Manwel and Fanny Attard Bezzina and the Labour Party
Peter Apap Bologna had interviewed Hadrian Attard Bezzina, one of three children born to the Attard Bezzinas, for a chapter of his book Memories II Here is most of the interview.
Manwel Bezzina joined Malta Wholesale Drug Company as a Medical Representative for ICI around 1970. He and his wife Fanny became great friends of the Apap Bologna family, and Michael Apap Bologna, Peter’s younger brother, was one of the witnesses at their daughter Nadya’s marriage to John Zarb
Manwel was born in Vittoriosa in 1921 into a family of dock workers. His family was staunchly Labour, in fact his father was on the committee of the Vittoriosa branch of the Party. Fanny was born in Birkirkara in 1925. Manwel and Fanny died in the late 1980s. They had three children, Charles, Hadrian, and Nadya.
Their younger son Hadrian, now sixty-one years old, shared some of his memories with me. Hadrian began by telling me about his parents’ devotion to the people of their constituency in
Zejtun, and that in 1990 the main hall of the Labour Party Club there was dedicated to them and renamed “Is-Sala Fanny u Manwel
Attard Bezzina.”, and quite rightly so for, after the Mintoff-Boffa split, the Malta Labour Party (now Mintoff’s Party) had no premises in Zejtun, and they met at the Attard Bezzina residence.
For the opening ceremony Mintoff had written an eulogy in which he had this to say: “I first met Manwel just when he had qualified as a pharmacist. He was already a convinced socialist… He ran a pharmacy in Zejtun, one of the poorest villages in Malta, where he found himself surrounded by workers and their families who had fled from Cottonera, abandoning their homes to escape the bombing. These workers had to walk to work at the Dockyard and back at the end of their shift. I ask myself how is it that always, and everywhere, in the history of humanity, the poor find comfort and help from those who are also in need?” This was in reference to the fact that Manwel’s pharmacy was soon out of business as he was in the habit of handing out prescriptions without charge.
I referred to the 1971 election, when Manwel was appointed Speaker of the House. I asked Hadrian for his memories of that first term of the Labour Government, and of his father’s term as Speaker.
“We had suffered a lot until then, especially during the Interdiction. My mother did her best to keep us out of politics, in fact at election times we were sent to our grandparents, and that was hard for us, you know, as the three of us were separated as we were sent to different grandmothers.
“There was the Question of the Church. My brother and I went to St Aloysius College… you can imagine what we went through there. Socially we were at a great disadvantage. Next to our home in Zejtun was the Jesus of Nazareth orphanage, where Bishop Galea also lived. Every Saturday my mother used to send us to the Jesus of Nazareth chapel for confession with tuppence, one for the box and one to buy wafers not used for hosts. Soon after my First Holy Communion I had a very bad experience. I went up to confession, and as soon as the priest saw me, he asked ‘Int fil-brigata? I asked what is brigata? he replied ‘Itlaqli l-barra minn hawn, ma’ rridx nagħtik assoluzzjoni’ [Get out of here. I will not give you absolution]. I was greatly shocked. I ran out in tears and rushed to tell my mum. I have to say that was the point when I began to abhorr (“aborrejt”)
the Church. “Another incident I remember was when my mum saw boys from Jesus of Nazareth spitting on my Dad’s car while on their way to school. When she asked why they were doing that, one of them replied that the car belonged to the devil. She went to their Mother Superior and told her about the incident. Her reply was ‘Would you recognise the boy?’ So she called the boy and my mother, instead of castigating the culprit, gave him some sweets and told him ‘Ħa pupu mur ilg˙ab’. When the boy left, she told the Mother Superior that these boys were being told to spit on the devil’s car, as they couldn’t make that up on their own. Incidentally a few years ago Nadya met this boy at a wedding and he told her about the incident, ‘Kont imwerwer meta għajtitli l-Madre, imma ħadt ir-ruħ meta ommok tagħtni lħelu u qaltli mur ilgħab.’ [I was terrified when the Mother Superior sent for me, and was greatly relieved when your mother gave me some sweets and told me to go and play].
“I could go on and on…for instance my father used to pick us up from school at St Joseph’s, Rabat after closing his pharmacy. That would be after 7pm so we used to stay after school doing our home work and studying. One day Sister Nelly, an Irish nun, asked my father, ‘How come they say you are a devil when you come all the way from Zejtun to pick up your children daily?’
“When my parents decided to get married, my father was already a Labour member of Parliament and my mother was active in the Party, Gonzi withheld the permission to marry in Church. Dad made an appointment to see the Archbishop and told him if you don’t issue this
permission, let it be on your conscience, but I am going to Sicily to get married in the Registry office. The Archbishop relented.”
I interjected “I believe Lino Spiteri was refused marriage in Church.”
“Yes he was obliged to marry in the sacristy, also Micallef Stafrace. And there was the question of burial. A friend of mine who lost a newborn baby was not allowed to bury the child in the family grave.”
“Once, at the time of year when the parish priest went round blessing all the houses (It-Tberik) our Archpriest at Zejtun, his name was Orlando Pantaleone, phoned my mum and said ‘Mrs Attard Bezzina, mhux aħjar tagħlaq il-bieb biex ma nidhirx li qed naqbżek li nbiriklek, biex ma nagħmlux
brutta figura?’ [Wouldn’t it be better if you kept your door shut, so I wouldn’t be seen to be bypassing your house, so as not to create a bad impression]. My mum replied that it would be he who would be causing a brutta figura if he went past her house without coming in. On the day, mum sent us to play at our neighbours the Portellis (Dr & Mrs Leo Portelli), who lived four doors away from us. I was delighted as their daughter Denise and I were great friends and loved playing together.
“What happened next I was not aware of at the time, as mum never told us what was going on when we were young, but later she told us all about it. A crowd of about eighty people had gathered outside our house and when the Archpriest went by, bypassing us, they clapped their hands. This was predictable as at that time such demonstrations were organised to shame Labourites. When the Archpriest arrived at Mrs Portelli’s he came in, said the
prayer and blessed the house. We were pleased that we were being blessed too, but as he was leaving he said to Mrs Portelli, ‘Ma kontx
naf li int refuġju tal-midinbin’ [I didn’t know that you were a refuge for sinners].”
I was shocked to hear this story and commented “Your Archpriest obviously hadn’t heard of
Refugium Peccatorum. It’s strange that my memories of those times are so different from yours, Hadrian. I used to admire Gonzi, and I was afraid of Mintoff. We didn’t hear about the abusive behaviour of the clergy. The Church then was all-powerful, and frankly we were all brain-washed at the time.”
“Coming back to the 1971 election, what do you recall?”
“One of the first things I remember about that time was that Mintoff asked my mother to go to England and bring Moyra back as she had left him. In those days it wouldn’t have been appropriate for the Prime Minister not to have his wife at his side. Moyra did come back with my mother. They were close friends.”
“Were you at all close to Mintoff?’
“Yes, he considered us family. The only wedding ceremony he ever attended was my parents’, when he was one of the witnesses. We met all the time at Peter’s Pool. He was keen on waterpolo, and used to ask me to throw the ball to him from the shore, he’d catch it and hurl it back. I spent a lot of time doing this.”
“How did your father get on as Speaker?”
“You know my father. He was strict and fair, not favouring Labour. One incident I remember was when Mintoff was arguing very aggressively and my father suspended him and asked him to leave the Chamber.”
“I don’t suppose that went down well with Mintoff.”
“Well, he bowed his head and left. He greatly respected my father. My father was fair, even with his constituents. You always knew where you stood with him. He would not exclude helping Nationalists when necessary.”
“Talking of Nationalists, George Borg Olivier was a good friend of my father’s and used to take refuge in his office when his colleagues were giving him a hard time. He had been expected to resign after losing the 1971 election. The statute of the Nationalist Party did not permit the removal of the leader. He had to resign. George had a lot of problems. There were a lot of things against him.
“At the time of the Republic vote, most of the Nationalists voted with Labour, except for George and a few others. At that time you could say that most of his party was against him. I was there that day, as my father had encouraged me to witness this historic event. After the vote, which had gone against the few opponents of the Republic, George came to my father’s office. He was very upset. The Speaker’s office looked out onto Piazza Regina, so you could see the Nationalist Party Club on the other side of the square. There was a huge poster image of George on the façade. After all he was still leader of the Party. He was looking out of the window and saw the poster being taken down. He could hardly believe it and was deeply hurt.”
“Well there was one thing that is unbelievable to today, and that is that the people eagerly awaited budget day, as at each budget there were pay rises, improvements in the social services, improving care for the handicapped, plans to build or extend social housing and removal of slums. From 1971 to 1974 was the best time. One thing I will say about Eddie Fenech Adami is that he was a socialist as he kept all Mintoff’s reforms and improved on them.
“When Labour was elected in 1971, my mother was on the committee which was set up to help the physically handicapped. On one occasion she arrived home greatly distressed and in tears. She had visited a family who needed help with their handicapped daughter. The mother took mum upstairs and there was the girl in a gallinar (chicken coop) with the chickens. Her life had been spent with the chickens as the parents were ashamed for people to know that they had a handicapped child. The child couldn’t speak and only made chicken noises. There was a lot of ignorance and superstition at the time.
This Committee organised Christmas parties for the children and arranged fund raising events. The first Christmas event on the radio was called “Ring Us Up”. Mummy and Moyra took the calls as they came in. This still goes on but that was the first. My mum knew the actor Frankie Howard, who had a house in Malta. He offered to organise a film premier at the Plaza. Of course that was a big boost for the Committee. They also organised prison visits on Christmas day. While my father was cooking the turkey mum was at the prison with Moyra and Lady Mamo.
“How do you feel about the violence that took hold, especially the shameful episode of Tal-Barrani, in your father’s own district?”
“We began to have problems after the 1976 election, because certain people of the Party became arrogant. The violence was perpetrated by the Zejtun gangs of Lorry Sant and Wistin Abela. About Tal-Barrani in1986, my father was very upset to see it happening in his own constituency. On that day during the incident, my father was endlessly on the phone with KMB. I know of at least one individual from those gangs who later joined the Nationalist Party”.
“KMB could have stopped it, surely?”
“No, he was helpless. KMB did not stand a chance, he was under the thumb of some of his cabinet colleagues. Mintoff had put him there but it was a big mistake. On one occasion Lorry Sant turned on him and shouted don’t tell me what to do as you count for nothing, you are zero. KMB was unable to rein him in.
“In one incident, Sant had obtained some photos of Dom swimming with a naked lady and showed them to him in Parliament trying to embarrass him. It was hushed up, but that was Lorry Sant when he started falling out with Mintoff.”
“There’s not much I can tell you about Karmenu (KMB). He was very reserved, so there are not many stories about him, he was quite boring in fact. He was very kind-hearted. I knew somebody who worked for him who told me he used to send his Christmas pay cheque to charity. He was that sort of person. When he became PM he had an old VW Beetle and people felt sorry for him. I know somebody who gave it a complete overhaul, refurbishing the engine, everything. He had no hobbies, and was not a spender. He usually drove himself, except for State occasions. Mintoff was a bit like that too, I remember him driving an Austin Princess, but he did have a driver, Pawlu Gafà, a very nice man who was a great friend of dad’s. He was with Dom all his life and his whole family was devoted to Mintoff. He died long before Mintoff. One thing I remember was that he would sometimes arrive with a bag of meat for my father. I discovered it was bull’s testicles, which my father loved. He fried them in garlic and wine. He loved cooking, we all do.
I said to Hadrian: “One of Mintoff’s ministers who I knew quite well was Joe (Guzè in politics) Cassar. We had a mutual friend Bart Attard of Panta Lesco. We used to meet at the bar of the Casino. One evening Joe told me he was going to stand for Parliament. I was surprised as I had not realised he was a politician and rather naively asked him ‘Which Party?’ He was greatly offended, but I just had no idea and did not mean to offend him.”
Well, I must tell you this. My father did not get elected at the 1971 election. This is what happened: Mintoff was always urging my father to get Party members to stand. Joe Cassar was a Party member and had been a candidate before, but his wife Jane who was very religious convinced him not to stand while there was the dispute with the Church. My father convinced him to stand in 1971, and he stood for the same district as my father. He was a well-known lawyer and popular in Zurrieq and Mqabba which were in the same district with Zejtun. Joe got elected and my father didn’t. He had shot himself in the foot.
“Dad was elected in the 1976 election, but he was very disappointed when Mintoff did not make him a Minister, and when Mintoff offered to send him as Ambassador to Germany, he accepted. He was also non-resident Ambassador to several North European countries. He resigned in 1981. Before that election, Mintoff sent for him. Dad asked me to drive him to Castille (he had stopped driving some years earlier). Mintoff received us warmly, ‘Hawn Lel, x’għandna? Bagħatt għalik biex terġa toħroġ’ [Hi Lel, how are you? I’ve sent for you to stand again]. Surprised, I blurted out
‘X’jagħmel! Ma joħroġ xejn!’ Dom glared at me: ‘Tinda˙alx int!’ [You don’t interfere]. Dad said no, he was out of it now, he would help if he could, but nothing more.”