The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1931. IN CYPRUS.

Hokitika Guardian, 31 October 1931, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1931. IN CYPRUS.

The iorests, mountains, and swamps of Cyprus nave stun so many upheavals, ooth seisiAio and \ humanly-in-spired, ia some four thousand years of recorded history, that their serenity is not likely to have been disturbed by the most recent bubbling over of revolutionary ardour. From the time when Cyprus was colonised by the Phoenicians, about 2000 n.c., to the fourth day of June, 1878, when u was placed under British rule, it had suffered more than most other comparatively insignificant islands from invasion and despoilment. The early

j Greeks founded a settlement itheie; Amaisis of Egypt seized it, Cambyses of Persia annexed it; Alexander affiliated it to his Macedonian kingdom, Ptc'lemy took possession before the Romans attached it as a province; the Byzantine emperors cherished Jr,; the Arabs persistently devastated it; Richard I conquered it and gave it to Guy de Lusignan; and in 1570 it became (subject to- Turkish misrule which persisted for three hundred years. Now, after enjoying more than 50 years of peace under the benign administration of Great Britain, during which period the dignity of colonial status was conferred upon It. Cyprus has somewhat violently sought to precipitate- fresh bloodshed I and unhappiness upon itself. The causes of the outbreak appear to be inexplicable, and even fantastic. It is scarcely possible to believe, that the Cyprians desire to link their fortunes once more with Greece, after having parted company from it so many centuries ago, nor is it, indeed, necessary to believe that the majority of the people is at all concerned to exchange the present administration for any form of dubious independence. Two years ago there was an agitation, provoked by certain elected members of the Legislative Council, against British rule, and the Secretary of State for the Colonies emphatically rejected' the suggestion that the Cyprians would be happier if attached to Greece, which they fondly described as their “mother-country.” The affairs of the Island, lie stated, had prospered under British protection, law and order had prevailed, impartial justice had been administered. and taxation had been moderate. Cyprus, he plainly intimated, had not earned the right to choose for itself, as it was impossible to feel any confidence in the ability of its people to govern themselves. Tt was notorious then, though Lord Pnssfield did not remark on the fact, that the agitation for union with Greece was chiefly organised and financed hv the. Church in Cyprus, and that, whereas the socalled Nationalists, professed to voice the demands of five-sixths of thte population, they represented only a small and tepid minority. It is exceedingly improbable that Cyprus today is more competent for independence, or more anxious for it, than when the request was made in 1929. The revolt, has been .of sufficiently serious proportions to indicate that some of the Cyprians are hostile to Great Britain, but it is of such dubious origin that no great significance can be attached to ijt. The Church authorities, figure somewhat prominent as the leaders of .the disturbances in the towns do not appear to have had any sympathetic counterpart in th ( > agricultural districts, which represent the larger and more stable population. The insurgents have, it is interesting to observe, received an unk\nld setback to VteiT aspirations in the definite statement of their “mother-con’<rv” 'that she wishes to have nothing to do with such unruly reputed offspring.