Foundation
The Party was formed in 1921, in time for the first elections to the Legislative Assembly, from the merger of Strickland's Anglo-Maltese Party and the Maltese Constitutional Party of Augustus Bartolo, editor of the Malta Chronicle. The predecessor parties had just been founded and the choice to merge was strategic: they were both pro-British and, united, they stood a better chance against the Nationalists.
Despite this, the merger still came as a surprise as there were some personality difference. Strickland had been Principal Government Secretary who had become unpopular for raising taxes through Orders in Council, something of which Bartolo was highly critical. It was rumoured that Strickland threatened Bartolo that he would use his personal wealth to create a paper that would kill off the Chronicle if the merger did not come about. Strickland was to make the threat true years later with the creation of Progress Press and the publication of the dailies Il-Berqa (in Maltese) and the Times of Malta which did, eventually, kill off the Chronicle.
Read more about this topic: Constitutional Party (Malta)
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