Sia,—Mr. Rizo-Rangabe's well-informed and thoughtful proposal for settling the Cyprus
question, published in the Spectator of Sep- tember 2, seems to me to push the analogy between Cyprus today and Crete fifty years ago further than the facts warrant.
It is true that, prior to the withdrawal of the Turkish administration and garrison from Crete in 1898, there was a substantial Moslem minority in the island. But during the six years of international administration mentioned by Mr. Rizo-Rangabe, the vast majority of these Moslems emigrated in such numbers that, at the end of the period, there was only a small residue left, chiefly in the towns.
I was Financial Controller of the British Provisional Administration of the Candia Pro- vince during the whole of its duration and write from personal knowledge.
During a recent visit to the island of Rhodes (which was a Turkish possession in 1898) 1 was shown a collection of derelict shacks, called 'the Cretan Quarter,' and was told that these had been put up to house part of this stream of refugees. Presumably they or their children had to move on again when the island passed first to the Italians and later to the Greeks.
Today the position of the Cypriot Moslem minority is very different. They form a com- pact and vocal body, strongly backed by the Turkish Government, and, incidentally, they are British subjects. The solution of 1904 would not, 1 fear, work today.—Yours faith- fully,
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