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10 December - Human Rights Day
Joseph De Piro’s justice
Joseph De Piro’s leading virtue was undoubtedly
his charity. But a central dimension of this
virtue was certainly his justice.
1.1 The employees at the Major Seminary,
Mdina, Malta
It seemed that the rectors of the Maltese Major
Seminary had the duty to present to the
Archbishop of Malta a yearly report about the
different aspects of the life of the Seminary.
The Servant of God presented the one for the
scholastic year 1919-20 on 27th August 1920.
Having analysed the academic aspect, Rector De
Piro presented the servants’ situation, “12. All
through the year the servants’ contribution has
been quite satisfactory. We therefore ask your
Excellency to revise their salaries, which is
certainly not enough for today’s needs.”
1.2 Member of the
National Assembly - justice with all the Maltese
In 1918, Dr. Filippo
Sceberras started a national movement for
greater constitutional liberties in Malta.
Associations in Malta and Gozo were invited to
send delegates to a National Assembly. The 270
delegates were chosen from different walks of
life. Mgr De Piro was nominated as one of the
four representatives of the Cathedral Chapter
and the clergy.
The National Assembly had its first meeting on
25th February 1919 and a proposal for a greater
autonomy in local affairs was accepted. This
proposal, which met with half-hearted enthusiasm
by the British Colonial Authorities, served to
raise expectations among the general Maltese
population.
1.3 The Sette Giugno Riots
1.3.1 Saturday, 7 June1919 - justice with the
unemployed and the other poor Maltese
The second meeting of the National Assembly was
held on Saturday, 7th June 1919, at the Giovine
Malta, Valletta and at a time when there was a
considerable tension on the Island owing to the
widespread unemployment. A fortuitous spark
turned the mass of people who went to Valletta
on that fateful day into a riotous mob. The
Maltese policemen could not control them and the
British soldiers who were called up in their
stead lost their heads and fired on the unarmed
rioters. Four Maltese men died from gunshot
wounds that day, with a further two dying in the
following days. All this took place while the
National Assembly was discussing a proposal to
select a Central Commission to draft a
constitution for Malta. Mgr De Piro in his
capacity of Dean of the Cathedral Chapter was
chosen as the representative of the Island’s
Cathedral Chapter and clergy among the fifteen
representatives of the Central Commission.
The second meeting of the National Assembly was
dramatically interrupted when the crowd brought
one of the above mentioned wounded men into the
Giovine Malta. Those who entered the hall asked
the delegates to intervene on their behalf with
the British Government. Out of the many members
present for the second meeting only a few
remained to give a hand: Advocate A. Caruana
Gatto, Advocate S. Vella, Fr Nerik Dandria,
Councillor G. Vassallo, Saviour Zammit Hammet …
and Mgr Joseph De Piro. These ran the streets of
Valletta, trying to calm down the mob. An
Inquest Commission was set up by the Government
in order to establish the facts of that sad
event. This was made up of Judge A. Parnis LLD,
as President; Dr M. Debono LLD; Magistrate L.
Camilleri LLD; Col E.W.S. Broke CMG, DSO; and
Lieut., Col., W. T. Bromfield. Mgr De Piro was
called to give his testimony on 21st and 26th
August 1919. Here are the facts as reported by
him, and some of the others who accompanied him:
Judge A. Parnis told De Piro, “Your name has
been mentioned by many witnesses. Can you,
please, tell me what you saw on Saturday, 7th
June and Sunday, 8th June?”
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De Piro replied “I was present at the meeting of
the National Assembly as Delegate of the
Cathedral Chapter. After the discussion had
lasted an hour and a half, someone entered the
hall of the ‘Giovine Malta Club’ where the
Assembly was holding the meeting. The person who
came in showed us a handkerchief stained with
blood and said: ‘See what they have done to us;
you must protect us, you must protect us’. After
this, order was restored and the meeting was
closed. I was asked to find some other members
of the Assembly so that we might try to restore
peace among the people. I accepted the request.
We were six or seven. We tried to find out by
telephone where to locate Mr. Robertson, the
Lieutenant Governor, and we were informed that
he was in the office of the Commissioner of
Police. We rang up the Assistant Commissioner of
police to give us police protection, to
accompany us to the police station; but no help
was forth¬coming.”
Mgr De Piro continued: “We went on our own and
tried to enter the Law Courts by the back door
in Strada Stretta. Then we could reach the
police station, but we did not succeed. We tried
again and from Strada Stretta we went on to
Strada S. Giovanni, but as we reached Strada
Reale we heard a shot. So we turned back to the
Club, the ‘Giovine Malta’. Later we learnt that
those were shots fired accidentally by soldiers
in the Police Station.”
Major General Hunter Blair received the
following information: “A telephone message from
the Lieutenant Governor who was at the police
station informed me that the Delegation wished
to see me at my home. I said ‘I am prepared to
receive them’. I later got another telephone
message telling me the Delegation were on their
way to me. However, the Delegates did not manage
to make their way through the crowds, and so
they turned back to the police station.”
Mgr De Piro continued, “In the Club, the
‘Giovine Malta’, we found the Assistant
Commissioner of Police waiting for us, and he
accompanied us to the police station.”
The Lt. Governor, Mr. Robertson, was at the Law
Courts. So they went through Strada S. Lucia and
Strada Reale to enter the Courts. Mgr De Piro
omitted in his evidence what occurred there.
Advocate Caruana Gatto relates: “The first time
we tried to enter the Law Courts, people in the
crowd were unfriendly towards us, especially
towards Mgr De Piro, and shouted: ‘You are to
blame for all this!’. Mgr De Piro replied:
‘Well, well. We are trying to save you, and you
are blaming us!’ ”
At the end of his evidence, Monsignor was asked
many questions. One of these was, “Did not
someone swear at you?” Mgr De Piro answered all
the questions, but according to Alexander
Bonnici, the biographer, he gave no importance
to the above. He did not want to harm his
people, feeling that the impatient crowd was not
inciting an attack on the clergy. Words, said in
anger by persons in a frustrated crowd and
addressed to him as a priest, were ignored and
omitted in his evidence. However, later, on 9th
June, there were evident signs of
anti-clericalism in the angry mob. Mgr De Piro’s
equanimity in his evidence again revealed his
integrity.
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“Words, said in anger by
persons in a frustrated crowd and addressed
to him as a priest, were ignored and omitted
in his evidence.” |
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Mgr De Piro continued: “We spoke to the Lt.
Governor , asking him to withdraw troops from
the streets, and we guaranteed that the people
would be pacified. Robertson was not fully
convinced, and several times he asked us the
same question: ‘Were we really able to guarantee
a peaceful outcome?’ We answered that it was
necessary for us to obtain permission to address
the crowd from one of the windows of the Law
Courts. This was granted.... Advocate Caruana
Gatto spoke to the crowd, relating what had
passed between us and the Lt. Governor. He asked
the people to disperse, thus helping us as
mediators to keep our word to the Lt. Governor.
The crowd showed signs of co-operation, and we
thought we had succeeded in our task. This,
however, was not yet to be. The crowd first
insisted on the soldiers leaving the Law Courts.
This request was passed on to Mr. Robertson, who
promised to order all soldiers back to their
barracks . . . The excited crowd demanded more
than the departure of soldiers from the Law
Courts and in loud voices they claimed that
justice be meted out to them.”
In his evidence, Fr Enrico Dandria, one of the
members of the Delegation, said, “We promised
them that whoever had been guilty of the
shedding of blood on that day would be
punished.”
Gatto affirmed the same: “We spoke to the crowd
and assured them that those responsible for
mistakes made on that day would be punished. We
advised the crowd to disperse. Mgr De Piro,
Advocate Vella and myself felt they were
satisfied and the crowd started to disperse,
when unfortunately at that moment, a group of
Royal Marines arrived, and the crowd was
infuriated again.”
De Piro added that it took two and a half hours
to calm down the crowd, because the Marines
appeared to be heading towards the Law Courts.
Whistling and booing became tumultuous and it
was feared shooting would start again if the
people lost their control. Fortunately this did
not ensue. De Piro stated that the Delegation
remained there until all the Marines had left
the Law Courts.
This statement tallies with Fr Enrico Dandria’s
evidence, “We went out and told the crowd to
promise not to molest the Marines; and we told
the Marines to take no notice of the whistling,
while they were walking out of the Courts. They
felt reassured by our words, and we accompanied
them as far as St. John’s Church.
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