John J Cole Malta's post War Minister for Emigration interviewed by Barry York 1984

I recorded this 80 minute interview with John J Cole (1915-2000) in September 1984. Mr Cole was a leading figure in the Maltese Prospective Emigrants' Organisation (MPEO) in Malta after World War Two. He entered politics with the Malta Labour Party and was elected to parliament in 1947. He was appointed Minister for Emigration.

During his time as Minister, the Malta-Australia Assisted Passage Agreement was successfully negotiated in 1948 between the Maltese and Australian governments. Many thousands of Maltese migrated to Australia under this scheme in the 1950s and 1960s.

In 1958, Mr Cole migrated to Melbourne, Australia, with his family.

In the interview, he talks about the MPEO and his years as Minister for Emigration.

I recorded this interview on a GE portable cassette recorder, which is all I could afford in 1984 as a postgraduate research student on an award whose payment was below the poverty line. The audio quality is audible but not great. I wish I had used better equipment. Also, I was just starting out in the oral history field and my interview technique and questioning, though well prepared, was not as good as it could have been.

Years later, in 1997, I again recorded Mr Cole's story; this time for the National Library of Australia which used state-of-the-art recording equipment. The interview for the National Library is far more substantial and detailed and the audio quality is excellent. It was recorded over a few sessions at Mr Cole's home in Box Hill, Melbourne, and runs for more than five hours.

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