it is best that some details of history should remain relatively obscure. Internment falls into such a category!