TAKING POSSESSION OF CYPRUS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 201, 3 October 1878, Page 4

TAKING POSSESSION OF CYPRUS.

Wa give the folio .\ir.g account of the taking possession of C?pru3 from tho Times correspondence. Larnaca, July 22. Almost immediately after the dropping of the anchor at about 7 o'clock this morning, the disembarkation of the tioop3 commenced. The English troops will be brigaded at Lnroncn, and bßttnlions of the Indian regiments will be despatched severally to occupy the towns of Nicosia, the capital, Fnmagoußia, Liraasol, Kyrenia, and perhaps Baffa, the ancient Piphos. A company of the 42aJ has already been started to set up the first part of the camp near Larnaca. The soil abounds iu thistles, and the Black Watch wili not languish for want of their national emblem. The disembarkation was mo3t picturesque. The brilliance of an unclouded sky, (ha pale blue calm waters, the long white aspect of Laruaca, and the painfully blehk and white stretches of mountain, hill, nnd Bbore around, threw into vivid outline the scarlet tunics abd colored kilts of the High- ' Uiders aa they streamed down the ship's side and crowded the ca : ques hired for th< ir transport. Swarthy Greeks and Turks swarmed, worked, and vociferated with untiring euer»y! Upou shore camels were the principal means of transport, and gradually, as ihe men were landed on the pebbly beach, these pitient, ungainly nnimals, undisturbed by a'i the excited movement around thorn, took their burdens and struggled to their feet, waiting almost moliouless for hours for the word to march. Meanwhile the Scotchmen were making friends with the Turkish Gunrd, who had been sent peihips, to amuse themselves, or, perchance, to aid in maintaining order; and while snow from the mountains' was being supplied on one side by an aged Tuik amid a dense crowd of compatriots to cool lemonade for a dry Highland throat, on the other side a\ Highlander was comparing his rifle, through explanatory sigas and gestures', witn the old muzzle-loading percussion musket he has come to supplant. The march to camp, owing to the great heat, waa not to commence until nightfall. Afc 6 o'clock this evening, as you have been informed by my telegram, Sir Garnet "Wolseley, accompanied by his private secretary and military staff in full uniform, proceeded irom the Himalaya in a barge towed by a steam pinnace to the Fort of the Kaimakan, the chief official of the town, to take oaths of allegiance and office, and to assume the Government of Cyprus. The_ fort is now occupied by British marines. A large crowd— never such an one, it is said, has been known for many years,— was assemb'ed at the landing-steps. On one side stood the stately, spectral figures of Turkish women, clothed in pure white their faces shrouded, and nothing human showing but dark unfathomable eyes • on the other side (the passage was kept clear by a guard of honour of marines) jostled and peered a motley crowd men, women, and children,— some halfnaked, others decked fully in the fanciful colours and dresses which are dear to the East. As Sir Garnet "Wolseley stepped, ashore the band of the Marines, which was drawn up beneath the chamber wherein the ceremony was to be enacted, played a bar of « God Save the Queen." Admiral Lord John Hay and the Duke of Edinburgh here received Sir Garnet Wolseley, and ushered him up a flight of stairs "and through passages lined with files of the Guard to a room in which, upon a crimson 1 carpet, was set a chair covered with crimson. "When Sir Garnet Wolseley had seated himself in this chair, Lord John Hay standing upon his right, the Duke of Edinburgh upon 'liTs left, aud the staff, being grouped around and closely packed through the pressure ot the crowd— for the room, by no means a large one, was filled witti an eager audience, Turk and GreekColonel Greave--, C.8., the Chief of the Staff, read, iu a clear voice, Her Majesty's Commission appointing Sir Garnet Wolseley to be High Commissioner iu and for the island of Cyprus. The High Commissioner (Lord High Commissioner by courtesy) then, having had a Bible placed in his hand, took sugcesßively thu oath of allegiance and i tho oath ot office. This formality con-

eluded— (/inramento di fedelta, 1 heard it explained (for most Cypriote of the saaboard speak Italian) by one of the straining and intensely interested crowd — Colonc4 Greaves read in English the Lord High Commissioner's proclamation, of the substance of which I have already informed you by telegram, and the Greeks cried " Zito!" {Hurrah ! Hurrah !) waving their hands in the air with the highest enthusiasm. Next, the proclamation was read in Greek, and again and again the periods of it were interrupted with bursts of the enthusiastic '* Zito! ' The moment the proclamation had been thus triplv delivered, the band from ontside played "God Save the Queen." Then stepped forward the Greek Bishop of Larnaea. and, on behalf of the Greek population of the island, read ;in English translation of a Greek address to his Excellency. A spokesman came forward for the Moslems also, and, being apparantly unprepared with a written address, spoke in extempore language, which was interpreted, bib by bit, as the speech proceeded. The Moslems were understood to express their contentment and welcome. The feelings of the Greeks of the island at the change of rule may fairly be described in their own langunge as those of delight and hope. The Turks are reported aa having witnessed the hauling down of the Turkish flag, and the running np of the British Ensign with sorrow and chagrin. Until this visible token of the transfer was before their eyes, they had been slow to believe that they were actually to be no longer under Turkish Government ; but they are said to have bowed their heads with resignation to the inevitable, exclaiming, "It is the Sultan's [wish." It must be. This demeanour is said to have been especially discernible at Famagousta, whither the English Consul at Larnaea proceeded, to be present at the ceremony of changing the flags.