from Ken Tarbuck (Oxford)
On February 18th, the First Year Studonts, Ruskin College, Oxford, adopted a statement on tho question of Malta, Addressed to the Secret— ary of State, Duncan Sandys, the statement begins: "Yo learn with utmost regret and concern, through the medium of tho pross as regards goneral information and from a Maltese brother student for more specific details that, whilst you have decided as spokesman of the British Government, to impose independence on Ilalta by May of this yoar, you are completely ignoring the repeated appeals of the Malta Labour Movement for free and democratic clections to bo held bofore independencoe.."
The statement outlines the anti-domocratic rolo of the island's Catholic Hicrarchywhich spares no cffort to intorfore in elections and mount a general campaign against the Maltese Labour Party. The students conclude by calling upon Sandys to allow the Maltese people to be allowed to make up their owm minds as per the proposals of the Maltese Labour Party. The statemont was circulated to the press.