l!ii!i;|ilii!i!i!l|F!"■i^t■V' ! : ■ ■ - m i ^ ]WV^ ^.tfOJIWDJO'^ ^«i/0JnV3J0'^ \WEUNIVER% .vWSANCElfj> o ■ 8 ^^^s--^ . O ^TiigONVSOl^ "^/SaHAINH 3\\V ^«i/0JnVDJO>^ ^^OJIIVDJO^ i ^■ o >: So fic: ^ < ec C-) oa r— •— i r^ k>-< :^ '55> ^WEUNIVERf \;lOSANCElfj> &Aav88n-^^'^' I-3WV -< ^;^iLIBRARYQ/r ^^^l•lIBRARYQ/^ \WEUNIVER5'/^ ^lOSANCElfj> ^ ^OFCAllFOfi»^ ^OFCAIIFO/?;!^ ^WEUNIVERS/A S^ aWEUNIVERJ//. v^lOSANCElfXvK o ^^lUBRARYO^^ ^HIBRARYQr^ ^, ^„,^ ^J:7i30Nvsm^ %a3AiNn3UV^ %ojnv3jo^ ^.tojiivdjo^ Ky V/5a3AIN(l-3V\v IBRARYQa, ^^\l■LIBRARYQ^^ %OJnVDJO^ ^WEUKIVER% o Aavaani^ o svlOSANCElfj> AINn-3WV ■ W.lllBRARYQ^ .^l-LIBRARYQ^^ ^Tas' nd(f)OU 6', liu fKaT6(TT0p.0l ^ap^dpov rroTap-oi) poat Kapni(ov(riv avofi&pov OTTOV KoXKlCTTtVOflfVa Uitpia p,ovaeio5 eSpa (Ttpva tCKiTVi 0\vfinov %1 (Ktiv ayt pt, Bpopitf Bpopit, TTpo^aKxr^lt daip,ov tKtl XdpiTtS, IKtl TTodoS txtl Sf ^dK)(ai(n dtpis 6pyiii(tiv Euripides. Bacchcc 400. 75 c y> c« Idalian Aphrodite beautiful. Fresh as the foam, new-bathed in Paphian wells, 3 With rosy slender fingers backward drew From her warm brows and bosom her deep hair Ambrosial, golden round her lucid throat And shoulder ; from the violets her light foot Shone rosy-white, and o'er her rounded form Between the shadows of the vine branches Floated the glowing sunlight, as she moved. Tennyson. Oenone. o8o.'?65 PREFACE. NOT many years ago a newly appointed High Commis- sioner of Cyprus was received by the Secretary of State for the Colonies before leaving England to take up his duties. " There are in Cyprus I believe," said the Secretary of State, "a number of interesting and valuable antiquities. I trust that you will see that they are adequately preserved and cared for. I wish you a successful tour of office. Good-bye." It is in the hope that the interest in Cyprus taken by the general public may be somewhat less limited than that dis- played by the responsible minister in the incident just recorded that I have written this book. My self-imposed task has been to describe only the somewhat dull and unromantic details of administration, and readers who desire to learn something of the interesting and valuable antiquities, or of the scenery of this beautiful island or the manners and customs of its inhabitants, must look elsewhere. For information about the antiquities, the delightful pages of Cesnola's monu- mental work should be consulted, and some idea of the romantic charm of the island and its beautiful scenery may be gleaned from Mr. Mallock's well-known book, An Enchanted Island. A veritable mine of information is contained in Messrs. Lukach and Jardine's Handbook of Cyprus, which discourses charmingly on all subjects, from the ancient history, geological formation, and ornithology of the island to the price of eggs, hotel charges, and the prevalence of fleas. In addition to such sources of information, a report is issued annually and presented to both Houses of Parhament, containing much useful information regarding the finance, trade, and general progress of the island. I know of no pubhcation however which gives a connected account of British administration in Cyprus, or describes the conditions under which we have occupied it since 1878 and con- tinue to hold it. 7 8 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE As a nation we pride ourselves on our liberal institutions and democratic form of Government. But do we sufficiently realize that democracy has its responsibiUties as well as its privileges ? We boast of our Empire on which the sun never sets, but how many of us take the trouble to acquaint ourselves with the manner in which the component parts of that Empire are administered, or even where a large number of them are situated ? Eminent persons who should be well-informed have asked me questions about Cyprus which reveal quite plainly the fact that they confuse it with Crete : others have shown complete ignorance of the most elementary facts con- nected with the island. When well-informed persons display such lack of knowledge, how much can one expect the mass of the community to know or care ? Is it right to leave the affairs of an island with a quarter of a million inhabitants to the tender mercies of a Government Department, busy with a couple of score of other communities and their problems, and to ask no questions, offer no criticisms ? If this small book succeeds in inducing anyone to ponder over the problems of Cyprus, or the system of Crown Colony adminis- tration in general, it will have fulfilled its purpose. But if by chance it goes further and arouses in anyone who reads it a feeling that England in its treatment of Cyprus since 1878 has in any way failed in the generosity and liberality expected of a Great Power in dealing with its dependencies, surely there is a dutj' imposed on such a person to urge that we should set our house in order, and make good without delay any short- coming of which we may have been guilty in the past ? We are fond of representing ourselves as the champions of small nationalities and peoples, and we boast of our hatred of injustice, oppression, and illiberality in any form. It behoves us, therefore, to take especial care that in our relations with our dependencies our attitude and actions should be above reproach, and that we have nothing on our conscience for which we can be justly condemned in the eyes of civihzation. C. W. J. O. CONTENTS. CHAPTER TAGE I. INTRODUCTION - - - - - II II. HISTORY TO THE BRITISH OCCUPATION - - I9 III. THE CYPRUS CONVENTION - - "35 IV. THE TRIBUTE - - - - - 46 V. ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEMS AND REFORMS - 65 VI. TAXATION AND FINANCE - - - "79 VII. THE CONSTITUTION AND LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL - 95 VIII. THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM - - - - II4 IX. EDUCATION- - - - - - 121 X. FORESTS ------ 136 XI. AGRICULTURE - - - - - 142 XII. HARBOURS, RAILWAYS, AND COMMUNICATIONS - 152 XIII. THE HELLENIC IDEA - - - . 160 XIV. ANNEXATION IN I914 : CONCLUDING REMARKS - 1/2 APPENDIX I. - - - - - 184 APPENDIX II. - - - - - 186 MAP OF CYPRUS AND SURROUNDING COUNTRIES CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. THE island of Cyprus lies in a secluded corner of the Eastern Mediterranean, stretching out a long finger towards the angle where the coast of Asia Minor, running east and west, meets the Syrian coast-Hne running north and south. The picturesque range of hills fringing its northern shores looks across at the towering heights of the Taurus mountains which skirt the Cilician coast ; and on a clear day of early spring, when a brilliant sun shines in a cloudless sky, and the snow covered mountains stand out dazzHng white against the azure background, an observer looking across the blue expanse which separates him from the opposite coast might well be deceived into imagining himself on the shore of some beautiful lake ; yet more than forty miles of sea separates Cyprus from the mainland. To the east, south, and west nothing is visible but a great expanse of sea, though it is said that on very clear days the Syrian coast, sixty miles away, can be discerned as a faint hne on the eastern horizon. Egypt lies two hundred and thirty miles to the south, whilst west- ward there is no land nearer than Crete and the yEgean islands, nearly two hundred miles away. Geographically, Cyprus belongs to the Asiatic continent ; ethnologically and climatically it may claim kinship with both Europe and Asia. The short winter lasting from December to February is not unlike the same season in Sicily and Southern Europe generally. At times a fierce wind sweeps down from the North, bringing with it an icy blast from the Taurus snows ; and in the island itself the mountains, which rise to a height of more than six thousand feet, are under snow 12 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE for some months, and a keen wind is carried from them to the plain below. Even during the winter months, however, though the nights are cold the days are warmed by bright sunshine, and fires are hardly necessary except in the evenings and early mornings. By late February or early March spring has already set in, and the island is carpeted with a wealth of wild flowers. Fields of yellow daisies, red tuhps, purple irises, scarlet gladioli, white narcissus, and many coloured anemones meet the eye everywhere, and by the end of March the landscape is green with young barley, dotted with scarlet poppies and brought into vivid relief by stretches here and there of bare, uncultivated land or brown fields under plough, awaiting the sowing of later crops. The winter rains which fall in November and December soften the baked ground, and enable the farmer to plough and sow his fields. In March and April showers fall at intervals and refresh the young crops now well above ground, and fill out the grain. By the end of April the fields of barley have ripened into j^ellow, though the wheat is still green. Soon reaping begins under a hot sun and clear sky ; the fields are full of men, women, and children, whose bright coloured garments — red, saffron, violet, brown, pale pink — against the background of yellow corn, as they reap, form a picture of singular fas- cination. By June the sun's rays have gathered force and a hot wind begins to blow like a blast from a furnace. The bare fields assume a dull, monotonous yellow-brown appear- ance, and are baked and scorched by the pitiless sun. The broad treeless plains lose any resemblance they may have had to a European scene, and disclose their kinship with Asia and the East. The heat is reminiscent only of the tropics — of the plains of India and the broad expanse of the Soudan. Fortunate are the dwellers in the hill villages, which nestle in well-watered valleys on the slopes of the great Troodos range, cool in their elevation of three, four, and even five thousand feet above sea level. If the villagers were obliged to endure the rigour of winter snow and ice, they can now INTRODUCTION 13 enjoy the cool mountain air and look down pityingly on their kinsfolk in the scorched plains below, amidst vvhirhng clouds of dust or the still more dreadful calm of a burning summer day without even a breeze to stir the heavy atmosphere. Through all the heat of the early summer months, the farmers are threshing their corn on the open threshing floors outside the villages, winnowing it in the evening breeze, and, when the Government tithe has been measured and removed, taking the remainder on donkeys or in carts to their own houses and the merchants' stores. In autumn comes the gathering of the carob bean and the olive, and in the foothills the terraced vineyards are heavy with clustering grapes. By mid-October, the sweltering heat of the past few months in the plains has begun to abate and the nights are cool once more, but the parched soil and scorched vegeta- tion await the coming of the winter rains. Soon clouds begin to bank up, only to disappear in tantalizing fashion again and again just at the moment when they seem to be on the point of bursting and drenching the thirsty earth with longed-for rain. But at last it comes ; at first running off the baked earth in a thousand tiny rivulets till the crust is softened and the soil sucks up the moisture, and little blades of grass begin to peep out and change the face of the bare and colourless plain. Soon the fields are dotted with the figures of peasants in their loose black breeches and coloured shirts, walking behind primitive wooden ploughs drawn by a pair of somewhat attenuated oxen, or perhaps an ox and an ass yoked together. And so throughout the winter months of December and January, amidst alternations of refreshing rain and grey skies, and bright sunshine and blue skies, the work of ploughing and preparing the fields and of sowing for the next harvest goes on incessantly until spring comes again with its wealth of fresh green and brilliant colour, and Nature renews herself once more. There is nothing of tlie vicux monde qui s'enniiie about Cyprus village life, although the place of Cyprus in history 14 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE belongs to a misty and romantic past rather than to the bust- ling and prosaic present. There are no cities, no industrial centres where man has disfigured the fair face of Nature with hideous factory chimneys and polluted the air with columns of black smoke. The Turkish and the Greek elements of which the population is composed Uve apart, in the towns in separate quarters, in the country in separate villages. The vast majority of the people are peasant farmers, for agri- culture is practically the sole industry ; and they are small farmers indeed, for the average holding is but half an acre. Each village is a little entity of its own ; it elects its own Mukhtar or headman every two years, and this functionary is usually somewhat of a despot, often the richest and most powerful man in the community. Except in the very small villages each has its own school and its own church or mosque. Indeed, the first thing that strikes the traveller in the districts inhabited mainly by the Orthodox Christian element is the large and somewhat pretentious stone church in the centre of each village, rising out of the cluster of little dull-coloured, sun-baked mud houses ; for however poor a village may be — and some are poor indeed — the inhabitants invariably con- tribute sufficient funds to build themselves a church, giving the labour themselves, fetching the stone in their own carts — sometimes from a considerable distance — and taking a pride in erecting a building which may be deemed fit for their spiritual needs. There is a charm and simplicity about the peasantry of every country, and in addition to this there is a gaiety and joie de vivre in those fortunate regions of southern Europe, where all the year round the sun shines in a clear, blue sky, and the days are hot without being oppressive. Village hfe in Cyprus, devoted as it is entirely to agriculture, runs smoothly year by year, and probably does not differ very greatly from what it has been for centuries past. Work in the fields through- out the year is fairly constant but never strenuous ; harvest time is busy, but it is then, in those beautiful May days, INTRODUCTION 15 that the sun shines most brightly in the clear sky and the air is soft and spring-like and the nights warm. It is good to see the brightly clad figures of the reapers in the fields, and to hear their laughter and the merry sound of their voices ; when night comes the villager will sleep beside the com stack, piled high near the threshing floor, under a sky studded with myriads of stars. In ordinary times the inhabitants of every village will gather towards sunset outside the little cafes, and sit there smoking and gossiping and sipping coffee till long after night has fallen. But the great days are Sundays and Saints' Days, or, in the case of the Turkish villages, Fridays and Festivals. Let us, for example, pay a visit in Greek Easter-time to one of the villages on the northern coast that looks across to the opposite coast of Asia Minor. It lies in a sheltered valley a little way up the range of hills, looking down on the sea breaking lazily against a rocky coast. A stream runs sparkling beside the steep main street, and is led off by a score of tiny irrigation channels into the terraced fruit orchards and vine- yards below. The sun sets ; the church bells toll, and the villagers flock to the little church to attend the Good Friday service. Inside is a coffin, decked with flowers, and the church is packed with peasants bearing in their hands tall yellow candles which they obtain from a tray at the entrance and light from their neighbour's. One by one they approach the coffin, and, reverently kneeling before it, bend and kiss it, and then pass on and mingle again with the crowd. The priest drones in a monotonous, sing-song voice, pausing every now and then for the responses ; the crowd wears an aspect of reverence and solemnity, and towards midnight begins to melt away, the people returning in silence to their homes. On Sunday morning the village is astir early, every one dressed in their best ; a blue and white flag floats from the church, and most of the houses and shops are decorated with flags and banners. The cake and sweet sellers' stalls are piled high with delicacies of every kind, and the cafe i6 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE keepers have set out all available tables and chairs in front of their cafes, and have made ready an ample supply of coffee and wine. After church, the day is given over to merriment and rejoicing. There are processions, dancing, feasting, speech-making, and music ; men, women, and children flock in from the outlying villages and join in the festivities. Large quantities of the rough wine of the island are consumed, and by nightfall, perhaps, some quarrelHng or brawling takes place outside the caf^s ; but, for the most part, the crowd is merry and good-humoured, and intent on enjoying their Easter holiday. In the Turkish villages very similar scenes may be observed at Bairam after the long fast of Ramadan, or on one of the other Mahomedan festival days. Here is a Turkish village which lies in a picturesque valley amongst the lower slopes of the mountain range which rises from the central plains, and culminates in the great peak of Mount Olympus. It looks down on to the flat, treeless plain below, green with young barley in the spring, with here and there patches of red-brown earth where a field has been ploughed for a late crop, and across this to the graceful contour of the Northern range, clear cut against the sky. To the left is a wide, sweeping bay in which a narrow rim of yellow beach lies sharply defined against the background of dark-blue sea, on which the white sails of a few fishing boats stand out clearly, the whole picture lit by the brilHant sun of a clear spring morning. The village itself is a maze of orange groves, for it is famous for its oranges, and fruit growing is its staple industry. The sound of running water is to be heard everywhere, and the hum of insects among the orange trees. Little narrow lanes, bordered by the high walls of sun-baked brick which enclose the orange plantations, wander tortuously up the hillside on wliich the village lies, and lead to the open space where the bazaars are situated and the shopkeepers display their wares. On a slight eminence, rising from the tangle of houses, stands the mosque with its graceful minaret overlooking the town. INTRODUCTION 17 The day being a Mahomedan festival, the streets are full of holiday makers who have donned their gayest costumes, many of them wearing flowers pinned to their fezzes. In a red-tiled, two-storied house of lath and plaster, a venerable old Turkish gentleman, in black frock coat, dark trousers, elastic-sided boots, and red fez, is entertaining visitors who have called in accordance with custom to pay their respects on this day of festival. Coffee and cigarettes are brought in on a tray by a youth clad in loose, baggy, white breeches, pale blue stockings with ornamental red designs, shirt of pale primrose, and a richly embroidered waistcoat. On another tray are sweets, and apricots in syrup — for the Turk has a sweet tooth — which are handed round to the guests, for each of whom a long silver fork is provided, with which he helps himself to the fruit. The host sits on a divan, smoking a cigarette and discussing with his guests all the local news — the prospects of next season's fruit crop, the profit to be made from the one recently placed on the market, the weather, neighbours' affairs, and all such matters of local interest. In the narrow lanes the figure of a Turkish lady is seen occasionally, clad in a loose gown of dark plum colour or black, her face completely hidden by the yashmak, and only a pair of beady black eyes showing. As night falls the shops in the bazaars are lit up, the musicians play merry jigs outside the cafes, little coloured lanterns are hung in gay festoons from the minaret to the roof of the mosque, and here and there a group of people may be seen sitting round a venerable old Turk who is telling one of those wonderful tales in which all Orientals delight ; the story is followed with breathless interest, its witticisms greeted with shouts of laughter and rounds of applause. Such are typical scenes of Cyprus village life. Life in the three or four coast towns differs little from it, in spite of the comparative sophistication of which electric light and cinema shows are the outward and visible signs. There is, of course, more luxury and less simplicity than in the villages, more B i8 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE graduation of the social scale, more display and extravagance on the one hand, more squalor and poverty on the other. The event of the week is the arrival of the weekly mail steamer from Egypt. The pier is crowded with baskets of fruit, sacks of potatoes, casks of wine, and other local produce awaiting shipment to Egypt, whilst close to the beach is a penfold of attenuated sheep destined for the Alexandria market, and possibly a few oxen and swine. There is much bustle and stir when the steamer is signalled, and the shipping agents hurry to the pier and everywhere there is eager curiosity to hear what news the mail will bring. In a short time the steamer is hard at work discharging cargo and taking in the live stock and the produce ready for ship- ment, and the work often continues till far into the night ; but at last it is completed, and as the smoke of the departing steamer is seen on the horizon, the town settles down once more to its normal life, and awaits the return of the steamer the following week, when the same scenes will be enacted in the same manner, with only trifling variations according to the season of the year. Village life in Cyprus in the twentieth century differs little in all probability from what it has been for the last three thousand years. The sun-baked mud houses, the paved threshing floors, the primitive agricultural implements, all recall the shadowy past, the days of the earliest civiHzation. The wooden plough, with its pointed metal shaft, is of the same pattern as those which are to be seen portrayed on the walls of ancient Egyptian temples, and similar ones must have been in use for thousands of years. Many of the customs and superstitions of the Cypriot peasants are palpable legacies from the remote past when their ancestors worshipped at the temples of Isis or Aphrodite. It is a curious reflection that the descendants of the rude savages who inhabited Britain when Cyprus stood in the forefront of civiHzation should, after the lapse of so many centuries, have come from across the seas to aid Cyprus to rise from its long sleep, and regain some at least of its former prosperity. CHAPTER 11. HISTORY TO THE BRITISH OCCUPATION. CYPRUS at the present day lies in a peaceful backwater, _ almost out of earshot of the ceaseless hum of the busy world, and removed from the great arteries of commerce along which flows the trade of the world. Rusticns expectat dum defluit amnis. Yet, in the early days of civilization, Cyprus occupied a vantage ground which was only too readily appre- ciated by the nations which fought for supremacy all round her, and it is merely the shifting of the centre of gravity of civiUza- tion further west which has left the httle island stranded and lonely. Its early history is lost in the mists of antiquity, but the island attained a celebrity all its own in the annals of mythology. It was from the waves that beat upon the coast at Paphos that Aphrodite, the foam-born goddess, sprang ; and although the noble altars erected for her worship have long since vanished from those shores, you shall see their site to this day. ^ S'apa Kinrpov iKave (/jiXo/i/ici^f)? Acppobirrj fV tIa(J)ov' fv6a de ol Ttfxivos (Sunos re 6vi]eis' ' So we read in Homer. But long before this, Cyprus was visited by the Phoenicians, who established trading stations on her coasts and were the first to work the famous copper mines which are supposed by some to have given the island its name j and before the Phcenicians, again, Cyprus had been invaded and conquered by the Egyptians. This event took place in the fifteenth century before the Christian era, during • So she to Cyprus came, laughter-loving Aphrodite. To Paphos ; there she has a shrine and an altar fragrant with incense. Odyssey VIII., 362 19 20 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE the reign of Thothmes III., of the eighteenth dynasty, and is the first positive infonnation we possess as to the early history of the island. When we enquire who were the inhabitants found by the Egyptians when they conquered the island, we are confronted by a difficult problem. In the Old Testament we find frequent references to Kittim, or Chittim, and the Jewish historian Josephus identifies this with the island of Cyprus. The ancient Phoenician settlement which played a great part in the subsequent history of Cyprus, and close to which was built the modern town of Larnaca, was called Citium, or Kitium, and the name survives to this day in the title of the bishop of the diocese. In the tenth chapter of Genesis we find Kittim mentioned as one of the sons of Javan. We are justified, therefore, in supposing that the race found in the island when the Egyptians invaded it in the fifteenth century were of Javanian, that is to say, of Ionian, origin. This conclusion has been fortified by the discovery in the island of inscriptions in Cyprian characters which bear a striking resemblance to the old Lycian script : its decipherment has proved that this language is of Aryan or Indo-Germanic and not of Semitic origin. Examination shows that the words which the Cyprian characters express are much the same as those used by the early Greeks, and we may conclude that it comes from the same parent stock as that of Greece, though the characters have Httle or no resemblance to Greek characters, which are usually believed to be of Phoenician origin. We may presume then that long before the Egyptian conquest Cyprus was colonized by settlers of Aryan origin coming from the direction of Phrygia, though we have no guide as to the aborigines whom these settlers displaced or inter- married with. The traces of the Egyptian conquest are scanty, and it seems to have left but little impress on the island ; it was probably limited to the payment of tribute and the acknow- ledgment of dependence. During the reign of Rameses III. HISTORY TO THE BRITISH OCCUPATION 21 the Cypriots appear to have joined the Phoenicians in an unsuccessful attempt to throw off the yoke of Egypt ; but as the years passed the power of Egypt abroad began to wane, whilst Phoenicia gradually rose to a position of first import- ance among the nations. We learn that Hiram, King of Tyre, during the time of Solomon, made an expedition against Citium because the colonists of Sidonian origin refused to pay their tribute. Phoenician influence spread rapidly in Cyprus ; but about the fourth century before our era, the island was subjected to another tide of colonization which allied itself \\ith and strengthened the native Cyprian element. Settlers arrived from Greece and founded Greek colonies, and these new colonists, unlike the Phoenicians, who main- tained intimate intercourse \\ith their mother'countrj^ seldom revisited theirs, and became in a short time fused with the Cypriots. The most important and probably the first Greek settlement was on the eastern shores of the island, where a city was founded and given the name of Salamis, the site of which had, however, been occupied by a town of far older origin. Its Greek foundation is commonly ascribed to Teucer after the fall of Troy, and the legend has long survived. Before the Greek colonization, however, the Phoenician influence had been overshadowed by Assyrian, and Cyprus became tributary to that empire about the beginning of the seventh century B.C. A statue of Sargon, King of Assyria, cast in bas-relief and bearing an inscription in cuneiform characters, was erected at Citium, and is now to be seen in the Royal Museum at Berlin. Within a century, however, Assyria itself had fallen before the Babylonians ; but in 588 B.C. a combined fleet of Tyre and Cyprus was defeated by Psammeticus III. of Egypt, and Cyprus passed for the second time under the yoke of Egypt. The triumph of the latter was short-lived, however, for Nebuchadnezzar, returning into Syria, re-took Cyprus from Egypt, and once more the island became a Phoenician dependency, until it was again invaded and conquered by Amasis, King of Egypt, who, we are told 22 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE by Herodotus, " took Cyprus, which no man had ever done before, and compelled it to pay him a tribute."* At this time there were many Greek settlements in the island, and it is said that Amasis, in an endeavour to win the goodwill of its inhabitants, adorned the temple of Aphrodite with costly offerings. A short time before the Egyptian invasion, Cyprus had been visited at the invitation of Philocypros, one of the Cypriot princes, by Solon, the Athenian lawgiver, in honour of whom the town of Soli was founded, whose ruins, close to the modern town of Lefka, can be seen to this day. The dominion of Egypt in Cyprus continued until the reign of Cambyses, King of Persia, the son of Cyrus, about 525 B.C., who enlisted the assistance of Cyprus in his struggle against the Egyptians and added the island to the Persian Empire. Thus Cyprus had, in the course of a thousand stormy years, seen empires wax and wane around her, and had herself been the prey of the conquerors. She had seen the temples of the conquering races set up one by one on her shores, and had been constrained to bow the knee to the Egyptian gods of Isis and Serapis, to the Phoenician Baal and the Assyrian Melkarth, as each race gained ascendancy. The Ionian colonists had erected their temples to Zeus and Apollo. Small wonder that the island became haunted by mythological shapes, and that the forms of all the gods and goddesses whose altars littered the shores as the centuries passed took root in the imagination of the people and coloured the history of the oft-invaded islanders. So far, however, Cyprus had borne a more or less passive part in the welter of nations struggHng for supremacy in the lands that surrounded her, although she could hardly fail to imbibe something of the civilization which existed in such close proximity to her shores — in Persia, Phoenicia, Babylonia, and Syria to the east, Egypt to the south, Knossos and Mycenae to the west, and Cilicia to the north. She was now destined to take a more active part in the great struggle which in the end witnessed • Herodotus, c. II., p. 182. HISTORY TO THE BRITISH OCCUPATION 23 the defeat of the Persians by the Greeks, and their expulsion from the shores of the Mediterranean. Herodotus gives a very full account of the revolt of the lonians against Persia in 502 B.C., and describes graphically the part taken by Cyprus in this historic contest. The majority of the Cypriots sided with the lonians, who sent a fleet which fought and won off Salamis a decisive naval battle against the Persians and their allies the Phoenicians ; but on land the Greek forces after a few initial successes were overcome, mainly owing to the treacherous desertion of some of their forces, and the Persians remained masters of the island, having been greatly assisted by the Phoenician towns, which were ready enough to take up arms against the lonians. The history of Cyprus during these centuries is one of continual conflict between the Greek colonists and the Phoenicians and their masters, the Persians ; at one time we find the island assisting Persia against the Greeks with a large fleet ; at another, Greek forces land in Cyprus and succeed fcr a time in wresting a portion of it from the Persians, only to lose it again.* We have hitherto referred to the island as if it were one kingdom, but from the earliest times it had been divided into a number of petty, semi-independent princi- paUties, owing a shadowy allegiance to the important kingdom of Salamis. There were, probably, in the population at this time two dominant elements — one Cyprian or native, with Greek proclivities, and the other Phoenician, essentially Asiatic ; each had its own peculiar alphabet and language, which alone figure on the coins of the island up to this period. ♦ Professor Burnet in his recently published book, " Greek Philosophy from Thales to Plato," in describing Plato's connexion with the affairs of Syracuse during the reign of Dionysius II. (who succeeded to the throne in 367 B.C.), writes : " The great question of the day was once more how Hel- lenism could maintain itself against the pressure of Persia on the one side and Carthage on the other, and far-sighted statesmen saw clearly that the only hope lay in taking the offensive. . . . The Carthaginian question was only another aspect of the Persian question, and it is at least an instructive tradition that represents the battles of Salamis and Himera as having been fought on the same day." He adds in a foot-note : " It is interesting to note that the struggle between Hellenes and Semites liad also been going on in Cyprus, the other great ' meeting-place of races.' Isocrates played a similar part there to that which Plato played in Sicily — in his own way, of course." 24 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE About the year 410 B.C., the throne of Salamis, which had been occupied for over a century by a Phoenician dynasty, was seized by one Evagoras, whose ancestors had ruled over Salamis before they were supplanted by the Phoenician dynasty, and who traced his descent from Teucer, son of Telamon, one of the Trojan heroes. Evagoras is one of the most famous characters in the history of Cyprus ; he is described as having excelled all his contemporaries in the beauty of his person, the splendour of his martial gifts, and the ardour of his patriotism. Isocrates, the Athenian orator, relates of him that even as a boy he was distinguished amongst his companions for the strength and address which he dis- played in games, and says that all these brilliant qualities were enhanced by a kindness of heart, owing to which those who were forced to own his superiority were the more readily won to his side ; he seems, in fact, to have been a born ruler of men. His first care after establishing his rule was to restore the trade between Cyprus and Greece, his next to fortify Salamis, improve the harbours, and build ships. He culti- vated an ardent friendship with Athens, and many young and eager Athenians flocked to his court. He remained, however, a faithful ally of the Persian king until after the defeat of the Spartan fleet off Cnidus in Caria by a combined Persian and Cypriot force, when he became involved in war with Persia. After reducing the Phoenician towns in Cyprus he sailed across to the Syrian coast, reduced Tyre, and excited Syria and CiUcia to open revolt. The Persian king, Artaxerxes, becoming alarmed for the safety of his empire, concentrated all his forces against Evagoras, who had obtained as his ally the King of Egypt, by whom a fleet of fifty vessels was sent to his assistance. A large Persian army landed in Cyprus, and Evagoras retaliated by harassing the Persian communi- cations with his fleet. A naval battle took place off Citium, victory at first inclining to the side of Evagoras, who, however, was finally defeated and retired crestfallen to his fortification at Salamis, where he was soon besieged by the Persian forces. HISTORY TO THE BRITISH OCCUPATION ^5 Here he haughtily refused the terms offered by the Persian general, Tiribazus, which were that he should give up all claim to any portion of the island, pay an annual tribute to the King of Persia, and " demean himself towards the latter as a subject to his lord." Eventually, however, he was forced to conclude a peace by which, whilst paying an annual tribute to Persia, he obtained honourable terms privileging him " to communicate with the great king as one sovereign to another," Little less than a year later, Evagoras was seduced into a discreditable intrigue and murdered. Thus died one of the most illustrious men to whom Cyprus ever gave birth, a man whose love of culture, political sagacity, indomitable courage, and energy in misfortune give him an honourable place in history. After this effort to throw off the Persian yoke, Cyprus remained a dependency of that empire until the victories of Alexander the Great finally put an end to Persian domination, and Cyprus became a part of Alexander's vast dominions. On the death of Alexander, and the division of his dominions in 323 B.C., Cyprus fell to the share of Antigonus, one of his generals, but it was seized by Ptolemy of Egypt, and remained under the Ptolemies until the century preceding the Christian era. Its timber, its minerals, and its agricultural produce provided Egypt with those much-needed materials, and the island during these two centuries and a half enjoyed a period of comparative peace and prosperity under the Egyptian crown such as it had scarcely known before in all its chequered history. It is hardly to be expected, however, that it could succeed in remaining indefinitely outside the boundaries of Imperial Rome, and about sixty years before the Christian era it passed into Roman hands under circumstances by no means creditable to that great Power. The island at that time was in the possession of Ptolemy, known to history as the Cyprian, a man of mean and avaricious character. A Roman tribune, Appius Claudius, fell into the hands of some pirates of Cilicia, and applied to Ptolemy 26 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE for funds to obtain his release. Ptolemy, not daring to refuse the demand altogether, but grudging to part with any of his treasure, sent only two talents as ransom. Claudius, indignant at the insult, obtained his release from his captors on giving his word that he would send the ransom they demanded, and hastened to Rome, vowing that he would be revenged on Ptolemy. He persuaded the Roman Senate to pass a decree of confiscation against Ptolemy, basing the claim on a pretended testament of Ptolemy Alexander II. of Egypt, and Cato the younger was ordered to carry out this unjust decree. Unable to resist the will of Rome, Ptolemy consented to cede the island on condition of his being appointed high priest of Paphos for life ; but before the arrangement was carried into effect, unable to bear the dis- grace, he poisoned himself, and Cato on arrival took peaceful possession of the island. He proceeded forthwith to convert into money the astonishing quantity of golden vessels, jewels and ornaments, rich furniture and purple robes, which he found in the palaces. To ensure its safe arrival at Rome, he packed it in little boxes, each of which contained two talents and five hundred drachmas and was fastened by a rope to a large piece of cork, the whole being valued at some seven thousand talents. To Cato's great credit, of the immense treasure in his power, he reserved for himself only a statue of Zeno, the founder of the Stoic School of Philosophy, who had been a native of Citium, the most celebrated man to whom Cyprus has given birth. The island was made a praetorian province, but was shortly afterwards united with Cilicia to form one proconsular province, Lentulus being appointed in 55 B.C. as the first proconsul. The latter was shortly afterwards followed by Appius, who in turn was succeeded, in 52 B.C., by Cicero, whose letters give a vivid account of the state of affairs which he found in the island. " Appius," he writes, " who has administered the province by lire and sword, who has bled and exhausted it, who has consigned it to me expiring, finds it wrong that I HISTORY TO THE BRITISH OCCUPATION 27 should repair the evil which he inflicted. . . . The province under his government has been ruined in every way ; under mine no exactions have been made under any pretext. What could I not say of the prefects of Appius — of his suite, of his lieutenants, of their spoliations, of their violences, of their brutaHties ? The Cypriots appear to have welcomed a change which elevated them to the status of Roman citizens. Shortly afterwards they had a brief and illusory semi-independence when their island was presented by Julius Caesar to Cleopatra, who was confirmed in its sovereignty by Mark Antony, but the island reverted to Rome at her death and was divided into four districts by Augustus, who bestowed great care on it, and rebuilt the temple of Aphrodite at Paphos after it had been destroyed by an earthquake. Christianity was introduced early into Cyprus, and its spread was rapid and considerable. St. Paul landed at Salamis, a.d. 45, in company with Barnabas, who was a native of that town, and, traversing the island on foot, con- verted to Christianity Scrgius Paulus, the Roman proconsul at Paphos. Travellers to-day are shown a marble pillar half buried in the ground to which, the legend asserts, St. Paul was tied and flogged when he first began to preach the new gospel in Paphos. There is no mention of the incident in the New Testament, though it is by no means unlikely that St. Paul suffered in Cyprus one of the many scourgings which he enumerates. What is historically certain, however, is that Barnabas suffered martyrdom at Salamis, and a B3'zan- tine church exists to this day close to the site of the ancient Salamis, beside which the saint's body is said to have been discovered. The discovery had important results, for it conferred upon the Church of Cyprus a dignity which has been jealously guarded and which survives to this day. When the remains of St. Barnabas were discovered towards the end of the fifth ccntur}', a copy of St. Matthew's gospel in St. Barnabas's own handwriting is said to have been found clasped 28 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE to his breast. At the time a fierce ecclesiastical controversy was raging round the Church of Cyprus, whose independence was disputed by the Patriarch of Antioch, who claimed that it formed part of the See of Antioch. The astute leaders of the Church of Cyprus were not slow to appreciate the value of the discovery made in the grave of Barnabas, and they hastened to Constantinople to lay before the emperor their case against Antioch, and, incidentally, related the discovery of the treasured document. Their astuteness was rewarded. The Emperor Zeno issued a rescript denouncing the claims of Antioch, confirming the Church of Cyprus in its absolute independence, and conferring upon its head peculiar honours which he still enjoys. Amongst these were the assumption by the Archbishop of Cyprus of purple silk robes, a gold- headed sceptre, the title of Beatitude, and the privilege, only customary with the emperors, of signing his name in red ink. On the partition of the Roman Empire in a.d. 395, the con- nection of Cyprus with Rome ceased, and it was administered by a proconsul of the Byzantine Empire, appointed from Antioch. The capital was transferred from Paphos to Salamis, which had been re-named Constantia, and the island enjoyed a long period of prosperity till the rise of the Mahomedan power subjected it to a series of Arab invasions. In a.d. 647 Cyprus was invaded and occupied by Muawiyah, the first Ommazad Caliph, but the Arab conquerors only retained possession for two years, when it was regained by the Empire. In the following century, during the reign of Nicephorus I., war broke out between the eastern empire and the Caliph Haroun-el-Raschid, the renowned hero of The Arabian Nights' Entertainments. Cyprus was invaded and pillaged by Arab forces, its churches destroyed, thousands of its inhabitants massacred or sold as slaves, and the remnant subjected to the most oppressive taxation. The island groaned under her Mahomedan oppressors for nearly a century and a half, but was finally freed during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus II., called Phocas (963-969), and enjoyed com- HISTORY TO THE BRITISH OCCUPATION 29 parative peace for nearly two centuries, until in 1184 one Isaac Comnenus, Governor of Tarsus, established himself under the high-sounding title of " Emperor of Cyprus," and for seven years ruled the island with great cruelty. It is a curious historical fact that Cyprus was rescued from the tyranny of this rapacious despot by an English king, Richard I., and came for the first, but not, as it turned out, the last, time under the crown of England. Richard was on his way to the Crusades, and accompanying his fleet were his affianced bride, Berengaria of Navarre, and his sister Joanna, widow of William the Good of Sicily. A storm drove into Cyprus waters the ships carrying the royal ladies, and they anchored off Limassol. Isaac Comnenus, not content with plundering some vessels of the fleet which had suffered shipwreck on his coasts, proceeded to offer insults to the ladies occupying the vessels lying in the Limassol anchorage, until the timely arrival of Richard with the remainder of the fleet put a dramatic end to the insolence of the tyrant. Richard landed with a strong force, and captured Limassol. Six days afterwards, in the chapel of the little Gothic fortress which exists to this day, his nuptials with Berengaria were celebrated, his bride being at the same time crowned Queen of the English. Isaac had fled to Nicosia, and thence to Famagusta, but he was pursued by Richard, who had been joined by Guy de Lusignan, King of Jerusalem, and the fortresses in the island were rapidly reduced, the luckless Isaac eventually surrendering to Richard. By him he was handed over to the Hospitallers, and died in captivity three years later in Syria. Having completed the conquest of the island, Richard left two English officials to govern it on the EngUsh model, and, just a month after his first landing at Limassol, hove anchor and sailed for Acre. Cyprus was not on this occasion, however, destined to remain for long under English rule. Richard required all his resources and all the money he could raise for his campaign against Saladin, and he found the Knights Templar ready to purchase from him his new conquest. The chaffering which ensued, 30 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE interesting as an illustration of the manner in which countries and their inhabitants were in those days bartered by petty princehngs amongst each other, ended in the sale of the island by Richard for 100,000 besants d'or, equivalent in our day to about £320,000 sterling. Before long, how- ever, the Templars, finding it beyond their power to keep in order the somewhat turbulent population, requested Richard to cancel the bargain, and the latter eventually handed it over to Guy de Lusignan as compensation for the loss by him of his kingdom of Jerusalem. For close on three hundred years the island was subjected to the Lusignan dynasty, and these were probably the most brilhant in the history of Cyprus. The period has been thus described in terms which contain in all likelihood little exaggeration : " In every aspect of mediaeval civilization the little kingdom played a distinguished part. Its remarkable achievements in every domain of human activity invested it with an import- ance among the nations of Europe wholly out of proportion to its small size and population. Its constitution was the model of that of the mediaeval feudal state ; its laws, as embodied in the Assize of Jerusalem, a pattern of mediaeval jurisprudence. It can boast, in the abbey of Bella Paise, in the cathedrals of Nicosia and Famagusta, and in the castles of St. Hilarion, Buffavcnto, and Kantara, of really beautiful examples of mediaeval architecture ; its men of letters, Philippe de Novare, Guillaume de Machaut, Phihppe de Mezieres, occupy no undistinguished place in the realm of literature. In King Peter I. it possessed perhaps the greatest knight-errant the world has ever seen ; in his Order of the Sword the most perfect expression of chivalrous ideals. To Kings of Cyprus such widely different writers as St. Thomas Aquinas and Boccaccio dedicated works ; the wealth and luxury of its citizens, especially in the fourteenth century, evoked the amazement of all Western visitors. The rich merchants of Famagusta were wont, we are told, to give their HISTORY TO THE BRTriSH OCCUPATION 31 daughters, on their marriage, jewels more precious que tonics Us parures dc la rcine de France. Admittedly there was a less attractive side to this efflorescence of French civihzation on the rich Levantine soil : ' fastiis gallicus, syra mollitics, grccca: hlandiiicB ac fraudcs qticB imam videlicet in insulani convener e,' is the epigram by which a contemporary describes the character of the inhabitants of Cyprus in those days."* The constant ambition of the Lusignans was to reco\'cr their ancient heritage of Jerusalem, and countless attempts were made to this end. The Lusignan sovereigns indeed were accustomed to have themselves crowned King of Jerusalem as well as King of Cyprus, although the hold of the Saracens on the sacred city was never shaken. In a.d. 1376, Fama- gusta was wrested from the Lusignan King Pierre II. by the Genoese, who ravaged the island, and continued to hold it until finally driven out nearly a century later by Jacques II., illegitimate son of a former king. But it was the marriage of the latter with a Venetian lady which brought about the end of the Lusignan dynasty in Cyprus. On his death, fol- lowed within a few months by the death of his infant son, the widow assumed the throne. But her sovereignty \\as nominal, the real power being in the hands of two ^^enetian counsellors and a providctor appointed bj-^ the Republic, and in 1488 the island was occupied by the Venetians as a place d'armes, which was to serve them in their struggle against the Turks, For eighty-two years Cyprus was in the hands of the Vene- tians. But they used it merely as a naval and military station, and made little or no attempt at civil administration. They exhibited little but an insatiable lust for commercial gain, and an overbearing, unsympathetic spirit towards the native population. Traces of their occupation are to be seen in the massive walls of the fortresses of Famagusta and Kyrenia, which remain to this day much as they were when in the occupation of the Venetians, by whom they were re-constructed ♦ " The Handbook of Cyprus," by H. C. Lukach and D. J. Jardine. 32 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE from former works. Notwithstanding, however, the elaborate fortifications which the Venetians had, with the skill for which they were famous, constructed on the island, Cyprus was not destined to resist for long the Turkish war of conquest which was spreading over eastern Europe. In 1570 the Turks captured Nicosia after a siege lasting forty days, and the town was deUvered up to the fury and lust of the troops. " Young babes," says a chronicler, " were violently taken out of the arms of their mothers, virgins were shamefully ravished, and honest matrons in sight of their husbands despitefully abused. Churches were spoiled ; the streets were in all places filled with blood, for in the city on that day were slain 14,800 persons." In the following year, after a heroic defence of four months, Famagusta capitulated, its brave defender, Bragadino, being mutilated and eventually flayed ahve in circumstances of brutal barbarity by his ferocious captors. His skin, stuffed with straw and suspended to the yardarm of a galley, was sent to Constantinople, being eventually bought by his sons and carried to Venice, where his remains now rest. The fall of Famagusta decided the fate of Cyprus, and the whole island passed to the Turks. Two half-hearted attempts to recapture the island ended in failure and Cyprus remained an integral part of the Turkish Empire until recent times. In spite of the cruelties which marked the capture of Fama- gusta, the Turks proved themselves better masters than the Venetians, whose miUtary rule had been harsh and exacting. In some respects, indeed, the Turkish pashas proved them- selves more liberal-minded than their predecessors ; the peasantry were released from serfdom, the Orthodox Arch- bishopric was restored, and the Christian population were allowed a large measure of autonomy. The former pros- perity of the island, however, which had begun to decHne under Venetian rule, was hardly likely to revive under Turkish administration, and Cyprus gradually sank into a state of barren stagnation, which was destined to last for more than three hundred years. There are few records of the history HISTORY TO THE BRITISH OCCUPATION 33 of this period. Taxation was heavy, administration light. The peasant was obliged to work ceaselessly, if not particu- larly industriously, to gain the wherewithal to pay his taxes and to feed himself and his family ; there was no incentive to thrift, industry, originaUty of character, energy, or, in short, any of those qualities which go to make a virile race. A great part of the land was owned by wealthy Turks, and in course of time some of this was bequeathed to various religious charities in perpetuo, estates thus bequeathed coming under the Mahomedan religious laws and being administered either by a semi-government department known as the Evkaf, or by a mutevelli or agent specially appointed for this purpose. A distinguished Italian, the Abb6 Mariti, who spent the years from 1760 to 1767 in Cyprus as an official of the Imperial and Tuscan Consulates, and credits the island with " surpassing every other Greek island in the number of natives illustrious for their birth, dignity, learning, and saintHness," quoting Strabo's statement in his geography, kut apfTTjv olBtnlas tS>v vijautv XdnfTm {" it yields to no other island in excellence "), gives an enlightening account of the exactions practised under Turkish rule. " When the Governor wishes to impose some tax on the Greek ri'aya, or subjects, " he writes, " he does not address himself to the people directly, but to the interpreter, then to the Archbishop, who sends notice to the several dioceses to make the most convenient arrangements to avoid annoyances or to lessen the demand. The poor subjects might very often be saved from oppression if their Archbishop were not from poUcy, and sometimes from personal interest, ready to lend himself to the exactions of the Muhassil, so that they are often abandoned by the very person who ought to take their part. When the governor wishes to collect money out of season, or of his mere caprice, the mode of imposing duties and taxes is curious enough. He may even tax with a certain sum anyone who bears a name which he may select : as, for instance, anyone called George has, without appeal, to pay a certain sum. Such an exaction falls on members of the Greek community 34 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE only, who are treated more as slaves than subjects."* This passage incidentally throws a light on the manner in which the Turkish rulers of the island made use of the Greek ecclesias- tical authorities in the collection of the taxes imposed by them on the Christian inhabitants, and explains why the Archbishop and Metropolitans of the Greek Orthodox Church in Cyprus received special consideration from their Turkish masters. The history of Cyprus under Turkish rule can only be regarded, broadly speaking, as a sad record of oppression and misgovernment. The island was for more than two centuries a mere estate of the Capitan Pasha, who was solely concerned in obtaining the largest possible profit out of it. When the complaints of the inhabitants finally reached Constantinople the administration was taken out of the hands of the Capitan Pasha, and transformed to Mutezelims, who leased its revenues to the Porte for the fixed sum of £25,000 per annum. A terrible event occurred in 1825, when the Christian inhabitants were suspected of complicity in the revolution of Greece. The clergy and notables were summoned to a council at Nicosia, and when they were assembled the gates were closed, and all invited, with few exceptions, were treacherously murdered. A reign of terror was thus established which lasted until the close of the Turkish administration. Reforms were introduced into the island in 1838 during the reign of the liberal Sultan Mahmoud II., and the revenues were no longer leased to the Mutezelims. A governor was appointed with a fixed salary, who was charged with the administration and the encashment of fixed taxes for account of the Treasury. Later, Cyprus was placed under the Vali for the Greek Archipelago, whose residence was at the Darda- nelles. In 1870 the final change under Turkish administration took place, the island being removed from the Vilayet of the Archipelago and placed under a Mutasarrif, responsible directly to Constantinople. Such was the situation when England inter- vened for the second time in the internal affairs of Cyprus. * "^Travels in the Island of Cj-prus " translated from the Italian of Giovanni Mariti, by C. D. Cobham. CHAPTER III THE CYPRUS CONVENTION. TN 1878, whilst the Berlin Conference was still sitting, '*• Europe was startled by the announcement that an agree- ment had been concluded between the British Government and the Porte, whereby the administration of the island of Cyprus was to be handed over to the former Power in return for certain guarantees given by the Ottoman Govern- ment. The text of the agreement, which subsequently became known as the " Cyprus Convention," was as follows : Convention of Defensive Alliance between Great Britain and Turkey, Signed June 4, 1878. HER Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India, and His Imperial Majesty the Sultan, being mutually animated with the sincere desire of extending and strengthening the relations of friendship happily existing between their two Empires, have resolved upon the conclusion of a Convention of defensive alliance with the object of securing for the future the territories in Asia of His Imperial Majesty the Sultan. Their Majesties have accordingly chosen and named as their Plenipotentiaries, that is to say : Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India, the Right Honourable Austen Henry Layard, Her Majesty's Ambassador Extra- ordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Sublime Porte ; And His Imperial Majesty the Sultan, His Excellency 35 36 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE Safvet Pasha, Minister for Foreign Affairs of His Imperial Majesty ; Who, after having exchanged their full powers, found in due and good form, have agreed upon the following Articles : ARTICLE I. If Batoum, Ardahan, Kars, or any of them shall be retained by Russia and if any attempt shall be made at any future time by Russia to take possession of any further territories of His Imperial Majesty the Sultan in Asia, as fixed by the Definitive Treaty of Peace, England engages to join His Imperial Majesty the Sultan in defending them by force of arms. In return. His Imperial Majesty the Sultan promises to England to introduce necessary reforms, to be agreed upon later between the two Powers, into the government, and for the protection of the Christian and other subjects of the Porte in these territories ; and in order to enable England to make necessary provision for executing her engagement. His Imperial Majesty the Sultan further consents to assign the Island of Cyprus to be occupied and administered by England. ARTICLE II. The present Convention shall be ratified, and the ratifica- tions thereof shall be exchanged, within the space of one month, or sooner if possible. In witness whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the same, and have affixed thereto the seal of their arms. Done at Constantinople, the fourth day of June, in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight. (L.S.) A. H. LAYARD. (L.S.) SAFVET. THE CYPRUS CONVENTION 37 To this Convention was appended an Annex in the following terms : THE Right Honourable Sir A. H. Layard, G.C.B,, and his Highness Safvet Pasha, now the Grand Vizier of His Majesty the Sultan, have agreed to the following Annex to the Convention signed by them as Plenipotentiaries of their respective Governments on the 4th June, 1878 : It is understood between the two High Contracting Parties that England agrees to the following conditions relating to her occupation and administration of the Island of Cyprus : I. That a Mussulman religious Tribunal (Mehkdmei Sheri) shall continue to exist in the Island, which will take exclusive cognizance of religious matters, and of no others, concerning the Mussulman population of the Island. II. That a Mussulman resident in the Island shall be named by the Board of Pious Foundations in Turkey (Evkaf) to superintend, in conjunction with a delegate to be appointed by the British Authorities, the administration of the property, funds, and lands belonging to mosques, cemeteries, Mussul- man schools, and other religious establishments existing in Cyprus. III. That England will pay to the Porte whatever is the present excess of the revenue over the expenditure in the Island ; this excess to be calculated upon and determined by the average of the last five years, stated to be 22,936 purses* to be duly verified hereafter, and to the exclusion of the pro- duce of State and Crown lands let or sold during that period. IV. That the Sublime Porte may freely sell and lease lands and other property in Cyprus belonging to the Ottoman Crown and State (Arazii Miriye v6 Emlaki Houmayoun) the produce of which docs not form part of the revenue of the Island referred to in Article III. V. That the English Government, through their competent authorities, may purchase compulsorily, at a fair price, land • One purse is equivalent to 500 piastres, metallic, and 105 piastres, metallic to one pound (Turkish). 38 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE required for public improvements, or for other public purposes, and land which is not cultivated. VII. That if Russia restores to Turkey Kars and the other conquests made by her in Armenia during the last war, the Island of Cyprus will be evacuated by England, and the Convention of the 4th of June, 1878, will be at an end. Done at Constantinople, the ist day of July, 1878. (Signed) A. H. LAYARD. SAFVET. The following Supplementary and further Agreements were signed on the 14th August, 1878, and the 3rd February, 1879, respectively : THE Right Honourable Sir A. Henry Layard, G.C.B., and his Highness Safvet Pasha, Grand Vizier and Minister for Foreign Affairs of His Imperial Majesty the Sultan, having met together this day, have, in virtue of their full powers, signed the following additional Article to the Convention of the 4th June, 1878, signed by them as Plenipotentiaries of their respective Governments. It is understood between the High Contracting Parties, without prejudice to the express provisions of the Articles I., II., and IV. of the Annex of the ist July, 1878, that His Imperial Majesty the Sultan, in assigning the Island of Cyprus to be occupied and administered by England, has thereby transferred to and vested in Her Majesty the Queen, for the term of the occupation and no longer, full powers for making Laws and Conventions for the government of the Island in Her Majesty's name, and for the regulation of its commercial and Consular relations and affairs free from the Porte's control. Done at Constantinople, the 14th day of August, 1878. (L.S.) A. H. LAYARD. (L.S.) SAFVET. THE CYPRUS CONVENTION 39 Agreement Signed at Constantinople, February yd, 1879. IT having been agreed between Her Britannic Majesty's Government and that of His Imperial Majesty the Sultan that all the rights reserved to the Ottoman Crown and Govern- ment under Article IV. of the Annex to the Convention signed at Constantinople on the 4th June, 1878, shall be commuted by a fixed annual money payment, the Undersigned, the Right Honourable Austen Henry Layard, Her Britannic Majesty's Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the SubHme Porte, and His Excellency Alexandre Cara- th^odory Pasha, His Imperial Majesty's Minister for Foreign Affairs, being duly authorized so to do, hereby declare that : All property, revenues, and rights reserved to the Ottoman Crown and Government in the said Article IV. of the Annex to the Convention of the 4th June, including all revenue derived from tapous, mahloul, and intikal are commuted hereby for a fixed annual payment of ;^5,ooo to be made by Her Britannic Majesty's Government to that of His Imperial Majesty the Sultan every year during the British occupation of Cyprus, to be calculated from the beginning of the next financial year. Done at Constantinople, the third day of February, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine. (Signed) A. H. LAYARD. AL. CARATHf ODORY. 1879. On the 2nd of July, 1878, Admiral Lord John Hay arrived off Larnaca with a squadron of British ships, and a few days later, on the 12th July, the administration of the island was handed over to him at Nicosia by the Turkish Governor in the presence of a guard of honour of bluejackets and marines from the fleet, the Turkish flag being formally hauled down, and the Union Jack hoisted in its place. On July 22nd, Sir Garnet Wolseley, K.C.B., landed at 40 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE Larnaca with a force of British and Indian troops, bearing a Commission appointing him Her Majesty's Commissioner and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Island of Cyprus. His appointment was notified in the following Proclamation which was issued and made public on the day of his arrival : PROCLAMATION by His Excellency Lieutenant-General Sir Garnet Joseph Wolseley, Knight Grand Cross of the most distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Knight Commander of the most honourable Order of the Bath, Her Majesty's High Commissioner for the Island of Cyprus. Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India, having agreed with His Imperial Majesty the Sultan of Turkey by a Convention duly signed and ratified at Constantinople that the Island of Cyprus shall be occupied and administered by and on behalf of Her Majesty, and Her Majesty the Queen having been graciously pleased to appoint me, Sir Garnet Joseph Wolseley, to be Her Majesty's High Commissioner for the Island of Cyprus, and to administer the Government of the Island in Her Majesty's name. Now, therefore, I hereby proclaim and make known to all the inhabitants of Cyprus that I have this day assumed the administration of the Government of the Island on behalf of Her Majesty. Her Majesty directs me to assure the inhabitants of Cyprus of the warm interest which the Queen feels in their prosperity and of Her Gracious intention to order the adoption of such measures as may appear best calculated to promote and extend the commerce and agri- culture of the country, and to afford to the people the blessings of freedom, justice, and security. It is Her Majesty's gracious pleasure that the Government of Cyprus shall be administered without favour to any race or creed ; that equal justice shall be done to all, that all THE CYPRUS CONVENTION 41 shall enjoy alike the equal and impartial protection of the law ; and that no measures shall be neglected which may tend to advance the moral and material welfare of the people. And it is the express desire of the Queen that in the adminis- tration of pubhc affairs regard shall be paid to the reasonable wishes of the inhabitants with respect to the maintenance of their ancient institutions, usages, and customs provided that they be consistent with just and good Government, and with those principles of civihzation and liberty which must always and everywhere be upheld by those who govern in Her Majesty's name. Larnaca, July 22, 1878. By Command, G. R. GREAVES, Colonel, Chief of Staff. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN. The instructions of the Sultan of Turkey to his officers were expressed in a Firman of which the following is a trans- lation : " To my aiding Vizir Sadik Pasha, VaU of the Vilayet of the Archipelago, a holder and bearer of the first class of the Orders of the Mejidieh and Osmanieh, one of the very illustrious Cabinet Ministers of my exalted Government, an honoured and great Minister of State, an illustrious and venerated Mushir, a basis of the order of the world, a manager of the affairs of the nation with penetrating thought, a finisher of important concerns of mankind with sound forecast, a con- soUdator of the structure of the State and of prosperity, and a strengthener of the pillars of happiness and grandeur, and possessor of a right in the various favours of God Most High, — may God, Whose Name be exalted, eternise his grandeur ! " To Ahmed Pasha, one of my honoured Mir-i-Miran, 42 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE Mutasarrif of the Island of Cyprus, a holder and bearer of the third class of the said Most Distinguished Order of the Mejidieh, the pride of respected commanders, rehed upon by illustrious persons, adorned with dignity and honour, possessor of power and magnificence, specially adopted by the bountiful favour of God the Sovereign Lord — may his prosperity endure ! " To the Naib and Mufti of Cyprus, models of learned Judges — may their learning increase ! and " To the Members of the Council and Notables of the people, the pride of the illustrious and honoured — may their honour be augmented ! " Be it known, on the arrival of my High Imperial Cypher, that the delivery, in a temporary manner, to Her of the Island of Cyprus having been desired and requested by the illustrious British Government in consequence of reasons known, and on a discussion of the matter in my Privy Council of illustrious Ministers ; considering that the said Government has up to now, according to the requirement of the friendship and sin- cerity which have of old existed between my exalted Govern- ment and Her, given by actual deeds very many proofs of Her benevolent designs and intentions towards my Govern- ment, and that, consequently, it would be congruous with the exigencies of the circumstances and of the case that the said Government should possess the said Island temporarily, it has been deemed expedient that the temporary administra- tion of the said Island be handed over to the said Government with the condition (in accordance with the Convention that has been framed, sealed, and signed in that behalf) that there shall be a Sheri Court in the Island as heretofore, which will continue to conduct the Sheri affairs of the Moslem community of the , Island : that an official shall be appointed by the Imperial Evkaf Ministry also from amongst the Moslem com- munity, in order to administer, in conjunction with an official to be appointed by the said Government, the sacred mosques, and the properties, real estates and lands belonging to the ]\Ioslem cemeteries, schools and other religious institutions THE CYPRUS CONVENTION 43 found in the Island. That the surplus remaining after deduc- tion of local expenses from the total of my Imperial dues now paid to my exalted Government by the said Island shall be annually paid to my Government. That the miri and vakf lands found in the said Island shall be freely sold or farmed out, and the moneys accruing from them shall be included in the said Imperial dues. And that the said Government shall be empowered to purchase at suitable prices, and through the officer in charge, the necessary imsown lands for public works, and for other purposes of general utihty. And this decision having been referred to and submitted for my noble Majesty's sanction, and my High Imperial Irade having been appended and issued for the carrying out of the same accordingly, you, the above-mentioned Vali, Mutasarrif, Naib, Mufti, and others, are hereby ordered to proceed to the handing over to the officers of the said Government of the temporary administration of the said Island, and to be careful to see that no act or deed is done contrary to my Imperial approbation. " Written on this thirtieth day of the month Jemadhi- ul-akhir, in the year one thousand two hundred and ninety-five " (July i, 1878). The population of the island at this time was about 186,000, of which some two-thirds were Greek-speaking and the remainder Turkish, with a sprinkling of Syrians, Armenians, and other nationalities. The substitution of a British for an Ottoman administration was warmly welcomed by the Christian inhabitants, a depu- tation from whom, headed by the venerable Archbishop of the Autocephalous Church of Cyprus, waited upon Sir Garnet VVolseley on his arrival and presented him with an address. The Turkish community accepted the change with Oriental resignation, if not with enthusiasm, secure in the knowledge that they were retaining their rights and privileges as Ottoman subjects, and that Cyprus remained an integral part of the Ottoman Empire. 44 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE It is unnecessary to discuss the reasons which led to the adoption by the British Government of the poUcy embodied in the Cyprus Convention. They arc summarized in a despatch written by Lord Salisbury on May 30, 1878, to the British Ambassador at Constantinople, which was printed in a Par- liamentary Paper the same year, and is reproduced in an appendix to this book.* Anxiety to secure, in the event of war, the safety of the communications of the Empire through the Suez Canal — a vital link with our Indian Empire — was doubtless one of the main reasons actuating the Government, which saw in the geographical position of Cyprus a suitable base for naval and mihtary operations in the eastern jMediter- ranean. Had the statesmen of the day been able to foresee the situation that was to arise shortly afterwards in Egypt which resulted in the occupation of that country by a permanent British garrison, it is hardly probable that the project of occupying Cyprus would ever have been mooted. By the garrisoning of Egypt with British forces the safety of the Canal was far more effectively secured, and Cyprus, at the same^ time, lost most of its value as a strategical point of vantage. It is, perhaps, not too much to say that, had England cynically consulted her own interests alone, she would have been \vise when Egypt was occupied in 1881 to have cancelled the Con- vention and handed back Cyprus to Turkey. But apart from the loss of prestige which such a policy would have entailed, and the difficulties involved in the uprooting of an adminis- tration just planted in a country, there was undoubtedly a strong feeling against handing back to Turkey an island containing a population more than three-fourths of which belonged to the Christian faith. Cyprus was, therefore, destined to remain in British hands, though retaining, in name at least, its status as an integral portion of the Ottoman Empire. It may be doubted, however, whether the continued occupation of Cyprus after the establishment of a British garrison in Egypt was altogether to the advantage of Great * Appendix I. Parliamentary Paper, Turkey, No. 36, C. 2037. THE CYPRUS CONVENTION 45 i Britain. Its value to the empire was open to question, whilst it involved an annual expenditure from imperial funds which, though inconsiderable, was nevertheless permanent. On the other hand, there can be no question but that the transference of the administration of the island from Turkish to English hands was of material benefit to the inhabitants, who exchanged an admittedly indifferent government for an unquestionably efficient one, and at the same time gained the protection and security afforded by the British arms. CHAPTER IV. THE TRIBUTE WHILST it is unnecessary to discuss the wisdom or unwisdom of the Cyprus Convention from the im- perial point of view, some consideration of its effects on the inhabitants of the island is a natural prehminary to any account of British rule in the island. It is important at the outset to reahze that the action of the British Govern- ment in assuming the administration of Cyprus did not result in any way from a regard either for the island or its inhabitants. There was no question, for instance, of rescuing the latter from misrule ; on the contrary, we have the testimony of an EngHshman who spent many years in the island before the British occupation, and acted on several occasions as British Consul, that "of all the Turkish pro- vinces perhaps Cyprus was the best administered."* The occupation was the outcome solely of the desire of the Govern- ment of the day to safeguard British interests in the Near and Far East, interests which it was believed would be best furthered by buttressing the Turkish Empire against Russian aggression. It was not till many years later that the admission was made by Lord Salisbury that England, in its Eastern pohcy, had "backed the wrong horse." ^^^-rUaP: n-^ This being so, the question arises whether the British Govern- ment was justified in laying upon the Cyprus revenues, as it did, the burden of the payment which was to be made annually to the Porte under the Convention, and which became known as the " Cyprus Tribute." * " Cyprus : Its History, Present Resources, and Future Prospects," by R. Hamilton Lang. Published 1878. 46 -THE TRIBUTE 47 It will be remembered that by the Annex to the Convention England covenanted to " pay to the Porte whatever is the present excess of revenue over expenditure in the island ; this excess to be calculated upon and determined by the average of the last five years." The determination of this sum involved considerable correspondence between the local Government, the Foreign Office, and the Porte ; but it was eventually fixed at £92,686, to which was subsequently added a sum of £113 IIS. 3d., on the assumption by the Cyprus Government of the control of the lighthouses in the island, making a total of ;^92,799 iis. 3d., which was the sum finally determined upon as payable annually to the Porte in respect of the Cyprus Convention. It is somewhat surprising that the Imperial Government should have decided that this sum should be a charge on the revenues of the island, and it is pertinent to enquire what funds were at the time available to meet this charge. As will be described later on, the first estimate of revenue and expenditure made by the local Government after the occupation showed a revenue for the years 1878-1879 of ;^i72,ooo, and an expenditure of only £52,800, leaving a surplus more than sufficient to pay the sum due to the Porte under the Convention. But the estimate of expenditure provided for nothing except the mere machinery of adminis- tration, and it is difficult to beUeve that the British Govern- ment could have seriously imagined that an efficient and liberal administration of the island could be carried on if more than fifty per cent, of the revenue was to be taken every year out of the island in perpetuity and paid away as " tribute." In any case, it was soon found that the revenue had been over- estimated and the expenditure grossly under-estimated, and it became necessary for Parliament to vote each year sums as grants-in-aid to meet the inevitable deficit which occurred when the " tribute " had been paid. The sums thus paid by the British Government varied each year according to the revenue, the average amounting for the first thirty years 48 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE to about £30,000 per annum. But not a penny of this so-called " tribute " has been paid to the Ottoman Govern- ment, and, in point of fact, it never reaches Constantinople at all. It is utilized to pay the shareholders of the Ottoman Loan of 1855, which is guaranteed by England and France, and amounts to £3,815,200. The interest on this loan is £81,752, and the surplus from the Cyprus Tribute which remains every year after the debt charge has been satisfied is invested in Consols, and forms a separate fund, from which sums have actually been deducted in the past to pay the ransom of British subjects captured by brigands in Ottoman territory. The last return laid before the House of Commons relating to this fund is dated August 13, 1912, and shows that the Consols purchased with the surpluses from the moneys arising from the Revenue of Cyprus amounted on March 31, 1912, to £430,178 iis. 7d., and there is a note to the effect that " the aggregate surplus would have been pro tanto increased had not the amount of £24,803 4s. 4d. been paid out of the ' tribute ' in the years 1882 to 1886 for the ransoms of Captain Synge and Mr. Suter."* In these circumstances it can hardly be a matter of sur- prise that the payment of this " tribute " from Cyprus revenue has been a subject of burning dissatisfaction amongst Cypriot people ever since the British occupation. The drain imposed on the revenue by this enormous annual payment has paralysed progress, and left barely sufficient funds to keep the administrative machinery in working order, whilst allowing little for such vital purposes as education, road construction, agriculture, and re-afforestation. The question has been more than once brought up in debate in the House of Commons, and has formed the subject of innumerable memoranda from the Cyprus people to the British Government. The latter has justified its action by maintaining that the money is due to Cyprus under the Convention, and was, in fact, paid • Return to an Order of the Honourable the House of Commons, dated August 7, 1912. — Parliamentary Paper, H. of C. 318. THE TRIBUTE 49 to Turkey under the Turkish administration ; that the Cypriot enjoys under the British Government an incomparably better administration than he experienced under the Ottoman Government ; and that he receives in addition the benefit of a generous grant-in-aid from Parhament. All this may be conceded, but it must be remembered that under Turkish Government the island was taxed up to the limit that it could bear, and that the cost of administration was kept at an insig- nificant figure by the farming of taxes and the payment of officials by well-known Oriental methods which did not figure in the accounts of expenditure, whilst there was an almost entire absence of expenditure on roads, harbours, agriculture, education, forestry, etc. The main business of the Turkish administration was to extract as much revenue as possible from the island ; hence, to calculate the annual surplus which was thus obtained, and to fix such a sum as a permanent burden on Cyprus revenues, is a proceeding which it seems difficult to justify, even taking into consideration the small annual grant-in-aid voted by Parliament. The view taken by the Greek section of the population is forcibly expressed in a Memorial addressed in 1903 to Mr. Chamberlain, when Secretary of State for the Colonies, criti- cizing a speech made by him in the House of Commons on May 26, 1902. After complaining that the Greek inhabitants of Cyprus had been wronged by statements then made, the memorialists set forth their views regarding the question of the " tribute " in the following terms : " . . . . The Greek inhabitants of the island especially complain of being wronged by your statement, and strongly protest against the following three points : (i) The question of the 'tribute,' (2) that of the antiquities, and (3) that of their National aspirations. "As regards the first, you have urged that the sum of £92,000 constitutes an obligation adherent to Cyprus as a ' tribute,' which had to be paid were Cyprus occupied either by England or any other Power, and that Cypriots have no cause D 50 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE of complaint against it nor did it interest lis what became of that sum of money. It is certainly not the first time nor is it by you alone that this terrible burden, which has been unwill- ingly imposed upon us by the English Government, has been thus characterized, but we think that we are not, therefore, precluded of the right of considering such a burden as unjustly imposed upon us, and of protesting against it as we have already done on several occasions ; and to ask that we may be relieved of this heavy injustice, provided that the grounds on which we base our claims are just, which will be proved if you will kindly allow us to examine shortly this question from the beginning, and to point out how this sum of ;(92,ooo arose, what does it represent, and whom does it really affect. " When in 1878 Great Britain was negotiating with the Sublime Porte for the cession of Cyprus, it promised, as it appears from the document of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to Sir H. Layard, dated the 30th May, 1878, ' that the excess of the revenue over the expenditure, whatever it may be, shall be paid over annually by the British Govern- ment to the Treasury of the Sultan,' and in fact in the Con- vention of 1878, paragraph 3, it is defined ' that England will pay to the Porte the surplus,' etc. Negotiations were subsequently carried out for determining the ' surplus,' which w^as finally fixed at about £87,000, and to this sum, the light and salt dues having been added, the whole amount to be paid rose to about £92,000, the very sum which you have styled as the ' tribute ' — which ought to, as it really does, represent but the surplus which the Porte received from the Administration of the Island, and which sum England has taken upon herself to pay to the Porte in order that the administration and occupation of Cyprus be ceded to it. " We, therefore, maintain that the Convention is very clear on this subject, viz. : that the payment of the surplus which was fixed at £92,000 is an obligation of England alone and not of Cyprus towards the Porte, as otherwise it would have been certainly written down in the Convention; that England THE TRIBUTE 51 undertook the obligation to levy from Cyprus the surplus with a view to pay it over to the Porte ; nor can it be possibly supposed that in so serious a document — drawn up by the best authorities — an obscure construction should have crept in the formulation of the real meaning of the high contracting parties or that such an essential omission should have escaped notice. And as in the very terms of the Convention no direct obhgation rests upon Cyprus for the pa5'ment of £92,000, it may be asked if Cyprus is not indirectly responsible for the said sum towards the English Government on account of the direct obligations of Cyprus towards England. This is a question to be examined. " By virtue of the Convention the administration of Cyprus is given up to the English Government under restrictive conditions in its duration ; and, the island continuing to be considered as a part of the Turkish Empire, the Enghsh Government, consequently, is merely an ad interim adminis- trator and the island continues to bear the same obligations for payment of taxes towards the new administration as it did towards the fornier Suzerain. The Sultan collected the revenues of the island, from which he defrayed the necessary expenses for the administration, placing any surplus into his treasury ; we acknowledge bearing the same responsi- bility towards the present Government, which is entitled to levy the same sum which the Sultan collected. " The cost of the administration must be necessarily taken out of this sum, as it used to be done under the Sultan ; and if, after this deduction, there is a surplus, the English Govern- ment may undoubtedly dispose of it as it pleases, and one may justly say that it must not concern the Cypriots what England does with such a surplus as they were not entitled to ask the Sultan what he did with it. " The annual sum of the verified revenues of the island during the Turkish administration on the basis of a period of five years, was proved not to exceed the sum of ;{i30,ooo {vide document of the High Commissioner, dated 7th June, 1880). 52 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE And, although this amount has been objected to by the Cypriots as being very exaggerated, they having proved that the annual revenues did not exceed the sum of £117,000, we nevertheless take the sum of £130,000 as a basis, it being the undisputedly highest sum ever levied by Turkey. " We acknowledge, therefore, that we are bound to pay annually this sum of £130,000 to the new Administrator, i.e., to the English Government, which is responsible, in its turn, to pay out of this sum the cost of the administration ; but we maintain, in the meantime, that the Enghsh Govern- ment is not entitled to recover anything beyond this sum ; and that, should the revenues of the island exceed the sum of £130,000, anything over and above that sum belongs to the island. This argument should not be considered as a mere theory of law as it happily is supported by facts. "In the course of the negotiations between England and Turkey for fixing the surplus, the Porte demanded that the growing surplus which might accrue in the course of time out of the island revenues be paid to Turkey by England ; but England repUed that ' as England will probably spend the growing surplus in the improvement of the island. Her Majesty's Government cannot assent,' etc. {vide telegram of Secretary for Foreign Affairs to Sir H. Layard, dated 30th May, 1878). " In the face of the aforesaid objection and of the assurance that this money would be spent for the benefit of the island the Porte waived its demand and accepted that the surplus be liquidated — which was done — on the computation of the revenues of the last five years of Turkish administration. Does this undertaking by England not constitute an obliga- tion that any sum over and above £130,000, or, more accurately speaking, over £117,000, which accrue out of the revenues, be spent in the improvement of the island ? And is it not clearly proved that Cyprus does not bear any responsibility for the sum of £92,000, that she is not bound to pay to the English Government more than £130,000, which Government THE TRIBUTE 53 might take for its own interest any surplus that would accrue out of the said sum after the cost of administration, and has the English Government not undertaken to spend any growing surplus over and above the sum of £130,000 on the improve- ment of the island ? " Let us see, however, Honourable Sir, if these principles are kept really, and whether you are entitled to say that it must not concern us what England does with the money which is taken from our revenues. " We have said that the total sum of the revenues realized during the Turkish administration amounted to ;£i30,ooo. The cost of the present administration exceeds the sum of £140,000, that is to say, that in addition to the sum of £130,000 which we are bound to pay, an additional sum of £10,000 is absorbed out of our growing surplus, which surplus accrued, it must be noted, mainly out of the increased taxation as well as out of new taxes unlawfully levied, and secondarily out of the naturally increasing revenue of the island in proportion with the increase of the population. But as the said sum of £10,000 taken from the growing surplus is in some way or other spent in the island, it may be urged that none of the aforesaid principles is thereby impugned. " Unfortunately, however, things do not stop as far as this. The revenues of the island have since the British occupation sensibly increased for the aforesaid reasons, and the surplus sum over and above the £130,000, instead of being devoted to the improvement of the island according to the express promise and obligation of England, is arbitrarily utilized towards the fulfilment of an individual obhgation of England towards the Porte, viz. : the payment of the £92,000. " Does not this act constitute an overt violation of the obli- gations of England, and is this not a misappropriation of moneys belonging exclusively to Cyprus, which is paying them ? You still maintain. Right Honourable Sir, that we have no right to ask what has become of the money ; we urge, however, that we are entitled to claim, in exercise of our rights, that it 54 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE may not be taken away from us, inasmuch as this is a down- right injustice committed against us. " It may be put forward, in reply, that all these arguments are sound and good, but, inasmuch as England cannot administer the island with the excessive economies of the Porte and with the omission of the most elementary obligations incumbent upon every civilized country, in carrying out works of public utility, etc., and, consequently, that since the cost of administration has absorbed ihe very surplus which accrued during the Turkish administration, the English Government is compelled, under such circumstances, to receive any surplus which may accrue from any source, even if it may be the very sum which England has undertaken to spend in the improvement of the island. "We submit, however, that when the negotiations between the two Governments were going on, even after the occupation, as to fixing the surplus sum, England having under her eyes the true state of things was in a position to understand that she could not administer the island at a cost of ;{30,ooo to £40,000 per annum, and it was then the duty of England to point out to the Porte that the Enghsh administration would necessarily be more expensive and to claim a proportionate reduction of the surplus. Or, if England, owing to private reasons, and to higher political aims affecting her alone, wanted to occupy Cyprus at all costs, the question of money being of minor importance to her, it was and it is reasonable and just that the sacrifice should be borne by England, which has politically benefited by the occupation of Cyprus, and not by the poor Cypriot, who has pla^-ed the role of a dumb person on this occasion. And that such was the opinion of the Eng- lish Government at the time is apparent by the words of the Convention, ' England shall pay the surplus to the Porte.' " Unfortunatelj'^ those right thoughts did not prevail in practice, contrary to the express condition of the Convention and to the promises of the English Government ; and thus we see the lamentable spectacle of a poor and small people THE TRIBUTE 55 being crushed under a burden which ought to fall upon others, a burden which, the heavier it is for the poor Cypriot, the lighter it is for the great and wealthy English nation ; and which burden was adroitly characterized by an Honourable Member of the English Government as a millstone hanging on the neck of the Cypriot and menacing to strangle him at every moment. In order that the ruinous work of this ' mill- stone ' — the ;{92,ooo — be understood and the necessary attention may be.' drawn to the injustice done to us, we beg leave to be allowed to outline briefly the general situation of the island during the twenty-four years of English administration. " If we look at the Budget, we see that the greatest part thereof is absorbed by the salaries of the officials of the costly administration, and the only new items which may be con- sidered as conducive to the improvement of the island is the granting aid for the Elementary Education and the item for Public Works. And in order that the shabbiness of the administration may be proved it suffices to say that out of a revenue of ;{205,ooo the sum spent for the schools hardly amounts to £4,000, while the sum actually spent for public works hardly reaches £9,000. It will consequently surprise nobody to hear that a great part of the sum expended for the elementary education and the whole sum spent for the middle education are paid by the population of Cyprus, whicli is so heavily taxed, and that very few public works, in comparison to what ought to have been done, have been executed during the English administration for a period of twenty-four years. Our ports and roadsteads still remain in their natural condition, and at a time when all over the world electricity vies with steam for the rapidity of communications, even the elementary group of carriage roads has not been completed in the island, although the construction of the carriage roads does not necessitate a great outlay owing to the evenness of the ground, the absence of large rivers, and the cheapness of wages. The construction of village roads which form part of the group 56 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE of carriage roads has been imposed by a special law on the peasants, who are bound to construct them at their own expense or labour. " No works for developing the productive powers of the country have been carried out by the Government Treasury, and, as you are aware, the experimental irrigation works were done from a special loan from the English Treasury. And it is by a similar loan that the contemplated irrigation works and the construction of railway between Nicosia and Famagusta and the harbour of Famagusta will be undertaken. "It is as well known to you that for establishing a regular steam communication with Egypt it has been necessary to have recourse to the private funds of the country to a large extent, and the same may be said of the maintenance of the coasting steam service. "The cost of the Agricultural Department, of the Rural Medical Service, and of one Veterinary Surgeon is also defrayed from private funds of the island. The expenditure for the destruction of locusts is also paid from the private locust-fund, from which most of the aforesaid expenses are drawn ; and while the people of Cyprus is heavily taxed it is additionally taxed with the above and many other burdens which we consider superfluous to enumerate, bearing, moreover, the most unjust pecuniary bleeding of the £92,000, out of which sum £60,000 goes on an average out of the island annually, i.e., the whole of the surplus which England has expressly undertaken to spend on the improvement of the island. " Is it, therefore, astonishing if a great scarcity of gold pre- vails in the island and if the Cypriot is literally poor, or will it arouse any surprise that Cyprus has in fact made no progress worth speaking of either through the Government or through private initiative under the British administration, with no hope of progress in the future ? As long as the Government considers it as its sole mission to levy tyrannically the taxes, shutting its eyes at everj'thing that would contribute to the benefit and relief of the inhabitants, private individuals THE TRIBUTE 57 though not devoid of spirit of enterprise, as it was proved in many instances when Cypriots established themselves abroad, have not been able to make a step ahead, being enervated under the paralytica! influence of poverty. " In consequence of all these drawbacks agriculture, which is the principal financial source of the country is still in a primitive condition ; industry is very meagre and poor ; while navigation is quite extinct, and no other source of wealth has been opened anywhere in the island. These are the reasons which tend to produce the singular fact that the population of Cyprus, having at its command a large and fertile soil, instead of being one of the wealthiest people in the world, is the poorest, being deprived of every means and support to exploit the natural resources of his country ; the landed property has been reduced to a much lower price than under the Turkish administration, while the land tax remains stable at its over-estimated rate in order that the ruin of the land- owners may sooner be brought about, such owners being often unable to recover hardly anything more than the tax payable by them. " Nevertheless, things might be remedied and the fate of the island improved if the unjust burden of the £92,000 were removed from the shoulders of the Cypriots, and we beg to lay stress upon the fact that, should this sum continue to be levied for a few years more, the present financial languor will be certainly turned into a catastrophe — a fact which will be far from conducing either to the material or moral credit of the British Government. " If Cyprus, instead of being so far deprived of the annual sum of £60,000, was granted this amount for its improvement, there would undoubtedly be a change within a short time ; Cyprus would be in a position which England might be proud of, and the promise given by it that it would render Cyprus a model administration towards Turkey and its subjects, making of it a paradise of the East, would be accomplished. The least we could claim. Right Honourable Sir, is that this unjust 58 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE burden of the £92,000 be removed from us, so that we may not be hampered in our course forward, a right to which we are certainly entitled. "How unjust and oppressive this burden is for the people of Cyprus appears from the fact that not only the Greek but also the Moslem population (which is for racial reasons favour- able to the payment of the ;^92,ooo, as it considers it a mark of subjection of the island to the Sultan), as weU as the Cyprus Government itself, have raised their voices for the removal of this scourge from the shoulders of the Cypnis people. " In 1892 a resolution was unanimously passed by the elected (both Greek and Turkish) and the official members of the Legislative Council that Cyprus might be relieved from the payment of the £92,000, and the then High Com- missioner declared that he would feel very glad if the wishes of the Council were listened to and carried out. " Sir Robert Biddulph, former High Commissioner of Cyprus, expressed himself unreservedly against this burden, having predicted, several years ago, that no progress would be effected in Cyprus as long as this overwhelming weight lay on it."* The reference in the last paragraph is probably to Sir Robert Biddulph's despatch of June 7, 1880, dealing with the revenue of the island, in which he wrote : " The revenue of Cyprus is ample ... to pay for all sorts of improvements, and to pay sufficiently a staff of competent men to carry out those fiscal and judicial reforms which it is the desire of the Great Powers to see carried out in the territories of the Sublime Porte, but which, it is admitted on all hands, require the superintendence of persons who have not been trained in Turkey. But there is not sufficient to do all this, as well as to pay to Turkey the same amount that she used to receive from Cyprus. ... It is obvious that it is unreasonable to suppose that the revenue will at present admit of such enormous subsidy as we are paying to Turkey ; and that it is hard on ♦ Affairs relating to Cyprus. — Parliamentary Paper Cd. 3996. THE TRIBUTE 59 a country which has a revenue that is double its expenditure to be compelled to postpone necessary public works, and to continue a number of taxes which press heavily on the people, and to be obliged to borrow money (for that is what we shall come to) in order to continue the annual payment to Turkey of the average sum which was only raised to its present high figure by the total neglect of all local necessities. ... I trust that some measure may be devised for lightening the burden that weighs on the revenues of Cyprus in order to enable us to make those financial reforms that are expected of us."* The measure devised was the Parliamentary grant-in-aid. But Sir R. Biddulph dealt with the matter in another aspect when discussing in a subsequent despatch the question of laying the annual estimates before the Legislative Council. In February, 1881, he wrote : " It may be expected that if Her Majesty's Government concede that the people of Cyprus have the same right of regulating their expenditure as have the people of England, a right which in theory is indisputable, what becomes of the annual payment to Turkey ? How am I to meet a proposal that the payment should be left to the country that guaranteed it ? My reply will, of course, be that, in administering the government of Cyprus, England did not undertake to relieve Cyprus from contributing to the general expenses of Turkey in the same way as before, and that by limiting the amount to what was formerly contributed, we hoped by good administration to obtain a further margin which will go in the revision of taxation or in works of public benefit. But this very reply disposes of the theory of con- trolling their own expenditure."! But to return to the Memorial ; it presents, of course, an extreme view of the case, and no impartial critic will pass judgment without hearing the arguments on both sides. Let us see, therefore, what were the arguments * Despatch from Sir R. Biddulph to Earl Granville, June 7, 1880. — Parliamentary Paper C. 2629. t Despatch from Sir R. Biddulph to the Earl of Kimberley. February 19, iSSi.- — Parliamentary Paper C. 3005. 6o CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE used by the Imperial Government in defence of their polic'' When Mr. Winston Churchill, as Under Secretary of Statl for the Colonies, visited Cyprus in 1907, a Memorial was' presented to him by the Greek Elected Members of the Legislative Council — who have always been indefatigable in such matters — in which they quoted the words used in 1903, stating that " it was admitted by all that, from a financial point of view, the misfortunes of Cyprus are due to the yearly alienation of the sum of money which, in proportion to her resources and public revenue, is enormous."* In his reply, Mr. Churchill dealt with the matter of the "tribute" in the following words : " I have left the question of the ' tribute ' to the last, because it is the most practical of the questions on which you have addressed me. It is a matter which has a political as well as a financial aspect. From the pohtical point of view it is clear that payment could only cease with the abrogation of the treaty by which the occupation of the island is secured ; and His Majesty's Government do not contemplate any abrogation of the treaty. " The financial aspect of the matter has already received the serious consideration of His Majesty's present advisers. By recent arrangements, which fix the amount of the annual grant-in-aid at £50,000, the pressure on the Island Treasury has already been reduced and reUeved. I hope that larger funds may be available in the near future for the development of public works in various parts of the island. ... It is quite true that the new arrangement of the grant-in-aid is limited to a period of three years. But I daresay that when the time to reconsider it is reached, if the British Government see encouraging results from the new arrangement achieved, it will certainly not be altered to the disadvantage of the island." f It will be observed that in this reply the assumption is made * Correspondence relating to the Affairs of Cyprus — Parliamentary Paper Cd. 3996. t Ibid. THE TRIBUTE 6i at England was bound by the treaty to pay the " tribute " om Cyprus revenues, ignoring the contention of the Memo- .iahsts of 1903 that " the payment of the surplus which was fixed at £92,000 is an obligation of England alone and not Cyprus towards the Porte." But Mr. Churchill in his reply referred to a matter which requires some explanation. Until the year 1907 Parliament, as has been stated above, voted annually a sum in aid of Cyprus revenues to meet the deficit caused by the excess of expendi- ture over revenue after the "tribute " obligation had been met. As the annual revenue depended mainly on the harvest and varied largely in consequence from year to year, the sum required to meet the deficit varied in proportion ; in the year 1882-83 the grant-in-aid amounted to no less than £90,000, whilst in respect of some years by reason of bountiful harvests and consequent large revenue no grant-in-aid proved necessary and none was paid. The consequence was that an excess of expenditure over revenue affected the pockets of the British taxpayer, but imposed no burden on Cyprus funds, so that it was to the manifold interest of the Cypriot population to resist any increase of taxation and to put forward demands for expenditure on every conceivable object. This was well illustrated by the incident recorded on page 85, when the utility of an important and long-overdue law passed in the Legislative Council providing for the Registration and Revalua- tion of all Immovable Property in the island was seriously impaired by the insertion by the elected members of a ridicu- lous clause limiting in perpetuam the amount of revenue to be derived from the tax on immovable property. With a Legislative Council in which the elected members exceeded the Government members by two to one — since the Council consists of twelve elected members and only six Government members — it can hardly be a matter of surprise that the passing of the yearly Budget proved an exceedingly difficult task for the local executive. It would indeed in all probability have been impossible under normal circumstances but for the fact 62 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE that the Turkish elected members have usually supported the payment of the " tribute," regarding it as an acknowledgment of the sovereignty over the island of the Ottoman Empire. But what is to be said for an arrangement which created a permanent antagonism between the Imperial Government and Cypriot taxpayers ; which made the aim of the British authorities an equilibrium between local revenue and local expenditure, including the " tribute," and the aim of the Cypriot taxpayer a large excess of expenditure over revenue, since the deficit merely formed a liability of Imperial Funds ? That such an arrangement was allowed to continue for thirty-three years is inexphcable, except on the supposition that the per- manent officials at the Colonial Office and the Treasury were too much absorbed in other work to devote time to a thorough consideration of the matter. Friction has been incessant, and on one occasion the whole machinery of a Royal Order in Coimcil had to be invoked in order to sanction expenditure which the Legislative Council in Cyprus refused to vote. Some idea may be formed of the financial difficulties with which the local administration in Cyprus has had to contend since the British occupation, with the enormous sum of ;^92,8oo to meet each year as " tribute," with a mainly hostile legislature oppos- ing for thirty-three years any addition to taxation, while clamouring for expenditure in every direction, and with the Imperial Government calling for the strictest economy in order that the deficit might be kept as low as possible. In such circumstances one may be permitted to wonder, not that the result has been in many ways disappointing, but that any satis- factory result has been possible at all. An end was put however to the absurd situation when, in 1907, the Imperial Government decided to ask Parliament to vote a fixed annual sum of £50,000 as grant-in-aid of Cyprus revenues ; and although this w^as at first limited to a period of three years, it has been continued ever since.* The result • In the year 1910-11 the grant was reduced to ;^40,ooo, but with this exception it has been ;^50,ooo each year since 1907-08. THE TRIBUTE 63 has been, as might have been anticipated, to place the local finances on an entirely different footing ; the Local Govern- ment, being able to count on a fixed grant-in-aid, has been in a position to arrange the Budget accordingly. The net liability on account of " tribute " is reduced to the fixed sum of £^2,800, and any surplus of revenue over expenditure is expended in the island. Under the old arrangement there could be no surplus, for the annual deficit was made good by the Imperial Government in the form of a grant which amounted to the precise sum required. Since 1907 good harvests and increased prosperity, coupled with careful and conservative estimates of revenue, have resulted in the realization of considerable sur- pluses, which have been devoted to expenditure on many useful objects, mostly themselves revenue providing ; as an instance, the Government railway has been extended, the capital charge being met from these surplus funds. Since the annexation of Cyprus to Great Britain on the out- break of war with Turkey on November 5, 1914, the so-called " tribute " has appeared in the annual budget as " Share of Cyprus of the Turkish Debt Charge," and the argument may be put forward that Cyprus may reasonably be expected to shoulder a portion of the Ottoman Public Debt, and that this in fact is what the island has done since the occupation in 1878, although for convenience the payment was charac- terized as " tribute." Incidentally it may be remarked that such an argument runs counter to the claim that the " tribute " is payable by the island under the terms of the Convention with Turkey. But in any case it may be doubted whether there is any other instance in British colonial history of a similar arrangement, and it is certainly contrary to preconceived notions. Since the occupation Cyprus has paid no less a sum than £3,533,136 as " tribute " or " debt charge " — whichever name may be preferred — ^whilst the sum received during the same period from the Imperial Government as grants-in-aid amounts to £1,347,085. The facts relating to the payment of the so-called " Cyprus tribute " or " debt charge " have been 64 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE set forth as impartially as possible, and from them an opinion can be formed as to whether the British Government has been justified in making the payment due to the Porte under the Cyprus Convention a charge on the Cyprus revenues, or whether, after assuming by treaty with Turkey the responsi- bility for administering the island — an arrangement to which the inhabitants of Cyprus were in no way a party — ^there was any justification for the British Government making this payment a charge on the island revenues, and utilizing it towards meeting the interest on an old debt of the Ottoman Empire entirely unconnected with Cyprus.* It is not uncommon in the British Empire to charge the revenues of its colonies and dependencies with the cost of any British garri- son which may be maintained in their territories, and if this had been done in the case of Cyprus there would have been little to say. But it is a very different thing to fix upon Cyprus revenues a permanent charge equivalent to the average sum extracted annually from the island by the Porte during five years of Turkish occupation. Is it possible to doubt that if Cyprus had remained in Turkish hands public opinion would have forced the Porte to provide a more liberal adminis- tration, and that the sum annually available for remission to Constantinople would in consequence have decreased instead of remaining constant ? Finally, is it not the duty of the British Government to see that the revenue raised in taxation in any of its dependencies is expended for the benefit of those dependencies, and that no portion is utilized for exterior purposes having no direct individual connection with the taxpayers who provide the revenue ? * Lord Eversley, in his recently published book The Turkish Empire ; Its Growth and Decay, after describing the financial arrangements made in the Cyprus Convention, makes the following comment : — " The arrangement was made hastily and without due enquiry, with the result that the island has been burthened with a charge far in excess of its past payments to the Porte and the British taxpayers have been compelled to bear a part of the burthen." CHAPTER V. ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEMS AND REFORMS. THE task which confronted the new administration to which was now entrusted the future welfare of Cyprus was no hght one. The three hundred years of Turkish govern-\ ment had reduced the island to a state of stagnation, and to stir the dry bones needed energy and initiative. Not that Turkey can be accused in latter years of downright maladministration : / it was a case rather of absence of administration. In some [ senses the government had been a Hberal one. The Christian > community, which comprised three-fourths of the population, had been left free to practise its own religion ; the Orthodox Greek Church had not only been left unmolested in the exer- cise of its spiritual functions, but its ministers had even been ' assisted by the Turkish tax collectors in the collection of their church dues and admitted to a considerable share in ; the government. But the proportion of the taxes raised in the island which had been devoted in Turkish times to the needs of those who paid the taxes was insignificant. The account of expenditure rendered by the Ottoman Government for the five years pre- ceding the British occupation showed an annual average of only £24,000 a year, and this, be it remembered, was for an island 3,500 square miles in extent with a population of 200,000 souls. The average revenue from direct and indirect taxation during the same period is calculated to have amounted to not less than £130,000 per annum, so that the sum expended on local administration was only eighteen per cent, of the taxes paid by the inhabitants, the balance being sent to Constanti- nople. In the light of these facts it can hardly be a matter of 65 E 66 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE surprise that the island in 1878 was found to be without roads, its harbours silted up, the peasants apathetic, agriculture languisliing, trade and commerce undeveloped, and a general state of paralysis prevailing. What conceivable incentive had the Cypriot to toil energetically when eighty per cent, of the money he paid in taxes was taken out of the island to fill the coffers of his Ottoman masters in Constantinople ? 5^. The administration had passed to the British Government suddenly and unexpectedly, and there was no question of upsetting the prevaihng system or machinery, nor indeed would it have been possible to do so, seeing that there had beer no time to take stock, to formulate plans, or to think out substitute. Sir Garnet Wolseley simply stepped into tH position vacated by the Turkish Governor, and nominatt^ six British officers to take the places of the Turkish Kaimakaf^- who had been in charge of the six administrative divisioi^ These set to work with characteristic British energy to evol- some order out of the chaos to which Oriental neglect ai? apathy had reduced the towns and villages in their district' The Turkish machinery for tax collecting was taken over as 3 stood, together with the existing system, and the native estab lishments were transferred bodily to the new administration. The old Turkish gendarmerie — the zaptieh or police force — which had existed for the maintenance of law and order, for executing warrants of the courts, and above all for assisting in the collection of taxes, was taken in hand and reformed, and one of the first legal instruments promulgated by the new administration provided for its recruitment, pay, condi- tions of service, discipline, pensions, gratuities, and so forth. Hence, in a short time there was in existence an efficient military police force, properly officered, clothed, armed, and accoutred ; this was distributed amongst the various districts, small detachments being quartered in central villages from which patrols were regularly sent to outlying localities, and in this way the whole island was rapidly brought under efficient poHce supervision. ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEMS AND REFORMS 67 A very necessary reform of the currency was inaugurated by Sir Robert Biddulph, who succeeded Sir Garnet Wolseley as High Commissioner on June 23, 1879. At the time of the occupation the principal medium of exchange was a depreciated form of paper money known under the name of caime, valued at about 250 piastres of Turkish money : various currencies were in use in different parts of the island, and the introduction of some xmiform system was imperative. In 1879, therefore, the value of the Enghsh sovereign was fixed at 180 piastres, and a copper coinage was struck for Cyprus, bearing the effigy of the Queen, and consisting of piastres, half piastres, and quarter piastres. In 1900 a silver coinage was issued, consist- ing of pieces of 18, 9, 4I, and 3 piastres, equivalent respectively *^o 2s., IS., 6d., and 4^. of Enghsh money. These coins bear )n the obverse the effigy of the sovereign and on the reverse he Lusignan lion, and, in company with the English sovereign, hey form the sole currency of the island. The Government and other accounts are kept in pounds sterling, shillings, and " copper piastres," the latter so called to distinguish them from Turkish or Egyptian piastres, which have a different value. The seigniorate on Cyprus silver accruing to the Government of Cyprus amounts to some £35,000, which is invested in various securities, the interest from which is credited to the island revenue. Writing in 1879, a year after the British occupation, Sir Samuel Baker was loud in his praise of the work done during those first twelve months by the British officials — drawn almost entirely from the army, as the occupation was at its inception of a miUtary nature — and of " the extreme devotion to a most difficult task in a contradictory position, exhibited not only by the Governor and Commissioners of districts, but by all British officers entrusted with authority." " No officer," he writes, " understood either the language, or laws, of the people they had to govern ; they were for the most part specially educated for the military profession, and they were suddenly plunged into official positions where agricultural, 68 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE legal, commercial, and engineering difficulties absorbed their entire attention, all of which had to be comprehended through the medium of an interpreter. It is rare that the most favoured individual combines such general knowledge ; Turks and Greeks, antagonistic races, were to lie down contented like the lion and the lamb under the blessing of a British rule ; all animosities were to be forgotten. The religion of Mussulmans would remain inviolate, and the Greek Church would hold its former independence ; freedom and equality were to be assured when the English flag replaced the Crescent and Star upon the red ensign beneath which Cyprus had withered as before a flame ; the resources of the country were to awaken as from a long sleep, and the world should witness the marvellous change between Cyprus when under Turks, and when trans- ferred to Englishmen. ' Look upon that picture, and on this 1 ' The officers of our army were magicians to effect this trans- formation, not only strangers to the climate, language, laws, customs, people, but without money : as the island had been robbed of revenue by the conditions of the Turkish Conven- tion." * "An Enghshman's first idea," says the same author, "is improvement, and I believe that upon entering heaven itself he would suggest some alteration." f Before the new administration had been at work six months, however, letters were received by public men in England alleging all sorts of grievances on the part of the Greek population in Cyprus, and on March 24, 1879, a debate took place in the House of Commons during which a number of questions were asked relating to Cyprus affairs. The majority of the com- plaints had reference to alleged injustices to the Greek popula- tion of the island ; it was asserted that petitions written in the Greek language were refused, and Greek newspapers excluded from the island ; that priests of the Orthodox Church were sent to gaol, and the spiritual jurisdiction of the Arch- bishop and Bishops interfered with; that Turks were given a majority on the Councils of the island, and that persons * " Cyprus as I Saw It in 1879," by Sir Samuel Baker. t Ibid. ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEMS AND REFORMS 69 proposed as members of the Legislative Council were rejected merely on the ground that they were Greeks. On reference being made to Sir Garnet Wolseley, he at once instituted an enquiry, and ascertained that the complaints originated mostly from " a small and insignificant clique of foreigners who, seeking for notoriety, are prepared to make the most monstrous and unfounded charges against anyone, regardless of truth, as long as they secure what is to them a great distinction, namely, that of seeing their names quoted in print as the authority for statements which are made seriously and in good faith in Parliament by over-credulous members who have been deceived by the very circumstantiality introduced into these untruthful charges." * The root of the alleged grievances was soon found to exist in the enforcement of the law by the British authorities on all persons and classes alike. Under the lax Turkish regime favours were easily purchased, and the ministers of the Greek Church had been treated with peculiar leniency because the Turkish authorities had reUed to a great extent on their assist- ance in the collection of revenue and the enforcement of various orders. In the words of the Commissioner of Limassol, against whom charges had more particularly been preferred : " Priests are imprisoned when convicted by the Courts, all are equal before the law ; the priests, when formerly imprisoned by the Church, were set at liberty without leave or authority. . . . The classes who possessed immunity have now been brought to a dead level with the poorer villager, and the attempt to bring the latter into the ranks of the Adullamites is an impudent imposture." f Lest, however, there should be supposed to be any hesitation on the part of the local authorities in enquiring into the truth of the allegations or a desire to evade enquiry, reports were called for from all Commissioners, and a Judicial Commission * Despatch of April lo, 1879, from Sir G. Wolseley to the Marquis of Salisbury. — Parliamentary Paper C. 2324. t Ibid. 70 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE was sent to Limassol before. which the complainants were invited to appear and substantiate their statements. The Commission resulted in establishing the fact that the complaints were either untrue or grossly exaggerated and misrepresented, and the Judicial Commissioner was able to report that he had " the satisfaction of believing that the Bishop of Citium and the ' extreme Hellenic ' inhabitants of Cyprus, who have evinced an almost excited interest in the inquiry, have left it with no feeling of soreness, and with the conviction that the welfare of the inhabitants was the anxious care of the adminis- tration." * No more complaints were heard after this, and the island rapidly settled down to the new conditions entailed by the change of administration. To\\ards the close of the year 1880 it was decided to transfer correspondence relating to Cyprus to the superintendence of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and in a despatch dated December 6, 1880, the High Commissioner was directed by Lord Granville to address his despatches and letters on the public service accordingly. The affairs of the island were henceforth directed from the Colonial Office instead of being, as hitherto, under the superintendence of the Foreign Ofhce. Lord Kimberley, however, decided to send out to Cyprus an official " well versed in the principles and practice of Colonial administration " to consult with the High Commissioner, and report upon the administrative requirements of the island, and in the autumn of 1881 Mr. Fairfield, a member of the Colonial Office, was despatched to Cyprus for this purpose ; and in 1882 an exhaustive report was submitted by that officer dealing with the whole administrative and financial situation of the island. The report formed the basis of a number of administrative and financial reforms which were subsequently introduced into the island. But it proved clearly that neither increased revenue nor any considerable economy in administration could be expected, " It would not be credit- * Letter from Mr. Phillips to Colonel Greaves, June 12 1879. — Parlia- mentary Paper C. 2355. AD:\IINISTRATIVE problems and reforms 71 able for us," wrote Mr. Fairfield, " to govern as cheaply as did the Turks, even if it were practicable. They governed cheaply because they governed badly. They let everything go to ruin. They executed no public works. They paid ordi- nary judges 14s. a month, and other salaries were in proportion. Zapiiehs lived at free quarters on the common people." It was recognized that by lavish expenditure of pubHc money on harbours, railways, afforestation, artesian well boring, agricultural banks, and so forth, a state of forced prosperity might be achieved. But " it does not seem necessary," wrote Mr. Fairfield, " to argue against a plan which amounts to a speculation with the proceeds of English taxes in an effort to change the face of nature and the characters of the seasons in an island not exactly our own. . . A fairer and more hopeful plan of action seems to be to fix the establishment of the island on an efficient but somewhat parsimonious basis, to re-adjust taxation so as not to hamper industry, to afford moderate assistance from Parliamentary votes for a term, and to trust to the natural growth of wealth and revenue under a wise and orderly Government." * As a result of this report a number of administrative reforms were introduced, and the grant of a Constitution in 1882 providing for a Legislative Council with twelve elected members gave the people a direct voice in the management of the affairs of the island. In 1887 great distress was caused by drought, due to the absence of winter rains, and measures were undertaken by Government for the relief of the villagers, who were threatened with ruin by the almost complete failure of their crops : relief works were started in the districts more concerned, and large advances of seed corn were made to the farmers. The revenue, dependent as it was to a great extent on the tithe, was seriously affected, and when the Legislative Council met in the spring of 1888 the financial position gave rise to serious alarm amongst * Memorandum by Mr. G. Fairfield, June, 1882. — Parliamentary Paper C. 3661. 72 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE the elected members. They adopted the course, when the Appropriation Bill for the year was presented to the Council, of voting for a number of reductions in the sums appropriated for various departments, explaining that they desired economies effected by abolishing certain offices in the Government Service and reducing the salaries and emolu- ments of a number of Government officials. Holding a majority over the official members the elected members carried these reductions, and it was eventually found necessary to obtain legislative sanction for funds to carry on the adminis- tration by obtaining an Order in Council by Her Majesty to provide the requisite funds. The incident, coupled with the distress caused by the drought of the previous year, had created considerable unrest in the island, and meetings had been held in most of the principal towns at which resolutions were passed demanding various reforms and alleging a number of grievances. As a result of these meetings a deputation consisting of three leading members of the Greek community visited England in 1889 in order to lay before the Imperial Government a statement of the grievances from which the island was said to be suffering, and put forward a number of proposals for reforms of various descriptions. The Memorial submitted by these gentlemen covered a vast number of sub- jects, amongst which the principal related to the financial position of the island, the taxation of the country, the pay- ments made to the Porte, the value of landed property, the constitutional powers of the Legislative Council, and the con- stitution of the Executive Council, education, the agricultural interests of the island, the police force, and the condition of the Independent Eastern Orthodox Church in Cyprus. All these matters were duly considered by the Secretary of State, and his views regarding them were conveyed to the High Commissioner in a lengthy despatch of March 22, 1890,* which was laid in due course before the Legislative Council. In this despatch ♦ Despatch from Lord Knutsford to Sir Henry Bulwer, March 22, 1890. — Parliamentary Paper C. 6003. ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEMS AND REFORMS 73 the complaints of the MemoriaHsts regarding the alleged over-taxation and consequent exhaustion of the resources of the island were analysed, and it was shown conclusively that, although the revenue derived from taxation had increased since Turkish times, so far from taxes having been increased, a net remission of nearly £20,000 per annum had been effected since the British occupation. " Grievances about taxation," wrote Lord Knutsford, " usually take the form of objections to the imposition of novel and heavier rates of taxation ; and, as far as I know, never to the more abundant yield from indirect taxes. More often, indeed, a decreasing yield in that branch of revenue is adduced as evidence that a government is ruining a country. Yet it is into a complaint against the increasing yield of indirect taxation that the argu- ments in the Memorial are found to resolve themselves." * With regard to the alleged exhaustion of the resources of the island, figures were adduced showing that the average wheat crop for the eleven years since the British occupation was double in quantity the highest estimates obtainable in respect of Turkish times, and that the barley crop had increased about fifty per cent. Lord Knutsford then proceeded to deal seri- atim with the other matters which had formed the subject of the Memorial, and concluded by " venturing to hope that a careful perusal of the despatch would convince the members of the deputation and the MemoriaHsts that their views had received very full and careful consideration, and that Her Majesty's Government had closely at heart, and was most anxious to promote in every way, the welfare and prosperity of the island." The incident no doubt had an excellent effect in clearing the air and proving to the Cypriot population that the affairs of the island were watched with anxious soHcitude both by the local administration and by the Government in England, and it enabled the Colonial Office to hear at first hand the * Despatch from Lord Knutsford to Sir Henry Bulwer, March 22 1890. — Parliamentary Paper C. 6003. 74 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE views of the people, and discuss with their representatives the most important of the problems connected with the island. The careful consideration given to these problems had certain indirect results, which led to changes and improvements in various branches of the administration, but the only immediate and tangible result appears to have been the reduction of the charge for passports from five shillings to one and four- pence — a very exiguous mouse to result from the labour of mountains. Village and municipal administration has undergone little change since the British occupation, though various laws have been passed from time to time in the Legislative Council designed to improve and modernize the machinery. Muni- cipal Councils have been set up in many of the principal towns and endowed with considerable powers for raising municipal revenue, but the result has in most cases been disappointing. Although empowered to raise money by levying a rate on property the Councils have preferred to rely on a number of petty indirect taxes — such as weighing fees, storage of petro- leum, market dues, and so forth — for raising the municipal revenue, with the result that with the meagre funds resulting they have failed to make adequate arrangements for water supply, street Hghting and cleaning, sanitation, and all similar requirements of an urban community. The capital in parti- cular suffers from a defective water supply, the streets are narrow, tortuous, and ill-paved, and until recently, when electric light was installed, a few ill-burning lamps were all that relieved the darkness at night. On the other hand, the municipality of Limassol, which obtains a considerable revenue from weighing dues owing to the large export of carob beans from the port, has displayed remarkable energy and adminis- trative ability in improving the amenities of the town. It maintains a hospital, and has laid out municipal gardens, where a municipal band plays in the afternoon ; the streets are clean and well-lighted, and excellent municipal markets and slaughter-houses have been provided. Visitors to the island ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEMS AND REFORMS 75 who land at Limassol are impressed with the appearance of the town, which is rapidly growing in prosperity and wealth, and compares favourably with any town of its size in the Levant. Village administration in Cyprus is based on an excellent system, which has probably prevailed in something like its present form for centuries. Each village has its Miikhtar or headman, and its council of Azas or elders ; a number of " field watchmen " guard the crops, and are charged with preventing trespass or damage by the village flocks. Formerly the Mukhtar was appointed to his post by Government, but some time ago, owing to the passion of the Greek population for democratic institutions, a law was passed in the Legislative Council providing that this functionary should be elected by the villagers. The result of this innovation has been anything but satisfactory. In every village, though the majority of the inhabitants are peaceful and law-abiding, and desire nothing but the maintenance of law and order, there are a certain number of persons who are bent on exploiting their fellow- villagers for their own benefit, and these persons by unscrupulous methods in many cases succeed in getting them- selves elected to the post of Mukhtar. The multitude of elec- tions are, moreover, apt to create bad blood amongst the various parties and cliques into which every village is divided, and many crimes are directly traceable to this cause. Not infrequently persons who are entirely ilHterate, or whose repu- tation is anything but good, obtain election to the office of Mukhtar, and, although the High Commissioner is empowered by law to dismiss from his office a Mukhtar guilty of miscon- duct, there is nothing to prevent the same man being elected again by his party, if they are in the majority. Public opinion is slowly coming round to the view that the present system is a mistake, and it is possible that the Legislative Council would be favourably inclined towards an amendment of the existing law which would abolish some of the abuses which undoubtedly exist. 76 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE The election of field watchmen and the assessing of their wages by the villagers, is also a cause of much discontent, and, although the law governing the present system has been amended in various directions from time to time, it has proved most unsatisfactory, and has been described more than once as " bad from top to bottom." A proposal which has beeil made to change the field watchmen into a kind of rural policeL ^ has much to commend it, and may prove the means of placingj the whole system on a more satisfactory basis, but the members of the Legislative Council have been unable to agree on any such measure, and until they do no alteration in the present system is possible. Cyprus, like many other similarly circumstanced countries^ suffers from a perpetual feud between the owners of flocks i.^ and the tillers of the soil, and this leads to quarrels and disputes, ) which not infrequently have a fatal termination. Murder and homicide are by no means an uncommon feature of village life, and, although the crime fassionnel is certainly the commonest, yet the antagonism between the shepherds and the farmers is a fruitful source of breaches of the law. There can be no doubt that amendments to the laws relating to village authorities and field watchmen, and fresh legislation regulating the carrying of fire-arms and knives would do much to diminish the crime which is all too common in Cyprus, but the elected members of the Legislature are very jealous of any measures supposed to curtail the liberty of the people or interfere with democratic institutions, and with the Legis- lative Council constituted as it is the executive is powerless to press measures unacceptable to the remainder of the Council. There is one defect in the present system of district adminis- tration which should be remedied : an important hnk is missing between the village organization and the Commissioner, who is the direct representative of the Government. In Turkish times each district or Kaza was administered by a Kaimakam, and was subdivided into Nahiehs or sub-districts, in charge of which were officials termed Mudirs, Shortly after the ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEMS AND REFORMS yy British occupation, when strenuous endeavours were being made to reduce administrative expenses, attention was turned to the latter officials. " Hitherto," wrote Mr. Fairfield, " part of the Mudir's duty has been to talk to and be talked to by the people — ^to exhort them to pay taxes, to plant trees, and to mend their water-wheels, for the government of the Cypriots involves more ' palaver ' than that of any other people under our jurisdiction ... It seems hardly necessary to keep up a staff of officers merely to exhort people to mind their own business." * So the fiat went forth, and in the interests of economy the Mudir was turned into a sheriff's officer and sent perambulating his Nahieh, selling up the immov- able property of the villager who had fallen into debt, and executing the decrees of the Court. The Commissioner was thus deprived of the services of the only person on whom he could rely both to ascertain the views and the wants of the villager and to explain to the latter the views and orders of the Government. Yet the vital importance of such an inter- mediary between the Commissioner and the villager is obvious, more especially when the barrier of language is remembered. The diversion of the Mudirs from their proper duties was a very ill-judged piece of economy on the part of the Govern- ment, and the mistake should be remedied as quickly as pos- sible. There should be in each district a native assistant, selected from amongst the most intelligent of the people, known to and trusted by every villager — or at least every Mukhtar — in the district, who would be the medium for conveying to the people the wishes of the Government, and to the Government, through the Commissioner, the wants of the people. Mr. Fairfield's airy sarcasm about exhorting people to mind their own business shows ignorance of the true situation, and a lamentable want of insight into the needs of a backward and ignorant peasantry. The Mudir should never have been turned into a sheriff's officer : the number might well have been reduced and the pay increased so as to secure the best class of * Report by Mr. Fairfield. — Parliamentary Paper C. 3661. 78 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE individual for this most important post. So long as Mudirs remain sheriff's officers the Government will be out of touch with the people, ignorant of their wants, an alien Government in every sense. Every Commissioner knows and feels this, and is aware of the remedy, but is powerless to supply it. There is a great difference between false economy and true economy ; the difference has not always been recognized in Cyprus, and this is a case in point. CHAPTER VI. TAXATION AND FINANCE. ON assuming the administration of the island the first step taken by the Government was to make a careful survey of the financial assets and liabilities which had been inherited from its Turkish possessors, and in September, 1878, a report was submitted by the Financial Commissioner. This report contained an estimate of revenue and expenditure for the year, together with a memorandum describing the character and operation of the several taxes existing in the island. The Turks taxed almost everything : a list of their taxes exhibited no less than twenty-four classes of imports, which included almost every device known for raising revenue, to the most modern, namely, an income tax and stamps on the written transactions of daily hfe. The revenue raised under the Turkish Government, however, may be classified under eight main heads, namely : (i.) Tithes on agricultural produce ; (ii.) Property tax and trade taxes ; (iii.) Sheep and goat tax ; (iv.) Customs dues ; (v.) Excise on tobacco and spirits ; (vi.) Salt monopoly ; (vii.) Exemption from miUtary service ; (viii.) Miscellaneous taxes. Of these the revenue obtained from tithes was the most important item, as it provided considerably more than a third of the total revenue of the island. Under normal conditions this may be regarded as a fair and reasonable tax, and is an exceedingly common one in Oriental countries, where it is usually levied, as in Cyprus, in kind ; but when it is applied to every imaginable kind of agricultural and horticultural produce it is apt to result in unfair and irritating restrictions, which hamper produce and lead to a minimum development of agricultural industry. This was the case in Cyprus, where 79 8o CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE the system of collecting tithes was designed with the sole object of extracting the maximum of revenue at a minimum of cost, an object obtained by farming out the tithes to private per- sons, who were more concerned with making what profits they could than with collecting the tithes with justness and fairness. Nor could it be expected that the cultivation of cereals, fruit, and vegetables would be encouraged by a system which provided that no produce could be removed from any field or garden until it should have been valued for taxation by the Government official appointed for that purpose at the rate of ten per cent, ad valorem. On the other hand, the tax had this advantage, that it varied in precise proportion to the annual yield, and, being levied in kind, was eminently suited to a community of agriculturists, for the most part very poor small-holders, who were without capital, and whose sole wealth consisted in the produce which they were able to obtain from the soil. Under the Turkish Government the tithes were sold to mer^/ chants or speculators in the spring of each year, when the extent and quality of the year's produce could be estimated from an examination of the ripening crops. The tithe farmer signed a bond for the amount of his purchase, payable in six monthly instalments, beginning from August ist. This done, he pro- ceeded to watch the fields, and to see the grain cut, threshed, and heaped ; the tithe was taken on the threshing floor, and arrangements made by the cultivators for its transport to the nearest port of embarkation on terms more or less unfavour- able to themselves. Their cattle were taken away for trans- port when most required in their own fields, and they had to bear all the expense of transit except the expense of the first mile, which was paid by the tithe farmer. With regard to fruit, vegetables, and other perishable articles, the tithe was usually commuted in a money payment, which led almost invariably to disputes, determinable by the head Government official of each locality, who usually gave his decision in favour of the tithe farmer. In the autumn the vineyards were TAXATION AND FINANCE 8i similarly visited, and as the cultivator was usually unwilling to risk the deterioration or loss of his stock which disputes as to valuation would involve, he was forced to submit to the exactions of the tithe farmer. Although keen in their dealings with the peasantry, however, the tithe farmers were by no means prompt in their own pay- ments to the Government Treasury ; and although interest was, under the bonds, payable on overdue instalments, it was in fact never enforced. The accounts handed over by the Turkish Government revealed the existence of considerable arrear claims, and of the collections credited in the year 1876-77, nearly one-half was on account of the claims of previous years. Thus the tithe system as practised by the Turkish Government was in almost every way injurious. It impoverished the peasant, involving him in the toils of the money-lender, as well as of the tithe farmer ; it checked the productiveness of the island, the area under cultivation at the time of the British occupation being estimated as less than a third of the whole cultivable ; and it resulted in a loss of revenue to the State, since the system of farming the tithes left in the hands of the tithe farmers a considerable propor- tion of the sums collected by the latter from the peasantry. The system was seen to be injurious, and it was promptly altered. " The collection of tithes was worse managed under the Turks," wrote Sir R. Biddulph in 1880, " than any other branch of their revenue. . . . The agency we used was alto- gether new to the Government. One of the largest and most successful tithe farmers was appointed by Sir Garnet Wolseley to be Chief Collector of Tithes, and placed immediately under the orders of the Auditor and Accountant-General. With his advice Superintendents and Agents were selected, chiefly from amongst men who had filled similar situations under the different tithe farmers, and each district was worked under the orders of the Commissioners. . . . The success achieved has been remarkable, and we are now using the tithe agents as permanent tax collectors, instead of following the Turkish F 82 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE plan of having different collectors for each kind of tax. . . . Any money lost to the State has remained in the pockets of the people, and has not fallen into the hands of the middleman, as under the system of tithe farming." * Much correspondence ensued during subsequent years between the local and the Imperial Government on the subject of tithes and the question of their commutation for a money payment. At one time it was proposed to adopt a system introduced successfully into Ceylon, which formed a com- promise between a variable tithe and a fixed annual payment, designed to allow for the uncertainty of harvests and at the same time accustom the minds of the people to the payment of a fixed sum. In 1879 the Government had decided that the farmer should pay in money the assessed value of the tithe due by him ; this relieved him from the obligation of convey- ing his tithe in kind to the Government stores, which, up to a distance of three miles, he was compelled to do free of charge, and left him free to dispose of all his produce as he chose. The Cypriot peasant is, however, by nature imthrifty, and the arrangement was found to work unsatisfactorily ; by the time the Government collector came round, the peasant had often no money wherewith to pay him, and was forced either to borrow the amount from a money-lender at a high rate of interest, or to fall into arrears with the Government, resulting in a fine for his failure to pay. About 1886, therefore, the rule was gradually relaxed in order to meet the necessities of cer- tain districts, and the tithe was taken in kind. This arrange- ment has since been extended, and it is now in force through- out the island," f The Government has purchased or built large grain stores in every district, where the tithe corn is collected and eventually sold to merchants by means of tenders in the open market. The system has its advantages as well as its disadvantages. It enables the Government to exercise ♦ Despatch from Sir R. Biddulph to Earl Granville, June 7, 1880. — Parliamentary Paper C. 2629. t Except in certain hill villages where, owing to the difficulties of trans- port, an arrangement is made each year whereby it is collected in cash. TAXATION AND FINANCE 83 a certain control over the price of grain, and to make large issues of seed corn every year to indigent farmers. It is popular with the peasant, who hands over to Government the tithe of his corn straight from the threshing floor, and so is quit of his tax for the year, instead of having a debt hanging over his head for some months. The most important step taken by the Government with regard to the tithes, however, was their aboHtion in every case except that of the four principal crops — wheat, barley, oats, and vetches. The tithe on grapes was abolished, the Govern- ment imposing in return an additional excise duty on all wine and spirit made in the island, and an export duty on raisins ; similarly the tithe on carob beans was done away with, an export duty being imposed in Heu ; whilst the large number of fruits and vegetables which the Turks had taxed were alto- gether exempted from the payment of tithes, the people being thus freed not only from the payment of a tax, but from the objectionable restrictions under which they could not gather their fruit and garden produce until it had been first assessed. The Property Tax, whilst providing less than a third of the amount obtained annually for tithes, came next in importance from the point of view of revenue. It was divided into three classes : (i) Tax on houses or immovable property, at the rate of four per thousand on the purchasing value. (2) Tax on the rent of immovable property, at the rate of four per cent. (3) Tax on professions and trades, at the rate of three per cent, on profits and salaries. This tax was assessed by the district authorities preparing statements showing the contributions required for each village and town, according to the number of houses, and the number and means of the population. The assessment was made roughly, and the tax was recovered by the Mukhtars or headmen of villages, selected by the inhabi- tants, and confirmed by the district authorities. The assessment of the first two classes of property tax was facilitated by the fact that all sales and transfers of immovable property had to be registered in the Land Registration Office, but the tax on trades 84 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE and professions was arbitrarily fixed for each town or village, and the Mukhiars were left in practice to levy the personal contribution of each taxpayer as they thought fit. It is clear that there was room for much extortion and oppression in this system, although the tax itself was both fair and reason- able ; but as in the case of the tithes, a considerable propor- tion of the money exacted from the taxpayers remained in the hands of the collectors and failed to reach the Government Treasury, In order that a Property Tax should be properly assessed, an accurate record and valuation of all existing property is clearly indispensable. Shortly after the occupa- tion, an engineer officer of experience was employed to survey the island,* and the work was completed in about three years. The scale of the survey ranged from two inches to a mile for the more mountainous and less populated parts to four inches to a mile for the cultivated plains, besides plans of the four principal towns on a scale of eight inches to a mile. All details were shown of which the scale permitted, such as roads, rivers, watercourses, woods, vineyards, orchards, and buildings, but not the boundaries of properties, so that full advantage could not be derived from the work as a revenue survey. To mark out the boundaries of every holding in the island the necessary expenditure was estimated at ^^50,000, the time necessary for such a survey to be twenty years, so that the undertaking was clearly impossible at the time. It was not till the year 1907 that the Legislative Council decided to pass -a law providing for the revaluation and compulsory registra- tion of all immovable property in the island, which entailed the carrying out of a cadastral survey, now in progress. Unfor- tunately the elected members inserted and carried a clause whereby any enhancement of revenue was prevented by the proviso that if in any district the revaluation of property * The officer in question was the late Lord Kitchener, then a subaltern of the Royal Engineers. It is not surprising that the survey work performed by him was described in 1882 as having " called forth the admiration of every competent critic who has examined it," as being " the cheapest survey of which there is any English experience." — Parliamentary Paper C. 3661. TAXATION AND FINANCE 85 resulted in an increase in the proceeds of the Property Tax, the rate at which the latter was assessed should be reduced to a figure which would produce from the new revaluation a sura equivalent to the previously existing sums. As the rate of four per thousand, which previously prevailed, was admitted on all sides to be fair and not excessive, this absurd proviso merely prevents the Property Tax of the island from making its proper contribution to the revenue, and diminishes the funds necessary for administrative purposes. The revenues derived from the Sheep Tax, Customs Dues, Excise on Tobacco and Spirits, and Salt monopoly were collected on the whole with fairness and impartiality, and with adequate machinery. A regular enumeration of the sheep and goats in the island was carried out annually during the month of March, and the tax, amounting to about sixpence per head, was collected by the local Government officials. The Customs Dues amounted to eight per cent, on imports and one per cent, on exports. The salt obtained in large quantities from the lakes at Larnaca and Limassol formed a Government monopoly and was collected and sold for local consumption and export. Unfortunately an injudicious increase to the selling price made some years before the British occupation, combined with short weights and enhanced cost of shipment, had diverted a great part of the Syrian demand from Cyprus to the salt lakes of Tunis, and had reduced the revenue derived from this source ; but the latter was still considerable, and was from its nature obtained with very little trouble and expense. These taxes have been continued with little or no alteration, and remain in force. The tax on exemption from military service had superseded the capitation tax formerly levied upon Christians and the subjects of the Porte who were not Moslems. It amounted to 27f piastres (about 5s. 6d.) for each male inhabitant from twenty to forty years of age, though in practice it was levied upon males above and below those limits. It was collected by the Miikhtars, who were required to recover the money and 86 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE pay it into the Government Treasury in twelve monthly instal- ments. The tax was exceedingly unpopular and offensive to all whom it affected throughout the Turkish dominions, and Greek, Armenian, and Bulgarian subjects had protested against it from time to time, but without effect. It yielded, however, in Cyprus a sum of about £12,000 per annum, and was collected with a fair amount of impartiality and regularity. On the British occupation this tax was very properly extended to Moslems as well as non-Moslems, and was reduced to 2s. 6d. per head ; it became, in fact, a simple poll-tax on certain male taxpayers. It was open to all the ordinary objections to a poll-tax and was in addition very troublesome to collect. There was, however, a still more objectionable tax, called verghi temettu, nominally a tax of three per cent, on trade profits, which was levied even on agricultural labourers. The proper assessment of trade profits of many labourers and mechanics was clearly impossible, and it therefore became the practice amongst the Turks for the assessor to fix a stated amount according to the nature of the man's business ; the tax was therefore in reality a classified " trade licence tax," and taken in connection with the military exemption tax made far too heavy a demand on the labouring classes. This being recog- nized by the Government shortly after the British occupation, all labourers and mechanics were relieved from the payment of verghi temettu. Finally, in 1906, both this tax and the military exemption tax were altogether abolished, their dis- appearance being hailed with delight by the inhabitants. The above account gives a brief summary of the principal taxes which were levied by the Turks at the time of the British occupation, and shows the manner in which they have since been modified. It is now necessary to turn to the revenue derived from them and the relation of the revenue to the expenditure in the island. The estimate of revenue made by the Government for the first year of British occupation amounted to a sum of ;^i70,ooo, made up as follows : TAXATION AND FINANCE 87 Tithes on Agricultural Produce . . £72,000 Property and Trade Taxes . . 22,000 Sheep Tax 11,000 Customs Dues 13,400 Excise on Tobacco and Spirit . . 16,850 Salt Monopoly .. 15,145 Exemption from Military Service Tax 9,000 Miscellaneous 10,605 • -1 _ _ 1 / The estimate of expenditure for the same period was based upon the actual cost of the Turkish and native establishments maintained by the new administration, together with the cost of the new agencies created by the latter. As has been already stated, the account of expenditure rendered by the Ottoman Government showed an annual average for the previous five years of £2^,000. Deducting from this the pay of officials and subordinates, estabUshments no longer retained, and the cost for six months of the old Zaptieh or police (the correspond- ing charge for the reformed police force being added to the estimated cost of the British establishment), a balance of £17,000 remained, and was accepted as a fair estimate of the charges for native establishments for the first year of the British administration. The charges for British establish- ments for the same period were estimated at £35,000, which sum included certain expenses incidental to the occupation of a new country unhkely to recur. The total estimated expenditure for the year, therefore, amounted to £52,000, leaving an estimated surplus of £118,000. An examination of the accounts of Cyprus for the five years preceding the British occupation revealed the fact that the average surplus of revenue over expenditure had been less than £100,000. " The future yearly contribution to the Otto- man Government from the surplus revenues of Cyprus, under the Convention of June 4, 1878," wrote the Financial Commis- sioner on September 25, 1878, " will not, therefore, exceed, and may fall short of, the sum of £100,000. Nearly one-half 88 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE of this claim for the current year was taken by the Turk from surplus revenue before our arrival. We shall easily make up the balance from the revenue now in course of collection. And, under ordinary conditions, the current revenue will not only cover the annual payment to the Porte, and the expenses of administration, but also provide a fair outlay for roads and sanitary improvements." * What a rosy prospect ! Cyprus did indeed seem to be in an enviable financial position, with a revenue more than three times its expenditure — a veritable gold mine. Even after paying away more than half its revenue annually to Constan- tinople the balance was to pay all the cost of the administra- tive machinery, and even — happy thought ! — contribute something towards " roads and sanitary improvements." Those who study the history of the thirty years which followed the issue of this famous memorandum may shrug their shoulders at its short-sightedness and confident optimism, and marvel at the failure to take any account of such items as public works, education, agriculture, forestry, and other necessary expenditure, but it can hardly cause surprise if the British Government, glancing merely at the figures given by the Financial Commissioner, decided without a qualm that the whole of the " surplus revenue " hypothecated to the Porte under the terms of the Convention should be a charge on the Cyprus taxpayer. The first estimate of revenue, however, was soon found to have been far too optimistic : the amount realized fell short of the estimate by more than £30,000, and during the first twelve years of the British occupation the annual local revenue showed an average of only £165,000, while the average annual local expenditure during the same period amounted to no less than £112,000. The surplus of local revenue over local expenditure during these twelve years thus only amounted * Memorandum on the Revenue and Charges of the Island of Cyprus for the five years from 1873 to 1878, under Turkish administration, by Geo. W. Kellner, Financial Commissioner of Cyprus, dated September 25, 1878. TAXATION AND FINANCE 89 to an average of ;^53,ooo per annum, which was quite insuffi- cient to meet the Hability, charged by the British Government on Cyprus funds, of £92,800 to be paid annually to the Porte, and the balance had to be paid by the Imperial Government in the form of an annual grant-in-aid. The determination of the amount of grant-in-aid formed the subject of voluminous correspondence which passed between the High Commissioner, the Foreign Office, and the Treasury, and the payment of the " tribute charge " presented many com- pHcations. Grants amounting in all to £209,085 were voted by Parhament during the first five years, and afterwards sums varying from £10,000 to £87,000 were voted each year in aid of the Cyprus revenues, although there were three years when no grant was found necessary as bountiful harvests yielded revenue sufficient to meet all charges, including the " tribute." * The system by which deficits were thus made good by the Imperial Parliament involved, however, serious disadvantages. To begin with, as has been explained else- where, it was anomalous that the island should be placed in a position which tempted the inhabitants to clamour at the same time for large expenditure and reduction in taxation, in the knowledge that the Imperial Government would be obHged to make good any defect. Further, it involved a tire- some duplication of correspondence and division of responsi- bility, for all the estimates had to be submitted first to the Imperial Treasury by the Colonial Office and to receive the sanction of the former. The system was, however, allowed to continue until 1907, when an annual grant of £50,000 was provisionally decided upon, and three years later this provi- sional arrangement was made permanent, and the finances of the island were freed from Treasury control. A condition was, however, attached to the concession made regarding the per- manent grant-in-aid, which was that a sum of £90,000 should be set aside as a reserve fund to meet any shortage of revenue which might occur in consequence of a succession of bad • The years were 1892-3, 1893-4, ^^parent when he leaves his island than when he remains in it. The educated Cypriot when he visits England is treated with defer- ence, courtesy, and sympathy, and is received everywhere on terms of complete social equality ; it is not surprising that when he returns to Cypnis and experiences once more the barrier which exists between the English community there and his fellow-Cypriots he is filled with angry resentment and joins whole-heartedly in the cry for union with Greece. As soon as the time comes, as come it must, when Cypriots are admitted to important posts under Government, the barrier which now exists between them and the EngHsh community will begin to disappear. But so long as it remains, " ENOSIS " will continue to be the gospel of the educated Cypriot, preached to the peasant, encouraged in the schools, and given daily prominence in all the Greek newspapers. CHAPTER XIV. ANNEXATION IN I914, AND CONCLUDING REMARKS. ON November 5, 1914, war broke out between England and Turkey, and the same day the island of Cyprus was formally annexed to the British Empire. The following Order by His Majesty the King in Council was issued, and copies in all three languages were posted up in all the principal places throughout the island : — ORDER IN COUNCIL BY THE KING. Whereas, by virtue of the Convention of defensive alliance between Her Majesty Queen Victoria and His Imperial Majesty the Sultan signed on June 4, 1878, the Annex to the said Convention signed on July i, 1878, and the Agreement signed on behalf of Her Majesty and His Imperial Majesty the Sultan on August 14, 1878, His Imperial Majesty the Sultan assigned the Island of Cyprus to be occupied and administered by England upon the terms and conditions specified in the said Convention, Annex, and Agreement : And whereas, by reason of the outbreak of war between His Majesty and His Imperial Majesty the Sultan, the said Convention, Annex, and Agreement have become annulled, and are no longer of any force or effect : And whereas it has, for the reasons hereinbefore appearing, seemed expedient to His Majesty that the said island should be annexed to and should form part of His Majesty's Dominions, in order that proper provision may be made for the government and protection of the said island. Now, therefore, His Majesty is pleased by and with the advice 173 ANNEXATION IN 1914 : CONCLUDING REMARKS 173 of His Privy Council, to order and it is hereby ordered as follows : — 1. From and after the date hereof the said island shall be annexed to and form part of His Majesty's Dominions, and the said island is annexed accordingl3^ 2. Nothing in this order shall affect the validity of any instructions issued by His Majesty under the Royal Sign Manual and Signet to the High Commissioner and Commander- in-Chief of Cyprus, or of any Order in Council affecting Cyprus, or of any law or proclamation passed or issued under any such instructions or order, or of any act or thing done under any such instructions, law, or proclamation, save in so far as any such Order in Council, law or proclamation may be repugnant to the provisions of any Act of Parliament which may, by reason of the annexation hereby declared, become extended to Cyprus, or to any order or regulation made under the authority of any such Act or having in Cyprus the force and effect of any such Act. 3. His Majesty may from time to time revoke, alter, add to, or amend this order. 4. This order may be cited as the Cyprus (Annexation) Order in Council, 1914. And the Right Honourable Lewis Harcourt, one of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, is to give the necessary directions herein accordingly. Dated November 5, 1914. With this Order was published a proclamation by the High Commissioner of Cyprus to the following effect : — " Ottoman subjects born in Cyprus and now resident in Cyprus are British subjects. Ottoman subjects not born in Cyprus who are now resident in Cyprus are allowed one year from the date of this Proclamation within which to leave Cyprus. Ottoman subjects mentioned in this paragraph who do not leave Cyprus within the said period of one year will on the expiration of the said period be British subjects." 174 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE This proclamation was subsequently replaced by another extending to all Ottoman subjects resident in Cyprus on November 5, 1914, whether born in the island or not, the status of British subjects, but providing that any Ottoman subject desirous of retaining his Ottoman nationality should, within one month of the date of the proclamation, submit in writing to the High Commissioner a statement declaring such desire, in which case he would be permitted to retain his nationality, but would be required to leave the island within a specified time. There is some ambiguity attached to the exact mean- ing of the word " resident," and care will be necessary that the advantages of British nationality are not obtained by the terms of this proclamation by Syrians and other Ottoman subjects who were temporarily resident in Cyprus on the date of annexa- tion, though having no real connection with the island. The annexation of the island was hailed with delight by the Christian community, who welcomed the final disappearance from the island of Turkish sovereignty. The Turkish element received the news with Oriental resignation ; the majority of the Turks in fact disapproved whole-heartedly of the policy which had led the Ottoman Government to join Germany and Austria in the war, and accepted without demur their new- status as British subjects. Only about a dozen Ottoman sub- jects made application to retain their nationality, and these were all either temporary residents from Ottoman territory or visitors to the island : no Cypriot Ottoman subjects appHed, and all therefore became British subjects. How far has England fulfilled the expectations aroused in 1878, when she assumed control of the administration of Cyprus ? Broadly speaking, it may be said that by reducing and simplifying the taxation, by introducing an extremely just and impartial administration, and by enforcing and main- taining law and order, she has greatly ameliorated the lot of the peasantry and of the people generally, and has rendered material progress possible. To produce these results and to ANNEXATION IN 191-4 : CONCLUDING REMARKS 175 evolve order out of the chaos which prevailed in 1878 the services of a trained bureaucracy were necessary. The financial position was such that a rigid economy and a careful husbanding of resources were imperative, and they were enforced with firmness. The smallest item of expenditure proposed by the local Government was subjected first to care- ful scrutiny at the hands of the Colonial Ofiice, and then to an even more careful scrutiny at the hands of the Treasury. Cyprus affairs were in fact managed by an efficient and con- scientious bureaucracy, and if the island suffered from the evils inherent in bureaucratic government it secured all the undoubted advantages of the latter, as the flourishing condi- tion of its finances now shows. This is hardly the place to discuss the virtues or vices of a bureaucratic system of govern- ment ; like most other things bureaucracy has the defects of its qualities. Its machinery, when efficient, is an almost unqualified asset in the administration of a community at a certain stage of its development ; its elaborate system of check and counter-check prevents any hasty and ill-considered measures from being adopted, whilst the public funds are safeguarded from expenditure on unwise or unnecessary pro- jects ; and its respect for precedent ensures that no violent departure from the general scheme of administration will be made. But this very respect for precedent acts as an obstacle to progress. The habit of referring every question that arises to some similar question which arose possibly years before, and of lengthy cogitation over opinions expressed long ago by other persons, not only precludes the fresh and untrammelled con- sideration of the subject but atrophies the thinking powers of those whose duty it is to arrive at a decision. It follows that, no matter how circumstances may change, the tendency will be towards unenHghtened conservatism, if not reaction. The more efficient the system the more pronounced will be the conservatism. It is, unfortunately, the essence of a machine to be mechanical : an office which devotes its energies mainly to preserving, fifing, docketing, indexing, and pigeon-holing 176 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE its records will inevitably tend in the main merely to preserve continuity and to maintain everything as it has been in the past, and will endeavour to avoid the consideration of new problems or the reconsideration of old ones, even though they may have been materially affected by a change of circumstances or conditions. The Colonial Office is a vast bureaucracy with ramifications extending into every corner of the Empire. The staff is by no means large ; it is exceedingly efficient and conscientious, recruited from the cream of our public schools and universities. But the atmosphere of Downing Street is hardly conducive to imaginative thinking. " A man who mechanically manipulates dead matter in however ingenious a way," writes an authority on education, " is by that very fact cut off from the direct human sympathy that is roused by occupations that imply something connected with life." Is the constant reading and writing of despatches, the study of files and blue-books and ever-ready reference to the card index anything but the mani- pulation of dead matter ? Small wonder that the tendency in a Government office is to treat all questions by a reference to " previous papers " and veto anything which seems to entail a departure from precedent.* Nor is it surprising that the type of Colonial administrator most in favour at Downing Street is one who may be trusted to propose no startling new departure, make no important innovations, and nurse the expenditure of the colony with unimpeachable economy ; who writes well-phrased despatches garnished with copious explana- tory enclosures, and has the Colonial Regulations at his finger ends. The natural result is that the local administration in * The following incident illustrates this tendency very clearly : A Cyprus official, Z, arrived in England on leave at a time when there was some unrest in Cyprus and the Greek deputies were raising various complicated questions and making numerous demands for constitutional and other changes. In accordance with custom he reported himself at the Colonial Office, and was duly received by the official X, who was in immediate charge of the branch dealing with Cyprus affairs. " I am afraid," said Z, " that Cyprus affairs have been giving you a good deal of trouble lately." " Not at all, not at all," replied X, airily. " All these things have happened before, and we have nothing to do but look up our files of fifteen or twenty years ago, and reply accordingly ! " ANNEXATION IN 1914 : CONCLUDING REMARKS 177 each colony endeavours to conform to these ideals, bases its poUcy on previous rulings, and devotes its attention to carry- ing out to the letter every instruction contained in " Colonial Regulations," submitting its returns and reports punctually and in exact accordance with precedent, and above all culti- vating a fluent style in despatch-writing. The policy of such an administration will be marked by extreme conservatism, caution, and readiness to adapt itself to the Colonial Office points of view. This has been in the main the trend of administration in Cj^rus since it came under the Colonial Office in 188 1. The tendency in the island has been to excessive centralization at head-quarters ; not a sparrow can fall to the ground without a report of the circumstances — probably in triplicate — even- tually appearing on the table of the Chief Secretary to the Government, and being submitted to the High Commissioner for his information ; it is then in all probabiUty forwarded to the Treasurer for advice as to the vote to which the financial expenses should be charged andto the legal adviser to know whether a charge lies against any individual under the Ottoman Penal Code. It will be lucky if long correspondence does not ensue between the Treasury and the District Commissioner regarding the amount paid for the obsequies. In the same way heads of technical Departments like the Forests, Public Works, and Agriculture are kept chained to their desks, making out returns and replying to accounting queries, when they would be far better employed outside their offices. The manager of the Stock Farm will be forced to spend valuable time answering queries from the Audit Department regarding the deficiency of eggs shown on the ledger compared with the number found in the incubators, and explaining that this is due, not to fraud, but to a natural phenomenon which has turned the eggs into chickens. All these things are the necessary concomitant of excess of zeal on the part of a bureau- cracy, but they are sad waste of time, and a sprinkling of some common sense would do away with many of the existing M 178 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE absurdities. The whole time of responsible officials is taken up with trivial and petty details of routine which both exhaust and exasperate those who endeavour to devote their energies to constructive and progressive measures for the reform of the educational system, the encouragement of trade and industries, the improvement of agriculture and stock- raising, the development of harbours, railways, roads, telegraphs, and water supplies, the provision of capital on easy terms to small farmers and traders, and other practical matters of a similar nature. The type of Governor required in a Crown Colony like Cyprus is not the efficient and unimaginative office-tied bureaucrat, but a man of the world, with wide human sympathies, broad views, and a shrewd and practical mind, capable of approaching business proposi- tions from a business point of view. He should be served by an efficient secretariat, which, by reHeving him of the mass of petty details of administrative machinery, would enable him to devote his mind and energy to the broader questions of administration and development instead of being obUged to waste them on insignificant questions which can be quite adequately dealt with by his subordinates. It is not only waste of energy to use a forty ton hammer to crack nuts, but it prevents the other far more important work for which it was intended from being done at all. The financial arrangement made in 1910 by which the island was finally freed from Treasury control was of immense benefit, if only because it put an end to a vast amount of correspondence and irritating interference on the part of over-conscientious Treasury officials, who considered that a day spent in question- ing the expenditure of half-a-crown was a day well spent. At the same time, Cyprus was at last in possession of surplus revenues. The island up to the year 1907 may be compared to a young man whose necessary expenses exceed his income, and who receives from his father at the end of each year the exact sum required to make good the deficit. Obviously if such a person is given a fixed and regular allowance by his ANNEXATION IN 1914 : CONCLUDING REMARKS 179 father he can by the practice of rigid economy and the exercise of skill and foresight save each year a substantial sum which he can devote to improving his earning capacity and adding to the comfort of himself and his dependents. Just such an advantage was obtained by Cyprus when the system of a fixed grant-in-aid was introduced by the Imperial Government, and the result has provided proof of the unwisdom of retaining the old system for so many years. One more factor must be mentioned which has delayed pro- gress in Cyprus. Most of the Crown Colonies of Great Britain are situated in the tropics, where climatic conditions are unfavourable to the health of the English official. Cyprus almost alone enjoys a climate where officials and their wives can live and bring up their children in comparative health and comfort. Hence the island has been looked upon by the Colonial Office as a kind of sanatorium where officials whose health has been impaired by long service in tropical cHmates can be sent. This speaks well for the humanity of the Colonial Office, but it has not reacted altogether favourably on Cyprus. It is not to the advantage of any service to be recruited largely from amongst officials physically affected by work in unhealthy localities rather than by young and energetic men in the prime of life. Officials transferred to Cyprus from elsewhere at an age when they are no longer young cannot be expected to learn the language or accommodate themselves easily to new condi- tions. No doubt there is another side to the question, and the experience brought by officials from other colonies is an asset which must not be overlooked. But in the case especially of District Commissioners, whose duty Ues in moving about amongst the villagers and ascertaining their needs, it is obvious that young and energetic men, open to new impressions, are more suitable than older men, whose best work is behind them. In the early days District Commissioners were of the former type ; but as time went on these officials grew older, not younger : some remained in their posts for thirty years and more, whilst others were moved elsewhere and their place i8o CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE filled in many cases by men who had already passed the prime of life in other colonies, and were neither physically nor mcntall}^ suited to the kind of work they were called upon to perform. The pay was small, the chance of further promotion negligible, and in such circumstances the zeal and energy to be expected could not be great ; yet zeal, energy, and adaptabiHty were just the qualities most necessary. It would be a mistake, however, to imagine that either an over-bureaucratic Government or an indifferent choice of officials are altogether responsible for the lack of progress which has characterized Cj^prus during the past forty years. The people themselves have failed to exhibit the qualities that make for progress. Instead of endeavouring to better their own con- dition they have reUed too much on the Government, and con- tented themselves with criticism, instead of combining to think out constructive reforms and submit practical schemes to Government. No doubt the habit of writing petitions to Government on every conceivable subject is due to the Turkish system which encouraged such a practice, and it is chiefly confined to the peasantry. The absolute dependence of the Cypriot on the Government is indicated in a more important manner by the failure of the commercial or other sections of the community to form any sort of combination for the pur- pose of co-operation or for bringing to the notice of the Govern- ment affairs connected with their particular interests. No kind of Chamber of Commerce exists in the island. Each merchant pursues his own separate interests and enters into competition with every other merchant : as a result, no com- bined movement has ever been set on foot for advancing the trade of the island, and the Government has no corporate body to which it can turn for advice on any commercial ques- tion. The Greeks are ready enough to form committees and organizations for political ends and to discuss political questions and pen elaborate Memorials ad nauseam, but they seem unable to co-operate for practical purposes affecting the welfare of the community or of special sections of it, and the Government ANNEXATION IN 1911- : CONCLUDING REMARKS i8i is expected to do everything without any assistance except what may be afforded by the somewhat carping criticism con- veyed in florid speeches mainly composed of political diatribes. The views of Herbert Spencer regarding the functions of Government are nowadays somewhat discredited, though his description of the State-agency as " a cluster of men, a few clever, many ordinary, and some decidedly stupid," is a per- fectly fair description of the average Government. John Stuart Mill, in a well-known passage, declared that " manage- ment by hired servants who have no interest in the result but that of preserving their salaries is proverbially inefficient. The inferiority of government-agency, for example, in any of the common positions of industry or commerce, is proved by the fact that it is hardly ever able to maintain itself in equal competition with individual agency when the individuals possess the requisite degree of industrial entei"prise and can command the necessary assemblage of means. All the facilities which a Government enjoys of access to information, all the means which it possesses of remunerating and, therefore, of commanding the best available talent in the market, are not an equivalent for the one great disadvantage of an inferior interest in the result." * But no matter how great may be the shortcomings of State-agency there can be no question but that a failure on the part of private enterprise to come forward with suggestions and constructive criticisms to aid the Govern- ment in its activities must render its task more difficult and its performance less efficient. Hence the Cypriot, through his failure in this respect, must bear a large part of any blame which may be imputed to the island for tardiness in its rate of progress. Critics of the Government may point to the apparent failure of the railway, harbour, and irrigation schemes to provide an adequate return on the capital expended; but such private enterprises as have been from time to time undertaken in Cyprus can show little better results. Money invested in mining * John Stuart :\Iill, " Political Economy." i82 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE operations, motor transport schemes, shipping ventures, tlie grafting of fruit trees, and other enterprises in the island has too often failed to produce any dividend, the companies concerned ending in liquidation. Usually the Government has been blamed : it has been accused of imposing irritable restrictions on, or failing to give support to, many of these enterprises. The shareholders in fact are told that the failure of the enter- prise is due to the inaction or alternately to the interference of the Government — jolie hypothese qui expUqne taut de choses ! In reality it has been more often the innate conservatism and inertia of the Cypriot, who has refused to adopt new contriv- ances or alter his mode of hving and conducting his affairs. The Government has for this reason probably been justified in proceeding cautiously with innovations and in pursuing an unheroic but careful polic}' : in any case, there was not the money to expend on schemes which were Ukely to be carried on at a loss until such time as the people had begun to realize and avail themselves of their benefits. Looking back on the past thirty years, it is apparent that the necessity for stringent economy has been the chief cause of any inaction of which the Government can be accused, and this brings us back to the question of the " tribute," which has already been fully discussed. On the whole, it may be said that progress has been slow, first because of the lack of funds, and secondly because of the lack of initiative on the part of the Cypriots themselves, their want of organization and co-operation, and their innate conservatism. Now that funds are becoming available and the people are better educated and more in touch vnih. the outside world, progress is becoming much more rapid, and lee- way is being made up. The most pressing necessity now is to bring the educated Cypriot into closer touch with the Government of the island. So long as Cyprus formed part of the Ottoman Empire and was merely administered by England, there was some reason for entrusting the government to a chque of British officials, subject to such criticism and control as might be exercised by ANNEXATION IN 1914 : CONCLUDING REMARKS 183 the elected members in the Legislative Council. But now that the island has become part of the British Empire it is time to consider whether the Cypriot should not be given a more direct share in the administration. It would not perhaps be advis- able yet to appoint Cypriots to the post of District Commis- sioner ; but there is no reason why such Departments as the Post Ofhce or Land Registry Office should not be entrusted to Cypriots who have had a training in those or other branches of the administration. Jealousy will no doubt continue to exist between the different elements of the population, but this must always be the case in mixed communities and is familiar enough in India and elsewhere. Once the principle of admitting Cypriots to the higher administrative posts is con- ceded, its practical application might proceed slowly and ten- tatively as opportunity offered. It is not enough for the edu- cated Cypriot who has travelled in other countries and received part of his education in European centres to become a member of the Legislative Council, where he can merely express his ideas in debate once a year during a period of a few weeks. He desires to devote his talents and energies to the affairs of the island in a much more direct and practical manner, and he has an undoubted claim to do so. A little imagination should make this plain to every EngHshman, and, though the quality is uncommon in our race it has been quickened by the war, and one may hope that it may now be used to the benefit of Cyprus. The situation is very different from what it was in 1878, and it is surely preposterous to imagine that the system of administration then introduced, admirable as it was at the time, must be continued unchanged without regard to altered circumstances. Tempora mutantiir. Let us see to it that the rest of the tag holds good — et nos mutamur in illis. " New times demand new measures and new men. The world moves on : and in due course outgrows The laws that in our father's days were best. And after we are gone a better scheme Will be devised by wiser men than we." APPIiNDIX I. The Miirquis vj Salisbury to Mr. Lay aid. Sir, rorcign Office, May 30, 1S78. The progress of the confidential negotiations whicJi have for some time past been in progress between Her Majcst^^'s Governnient and the Government of Russia make it probable that those Articles of the Treaty of San Stefano which concern European Turkey will be sufticicntly modified to bring them into harmony with the interests of the other European Powers, and of England in particular. There is, however, no such prospect with respect to that portion of the Treaty which concerns Turke}' in Asia. It is sufficiently manifest that, in respect to Batoum and the fortresses north of the Araxes, the Government of Russia is not prepared tu recede from the stipulations to which the Porte has been led by the events of the war to consent. Her Majestj-'s Go^'ernmcnt have consequently been forced to consider the effect which these agree- ments, if they are neither annulled nor counteracted, will have upon the future of the Asiatic provinces of the Ottoman Empire and upon the interests of England, which are closel}' affected b}' the condition of those provinces. It is impossible that Her Majesty's Government can look upon these changes with indifference. Asiatic Turkey contains populations of many different races and creeds, possessing no capacity for self-government and no asjiira- tions for independence, but owing their tranquillity and whatever pro.spect of political well-being they possess entirelj- to the rule of the Sultan. But the Government of the Ottoman dynasty is that of an ancient but still alien conqueror, resting more upon actual power than upon the sympathies of common nationality. The defeat which the Turkish arms have sustained and the known embarrassments of the Government will produce a general belief in its decadence and an expectation of speedy political change, which in the East are more dangerous than actual discontent to the stabilitj^ of a Government. If the population of Syria, Asia INIinor, and Mesopotamia see that the Porte has no guarantee for its continued existence but its own strength, they will, after the evidence which recent events have furnisiied of the frailty of that rehance, begin to calculate upon the speedy fall of the Ottoman domination, and to turn their eyes towards its successor. Even if it be certain that Batoum and Ardahan and Kars will not become the base from which emissaries of intrigue will issue forth, to be in due time followed by invading armies, the mere retention of them by Russia will exercise a powerful influence in disintegrating the Asiatic dominion of the Porte. As a monument of feeble defence on the one side, and successful aggression on the other, they Avill be regarded by the Asiatic population as foreboding the course of political history in the immediate future, and will stimulate, by the combined action of hope and fear, devotion to the Power which is in the ascendant, and desertion of the Power which is thought to be falling into decay. It is impossible for Her Majesty's Government to accept, without making an effort to avert it, the effect which such a state of feeling would produce upon regions whose political condition deeply concerns the Oriental interests of Great Britain. They do not propose to attempt the accomplishment of this object by taking military measures for the purpose of replacing the conquered districts in the possession of the Porte. Such an undertaking would be arduous and costl}-, and would involve great calamities, and it would not be effective for the object which Her Majesty's Government has in view, unless subsequently strengthened by precautions which can be taken almost as effectually without incurring the miseries of a preliminary war. The only provision which can furnish a substantial security for the stability of Ottoman rule in Asiatic Turkey, and which would be as essential after the re-conquest of the Russian annexations as it is now, is an engagement, on the part of a Power strong enough to fulfil it, that any further encroachments by Russia upon Turkish territory in Asia will be prevented by force of arms. Such an undertaking, if given fully and unreservedly, will prevent the occur- rence of the contingency which would bring it into operation, and will, at ICS4 APPENDIX 1. 185 the same time, give to the populations of the Asiatic provinces the requisite confidence that Turkish rule in Asia is not destined to a speedy fall. There are, however, two conditions which it would be necessary for the Porte to subscribe before England could gi\c such assurance. Her Majesty's Government intimated to the Porte, on the occasion of the Conference at Constantinople, that they were not prepared to sanction mis- government and oppression, and it will be requisite, before they can enter into any agreement for the defence of the Asiatic territories of the Porte in certain eventualities, that they should be formallj' assured of the intention of the Porte to introduce the necessary reforms into the government of the Christian and other subjects of the Porte in these regions. It is not desirable to require more than an engagement in general terms ; for the specific measures to be taken could only be defined after a more careful inquiry and deliberation than could be secured at the present juncture. It is not impossible that a careful selection and a faithful support of the individual officers to whom power is to be entrusted in those countries would be a more important element in the improvement of the condition of the people than even legislative changes, but the assurances required to give England a right to insist on satisfactory arrangements for these purposes will be an indispensable part of any agreement to which Her Majesty's Govern- ment could consent. It will further be necessary, in order to enable Her Majesty's Government efficiently to execute the engagements now proposed, that they should occupy a position near the coast of Asia Minor and Syria. The proximity of British officers, and, if necessary, British troops, will be the best security that all the objects of this agreement shall be attained. The Island of Cyprus appears to them to be in all respects the most available for this object. Her Majesty's Government do not wish to ask the Sultan to alienate territory from his sovereignty, or to diminish the receipts which now pass into his Treasury. They will, therefore, propose that, while the administration and occupation of the island shall be assigned to Her Majesty, the territory shall still continue to be part of the Ottoman Empire, and that the excess of the revenue over the expenditure, whatever it at present may be, shall be paid over annually by the British Government to the Treasury of the Sultan. Inasmuch as the whole of this proposal is due to the annexations which Russia has made in Asiatic Turkey, and the consequences which it is appre- hended will flow therefrom, it must be fully understood that, if the cause of the danger should cease, the precautionar}- agreement will cease at the same time. If the Government of Russia should at any time surrender to the Porte the territory it has acquired in Asia by the recent war, the stipulations in the proposed agreements will cease to operate, and the island will be immediatel}' evacuated. I request, therefore, your Excellency to propose to the Porte to agree to a Convention to the following eftect, and I have to convey to you full authority to conclude the same on behalf of the Queen and of Her Majesty's Government : " If Batoum, Ardahan, Kars or any of them shall be retained by Russia, and if any attempt shall be made at any future time by Russia to take pos- session of any further portion of the Asiatic territories of the Sultan, as fi.xed by the definitive Treaty of Peace, England engages to join the Sultan in defending them by force of arms. In return, the Sultan promises to England to introduce necessary reforms (to be agreed upon later between the two Powers) into the government of the Christian and other subjects of the Porte in these territories ; and, in order to enable England to make necessary pro- vision for executing her engagement, the Sultan further consents to assign the Island of Cyprus to be occupied and administered by England." I am, &c., (Signed) SALISBURY. Contained in Parliamentary Paper, Turkey No. 3O (187S), C 2057. APPENDIX II. Cyprus. No. XIII., 1914. A LAW enacted by His Excellency the High Commissioner and Commander- in-Chief of the Island of Cyprus, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, to provide for the constitution and control of co-operative Credit Societies. [October 9, 1914. WHEREAS it is expedient to encourage thrift, self-help and co-opera- tion among agriculturalists, and for that purpose to provide for the constitution and control of Co-operative Credit Societies. Be it therefore enacted by His Excellency the High Commissioner and Commander-in-Chief of the Island of Cyprus, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows : — Title and Definitions. 1. This Law may be cited as the Co-operative Credit Societies Law, 1914. 2. In this Law, unless the context otherwise requires : — (a) " Bye-law " means a registered bye-law for the time being in force and includes a registered amendment of the bye-laws. (6) " Committee and Council " mean the governing bodies of a society to which the management of the affairs of such society is entrusted, (c) " Member " includes a person joining in the application for the registration of a society, and a person admitted to membership after registration in accordance with the bye-laws and any rules. {d) " Officer " includes a chairman, secretary, treasurer, member of committee, or other person empowered under the bye-laws to give directions in regard to the business of the society. (e) " Registrar " means a person appointed to perform the duties of Registrar of Co-operative Credit Societies under this Law. (/) " Society " means a co-operative credit society registered under this Law. Registvation. 3. The High Commissioner maj' appoint a person to be Registrar of Co-operative Credit Societies imder this Law, and may appoint persons to assist such Registrar, and may, by general or special order, confer on any such persons all or any of the powers of a Registrar under this Law. The Registrar shall have an office in Nicosia. 4. Subject to the provisions hereinafter contained a society consisting of at least twelve persons who are agriculturahsts and are above the age of 18 years; operating within a town, or village, or group of villages within a radius of not more than two miles ; and having for its object the creation of funds by loans from the Government or the Loan Commissioners or other- wise or deposits to be lent to its members ; may be registered under this Law. Provided that the Registrar may if he shall think fit in any particular case extend the said radius of two miles. 5. The words " Co-operative Credit " shall form part of the title of every society. 6. When any question arises whether, for the purposes of this Law, a person is an agriculturalist and a resident in a town or village or group of villages, or whether two or more villages shall be considered to form a group, the question shall be decided by the Registrar whose decision shall be final. 7. A person eligible for admission to membership of a society must [a) be above 18 years of age, (6) reside within the area of the society's operations, (c) possess land therein of not less than 2 donums in extent, {d) be an agri- culturalist, (e) not be a member of any other co-operative credit society, and 186 APPENDIX II. 187 (/) in the case of a person not being an original member, be elected by the Society in such manner as the bjc-laws shall prescribe. 8. Any twelve or more persons qualified in accordance with the require- ments of section 7 and agreeing to act in accordance with this Law and any rules and the bye-laws of their proposed society may apply to the Registrar to be registered as a society, and the persons by whom or on whose behalf such application is made shall furnish two copies of the proposed bye-laws of the proposed society together with such information with regard to the proposed society as the Registrar may require. 9. If the Registrar is satisfied that a society has complied with the pro- visions of this Law and the rules and that its proposed bye-laws are not contrary to the law or to the rules, he may, with the approval of the High Commissioner, register the society and its bye-laws. 10. A certificate of registration signed by the Registrar shall be con- clusive evidence that the society therein mentioned is duly registered unless it is proved that the registration of the society has been cancelled. II.- — (1) No amendment of the bye-laws of a registered society shall be valid until the same has been registered under this Law, for which purpose a copy of the amendment shall be forwarded to the Registrar. (2) If the Registrar is satisfied that any amendment of the bye-laws is not contrary to this law or to the rules, he may, if he thinks fit, register the amendment. (3) When the Registrar registers an amendment of the bye-laws of a society, he shall issue to the society a cop}^ of the amendment certified by him, which shall be conclusive e\-idence that the same is duly registered. 12. The Registrar shall prepare and present in each year to the High Com- missioner, a report of his proceedings and of the principal matters transacted during the preceding calendar year, together with a statement showing the financial position of all registered societies on the 31st December last preceding. 13. The Registrar may, with the approval of the High Commissioner, prepare and cause to be circulated, for the use of societies, forms of bye- laws, accounts, balance-sheets and valuations as models for all societies. Rights and Liabilities of Members. 14. The liability of each member of a society for the debts of the society shall be unlimited. 15. Each member shall, notwithstanding the amount of liis interest in a society, have only one vote, and shall only be allowed to exercise such vote in person. 16. All monies payable by a member to a registered society under this Law or under any bye-laws of such society shall be a debt due from such member to the society and shall be recoverable as such at law. Duties of Societies. 17. Every society shall have an address registered with the Registrar to which all communications and notices may be sent, and shall send to the Registrar notice of every change thereof. 18. Every society shall keep a copy of this Law and of the rules governing such society and of its bye-laws and of its last balance-sheet and any report of the Auditors open to inspection free of charge at all reasonable times at the registered address of the society. 19. — (i) The Registrar shall audit or cause to be audited by some person authorired by him by general or special order in writing in this behalf the accounts of every registered society once at least in every year. (2) The audit under sub-section (i) shall include an examination of overdue debts, if any, and a valuation of the assets and habihties of the society. i88 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE (3) The Registrar or any person authorized by general or special order in writing in this behalf by the Registrar shall at all times have access to all the books, accounts, ])apcrs and securities of a society, and every officer of the society shall furnish such information in regard to the transactions and working of the society as the person making such inspection may require. (4) Subject to the general directions and instructions of the Registrar, the Commissioner of the District in which the society is carrying on business shall be deemed to be a person authorized within the meaning of the preceding sub-section. Privileges of Registered Societies. 20. The registration of a society shall render it a body corporate by the name under which it is registered, with perpetual succession and a common seal, and with power to hold property, to enter into contract.'^, to institute and defend suits and other legal proceedings and to do all things necessary for the purposes of its constitution. 21. Subject to any prior claim of the Government, or of a landlord in respect of rent or any money recoverable as rent, a society shall be entitled in priority to other creditors to enforce any outstanding demand due to the society from a member or past member : — {a) in respect of the supply of seed or manure or of the loan of money for the purchase of seed or manure — upon the crops or other agri- cultural produce of such member or person at any time within eighteen months from the date of such supply or loan ; {b) in respect of the supply of cattle, fodder for cattle, agricultural or industrial implements or machinery, or raw materials for manufacture, or of the loan of money for the purchase of any of the foregoing things — upon any such things so supplied, or purchased in whole or in part from any such loan, or on any articles manufactured from raw- materials so supplied or purchased. 22. The liability of a past member for the debts of a society as they existed at the time when he ceased to be a member shall continue for a period of two years from the date of his ceasing to be a member. 23. The estate of a deceased member shall be liable for a period of one year from the time of his decease for the debts of a registered society as they existed at the time of his decease. 24. Any register or list of members kept by any society shall be prima facie evidence of any of the following particulars entered therein : — {a) the date at which the name of any person was entered in such register or Ust as a member ; and [b) the date at which any such person ceased to be a member. 25. A copy of any entry in a book of a society regularly kept in the course of business shall, if certified in such manner as may be prescribed by the rules, be received in anj' suit or legal proceeding, as prima facie evidence of the existence of such entry, and shall be admitted as evidence of the matters, transactions and accounts therein recorded in every case where and to the same extent as the original entry itself is admissible. 26. The High Commissioner in Council may, by notification in the Cyprus Gazette, in the case of any society remit the stamp duties or fees with which, under any law for the time being in force, instruments executed by or on behalf of a society or by any officer or member and relating to the business of such society or any class of such instruments are respecti\ely chargeable. Property and Funds of Societies. 27. A society shall not make a loan to any person other than a member. 28. Save with the sanction of the Registrar, a society shall not lend money on the security of movable property. APPENDIX II. 189 29. No person other than a member of the society shall be accepted as surety for a loan. 30. A society may obtain loans from Government or the Loan Commis- sioners or otherwise on such terms as to interest or otherwise as the bye- laws shall provide, and the Government or the Loan Commissioners , if they shall think fit, may grant such loans accordingly. All applications made by a society to the Government or Loan Commissioners or to other persons must be reported immediately to the Registrar by such officer of the society as the Registrar may prescribe. 31. A society may receive and pay interest on deposits from members to such extent and under such conditions as shall be provided by the bye- laws. 32. No loan shall be made except for an approved purpose connected with some agricultural operation which by its profits should, in the opinion of the committee, enable the borrower to repay the loan, or for the redemption of land from an existing mortgage, or for the liquidation of debts of any kind whatsoever existing at the time of the admission of the borrower as a member of the society. The agricultural operations referred to above shall include the extension or improvement of the borrower's holding, and the purchase of manure, seed, cattle and implements or other similar purposes. 33. A society may deposit its funds or any part thereof in the Government Savings Bank or in such other banks as may be approved for this purpose by the Registrar. 34. No di\^dend or payment out of profits shall be paid to a member of a society, except as provided in Section 31, but all profits shall be carried to a fund to be called the Reserve Fund. 35. — (i) The Reserve Fund shall not be divided among the members, but may be applied to meet occasional deficiencies incurred bj' the society, and in case of dissolution any balance of the Reserve Fund after liquidation shall be invested as the Registrar may direct and the income derived there- from shall be devoted to some useful purpose in the same District in which such society operated, in accordance with the bye-laws of such society, or in the absence of any such bye-laws in such manner as the Registrar shall determine. (2) The principal of such Reserve Fund shall remain intact and so invested until such time as another society shall be established in the same area, when such principal may then be transferred to such new society for the purpose of forming a Reserve Fund under the conditions provided under this Law ; provided that if after a period of five years has elapsed from the date of dissolution no such new society shall have been established as aforesaid the Registrar may apply the whole or any part of the said Reserve Fund to some useful purpose within the district in which such dissolved society operated in such manner and under such conditions as he may think fit. Inspection of Avails. 36. — (i) The Registrar may of his own motion or on the application of the Commissioner of the District, and shall on the application of a majority of the committee, or of not less than one-third of the members, hold an inquiry or direct some person authorized by him by order in writing in this behalf to hold an inquiry into the constitution, working and financial condition of a registered society, and shall communicate the result of such incjuiry to the person (if any) desiring him to hold such inquiry and to the Committee. (j) All officers and members of the society shall furnish such information in regard to the affairs of the society and shall produce all such books as the Registrar or the person authorized by the Registrar may require. 37. — (i) The Registrar shall, on the application of a creditor of a society, inspect or direct some person authorized by him by order in writing in tliis behalf to inspect the books of the society ; igo CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE Provided that — (a) the apphcant satisfies the Registrar that the debt is a sum then due, and that he has demanded payment thereof and has not received satisfaction within a reasonable time ; and (b) the applicant deposits with the Registrar such sum as security for the costs of the proposed inspection as the Registrar may require. (2) The Registrar shall communicate the results of any such inspection to the creditor. 38. Where an inquiry is held under section 36 or an inspection is made under section 37, the Registrar may apportion the costs, or such part of the costs, as he may think right, between the society, the members or creditor demanding an inquiry or inspection (if any), and the officers or former officers of the society. 39. Any sum awarded by way of costs under section 38 may be recovered on appUcation to the proper District Court. Dissolution of Society. 40. — (i) If the Registrar, after an inquiry has been held under section 36 or after an inspection has been made under section 37 or on receipt of an application made by three-fourths of the members of a registered society, is of opinion that the society ought to be dissolved, he may cancel the registra- tion of the society. (2) Any member of a society may, within two months from the date of an order made under sub-section (i) appeal from such order. {3) Where no appeal is presented within two months from the making of an order cancelling the registration of a society, the order shall take effect on the expiration of that period. (4) Where an appeal is presented within two months, the order shall not take effect until it is confirmed by the appellate authority. (5) The authority to which appeals under this section shall lie shall be the High Commissioner in Council. (6) Any cancellation or the result of any appeal shall be published in the Cyprus Gazette, and be posted up in the town or village or group of villages in which the society has operated. 41. The Registrar shall, by order in writing, cancel the registration of the society if at any time it is proved to his satisfaction that the number of the members has been reduced to less than twelve. Provided that if the number shall be reduced below twelve by the death of a member, a period of two months may be allowed by the Registrar for the election of a new member. 42. Where the registration of a society is cancelled the society shall cease to exist as a corporate body — (a) in the case of cancellation in accordance with the provisions of section 40, from the date the order of cancellation takes effect ; (b) in the case of cancellation in accordance with the provisions of section 41, from the date of the order. 43. — (i) Where the registration of a society is cancelled under section 40 or section 4 1 , the Registrar may appoint a competent person to be liquidator of the society and may remove him. (2) A hquidator appointed under sub-section (i) shall have power — (a) to take possession of all the assets of the society and all books and documents of such society ; (6) to institute and defend suits and other legal proceedings on behalf of the society by his name of office ; (c) to determine the contribution to be made by the members and past members of the society respectively to the assets of the society ; (d) to investigate all claims against the society, and subject to the APPENDIX II. 191 provisions of this Law to decide questions of priority arising between the claimants ; (e) to determine by what persons and in what proportion the costs of the Uquidation are to be borne ; and (/) to give such directions in regard to the collection and distribution of the assets of the society as may appear to him to be necessary for winding up the affairs of the society. (3) Where an appeal from any order made by a liquidator under this section is provided for by the rules, it shall lie to the District Court. Such an appeal shall lie in cases of a decision under sub-section (2) (c), [d], and (c). 44. Subject to any rules, a liquidator appointed under this Law shall, in so far as such powers are necessary for carrying out the purposes of this Law, have power to summon and enforce the attendance of witnesses, to examine witnesses on oath and to compel the production of accounts, books and documents in the same manner and with the same powers as those possessed by a District Court or a Judge thereof. 45. Orders made under section 43 shall, on application, be enforced as follows : — (a) when made by a liquidator, by any Civil Court having local juris- diction in the same manner as a decree of such Court ; {b) when made by a District Court on appeal, in the same manner as a decree of such Court made in any suit pending therein. 46. Save in so far as is hereinbefore expressly provided, no Civil Court shall have any jurisdiction in respect of any matter connected with the dissolution of a society under this Law. Miscellaneous. 47. All sums due from a society or from an officer or member or past member of a society as such to the Government, including any costs awarded to the Government under section 43, may be recovered in the same manner as arrears of revenue. Sums due from a registered society to Government and recoverable as above may be recovered, firstly, from the property of the society and, secondly, from the members or, if they are deceased, from their estates. Rules. 48. — (i) The High Commissioner in Council may make rules to carry out the purposes of this Law. (2) In particular and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, such rules may — {a) prescribe the forms to be used and the conditions to be complied with in the making of applications for the registration of a society and the procedure in the matter of such applications ; (b) prescribe the matters in respect of which a society may or shall make bye-laws and for the procedure to be followed in making, altering and abrogating bye-laws, and the conditions to be satisfied prior to such making, alteration or abrogation ; (c) prescribe the conditions to be complied with by persons applying for admission or admitted as members, and provide for the election and admission of members, and the payment (if any) to be made before the exercise of the right of membership ; (d) provide for general meetings of the members and for the procedure at such meetings and the powers to be exercised by such meetings ; (e) provide for the constitution, appointment, suspension and removal of the members of the committee and council and other officers, and for the procedure at meetings of the committee and council, and for the powers to be exercised and the duties to be performed by the committee and council and other ofTicers ; 192 CYPRUS UNDER BRITISH RULE (/) prescribe the accounts and books to be kept by a society and provide for the audit of such accounts and the charges, if any, to be made for such audit, and for the periodical pubhcation of a balance-sheet showing the assets and liabilities of a society ; (g) prescribe the returns to be submitted by a society to the Registrar and provide for the persons by whom and the form in which such returns shall be submitted ; (A) provide for the persons by whom and the form in which copies of entries in books of societies may be certified ; (?) provide for the formation and maintenance of a register of members ; (/) provide that any dispute touching the business of a society between members or past members of the society or persons claiming through a member or past member or between a member or past member or persons so claiming and the committee or any officer shall be referred to the Registrar for decision, or if he so directs to arbitration, and prescribe the mode of appointing an arbitrator or arbitrators and the procedure to be followed in proceedings before the Registrar or such arbitrator or arbitrators, and the enforcement of the decisions of the Registrar or the awards of arbitrators ; (k) provide for the withdrawal and expulsion of members and for the liabilities of past members ; (/) prescribe the amount, the rate of interest and other conditions upon which a society may borrow loans or accept deposits, and the periods for which such loans and deposits may be accepted and made ; (w) prescribe the conditions to be compiled with by the members applj-ing for loans, the period for which loans may be made, and the amount which may be lent, to an individual member or in the aggregate ; (w) provide for the formation and maintenance of reserve funds, and the objects to which such funds may be applied, and for the investment of any funds under the control of the society ; (o) prescribe the extent to which a society may limit the number of its members ; (/)) subject to the provisions of section 43. determine in what cases an appeal shall lie from the orders of the Registrar and prescribe the procedure to be followed in presenting and disposing of such appeals ; and ((/) prescribe the procedure to be followed by a liquidator appointed under section 43, and the cases other than those provided in section 43 in which an appeal shall lie from the order of such liquidator. 49. All rules made under section 48 shall be published in the Cyprus Gazette and on such publication shall have effect as if enacted in this Law. Passed in Council the fifth day of J une, in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fourteen. E. H. Heidenstam, Clerk of Council. J'rinted in Great Britain for Robert Scott, PMflishtr, Paternoster Row, London ty Jarrolu & Sons, Ltd., Norwich, mm\n^ %mwm^ ^y/snmm^ ^./ri'.'-A.v^ ^.-'' "- •^J'^ > § 1 ir-^ ^ .^^tUBRARYO/c AWEUNIVERj-/^ A>:lOSANCElf, t ^ .^ OF^ CALIFORNIA LIBRARY This book is DUE on the last date slaliIpe*»b mi %n 3 1158 00946 6441 V J0>^ ^«!/0JllV3J0'^ '^n\\% UCLA-Young Research Library DS54.8 075c y BRARYO/r JIWDJO^^ ^ i 31^ ^^ )/?^ ^OFCA1IFO%, I ^lOSANCElfj> "^Aa^AiNn ]wv A\\EUNIVER5/A "^x^iaoNvsoi^ -^tilBRARYO/. ^lOSANCElfj^ ^QFCAIIF0% 00A337 0^5? ^^•^^//> %jnV3J0^ -^(tfOJllVDJO"^ o R% '^ -n vvlOSANCElfx> o %a3AiNn-3\\v ^OFCALIFO/?^ ^OFCALIFO/?^ aWEUNIVERJ/a. o YO/, ^ILlBRARYO/r^ '^OJIWOJO'^ ^\\EUNIVERS"//v clOSANCElfj> ^ILIBRARYQ^> ^^MIBRARYQr ^MEUNIVERS-//, o