The Future of Cyprus
By HARRY FRANKLIN
Nicosia.
CYPRUS, geographically Middle East, politically a British Crown Colony, is in spirit Greek. The island is inevitably closely bound up with Middle East fortunes, and recent events in Persia and Egypt have encouraged the Cypriots to press for Enosis—union with Greece—with renewed vigour, although with reasonable goodwill. In the last month or two there have been approaches on this issue by local political leaders to Mr.Attlee, the United Nations, the Greek Government; and the Press of both Cyprus and Greece is keeping the demand for Enosis in the limelight. The subject is a major topic of discussion on the island and a frequent subject for argument in Greece, where at the opening of Parliament last month the new Prime Minister, criticised from his own benches for not including this issue in his programme, replied with some exaggeration: " It is not necessary. Cyprus is always in our hearts."
At present there is a good deal of muddled thinking on the Enosis issue. The idea that Cyprus should " go back " to Greece is, in itself, misleading, since the island has never belonged to Greece, although Greeks have been migrating there for many centuries. If the question of previous ownership is relevant at all the strongest claim would be that of the Turks, who possessed Cyprus for three hundred years before Britain leased it from them in 1878 and seized it in 1914. Populat opinion within Greece assumes that the island is peopled entirely by Greeks who are all in favour of Greek union. In fact, twenty per cent. of the population of 400,000 are Turks, and by no means all Greek Cypriots desire Enosis, although the majority probably do.
Primarily, the movement for Greek union is a spiritual one. It is in fact led by the Archbishop of Cyprus, who is the principal politician of the island, and it is fostered by the priests of the Greek Orthodox Church in every village. Where religious faith is strongest, as it is amongst the peasants, it is easy .to arouse the cry for Enosis. Where religious faith is weakest, as it is amongst the business and professional men and industrial workers, there is often more lip-service to the cause than enthusiasm for it.
Britain clearly cannot give Cyprus to Greece, particularly while unsettlement in the Middle East remains as serious as it is now. The island is the key to the Eastern Mediterranean, and is becoming ever more important as a military base for the Western Powers in the defence of the Middle East. As such, incidentally, it brings considerably increased prosperity to the Cypriots. Cyprus still protects Turkey's southern flank, and the Turks, through a national sympathy with their compatriots on the island, would take a strong line if any real attempt to unite Cyprus with Greece seemed likely.
Such a union would not be in the interests of Cypriots. Greece is virtually bankrupt, and, although Marshall Aid is putting her on the road to recovery, her natural resources are so limited that she will always be poor and can never do for Cyprus what Britain can do. Politically, Greece is unstable and still far front free as we know freedom. It is significant that the small Com- munist Party in Cyprus, which has its own newspaper and makes a good deal of noise at public meetings, should be giving vociferous support to the Enosis cause, while the Communist Party in Greece has been completely suppressed. The lack of sincerity in the Cypriot Communists' demand for Enosis is obvious. Their aim is merely to assist in creating unsettled conditions in the now classical Communist manner.
But if Britain cannot give Cyprus to Greece, she equally, cannot go on much longer administering the island through the autocratic mechanism of a Governor with a few nominated advisers. She must give more political rights as well as greater economic benefits to Cyprus, which she has frankly neglected until comparatively recently.
Until 1914 the island was under lease from the Turks, and as tenant Britain wasted no money on development of the property; Even up to the last war no more was done than the meagre revenues of Cyprus could pay for, which was very little. With increasing prosperity due to the war, and with the advent of the Colonial Development and Welfare Act, our record in Cyprus over the last twelve years has been much better, although grants made under the Act have been far more generous to other colonies than to Cyprus, and there is a good deal in the people's claim that recent development has been due to world events and Cypriot taxes rather than to British generosity. British administration, through loans to farmers, has released(( the peasants from the clutches of the money-lenders who were, squeezing them out of their land, and no greater benefit than this could have been conferred. Much progress has been made in the expansion of social services and the improve, ment of agriculture. But, except for the electrification scheme; development projects are still on a small scale and a great deal more could be done.
Politically, freedom of speech and action is not coupled with the smallest measure of self-government, and it is a strange' reflection that, during the years that British Governments have been almost thrusting political rights on comparatively primitive peoples in African colonies, they have given none to the Cypriots, people of vigorous European stock, with a background of Greek culture and considerable intelligence and ability. This is to some extent the fault of Cypriots themselves, who over-hastily rejected the constitution given to them in the 'thirties. That constitution had it been retained, would no doubt by this time have been' successively reformed to the point of granting effective local self-government. It is still open to the Cypriots to try it again, though they have been given no particular encouragement front Government House or the Colonial Office to do so, and the slogan of Greek union or nothing has gained too much ground for any grudging offer to be of value. If Britain accelerated the rate of economic progress and granted local self-government to Cyprus, the cultural Ad religious force in the Enosis movement would be countered, Greek patriotism and nationalism would be replaced by Cypriot patriotism and nationalism, and by self-interest, and Cyprus would be content enough. Under these conditions, Greece itself would largely lose interest in the movement, which, although it is always good for a headline in the Greek Press and makes a good politician's cry at elections, is not really a vital issue in Greece, which has far graver matters to worry about. Can we not keep one jump ahead of the cat ? Cyprus is small to be given full Dominion status carrying control of foreign affairs, but it could be given a large measure of self-government almost immediately, and little more would be heard of Enosis if it were, It is not yet too late.
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