Disturbances in Cyprus in October, 1931.

I.

Despatch from the Governor of Cyprus to the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

(Received 20th February, 1932)

Government House, Nicosia 11th February, 1932

SIR,

I have the honour to submit the following report on the disturbances which occurred in Cyprus in October last.

2. The immediate occasion of the outbreak was the resignation of the Bishop of Kitium and other Greek-Orthodox members from the Legislative Council of the Colony. The Bishop resigned on the 17th October. One other member, Mr. N. K. Lanitis, resigned on the 19th October. The resignations of the Nicosia members, or their intentions to resign, were announced or known to the populace at Nicosia in the evening of the 21st October, just before the first and capital act of violence, the assault on Government House, was perpetrated. Copies of the letters of resignation, which are significant of the state of mind of the writers at the time, have been forwarded to you.

3. The secret deliberations of the Orthodox elected members of the Council which led to their resignation opened on the 12th September, 1931. After several postponements, due to the absence of certain members in Europe, they had been summoned by the Bishop of Kitium to meet that day at Saitta, a summer resort near Troodos partly owned by the see of Kitium, to decide what attitude they should adopt and what course of action they should follow in consequence of a statement made in Parliament by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the 8th July to the effect that the accumulated surplus from the payments made from Cyprus revenue as tribute to Turkey under the Convention of 1878 had been disposed of for the sinking fund of the Turkish loan guaranteed by Great Britain in 1855. It was assumed, correctly, that they would also discuss and attempt to define their attitude towards the Imperial Order in Council introducing a new Customs tariff which had been published in the Colony three days previously.

4. The treatment of Cyprus by His Majesty's Government in regard to the tribute has been one of the two main planks in the platform of local agitation for union with Greece. Much has been made in political speeches of the cry that Cyprus was bought from Turkey in 1878, and has since been cynically exploited by Great Britain for financial gain. In pursuance of the campaign of anti-British propaganda, acceptance by Cyprus of the settlement of the tribute question in 1927 has never been admitted by the politicians: and any public mention of the tribute based on the 1927 settlement afforded opportunities for indignant expostulation which the Orthodox leaders were quick to seize.

5. As regards the Imperial Order in Council amending the Customs tariff, a deficit was envisaged in the Colony's budget of some 60,000 [pounds sterling], and of this not more than 40,000 [pounds sterling] could be met immediately by reduction of expenditure. Owing to the general fall in commodity prices the tariff stood in need of readjustment and revision to safeguard the revenue, and additional revenue of 20,000 [pounds sterling] was required to avoid encroachment on the Colony's small reserve of 90,000 [pounds sterling]. The elected members of the Council had refused, however, to agree to any legislative measure involving fresh taxation. Taking their stand on the second plank of the platform for union, namely, that Cyprus was misgoverned, the Orthodox members had chosen logically to obstruct good government by refusing, as on so many former occasions, to co-operate with the administration in remedial measures, and once again in the history of their obstruction in the vital sphere of finance the necessary legislation had been passed by Royal Order. A memorandum explaining the contents of the Order and setting out, in terms conciliatory to the Legislature, the reasons for recourse to legislation by Order in Council was published simultaneously. The necessity for the new tariff was recognized among leading merchants. But for the campaign of misrepresentation that was launched against it, it would doubtless have remained a public matter of ordinary indifference to the community generally.

6. There is no reason to deny sincerity to the Orthodox members in their reaction to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's statement, and no suggestion need be made that they were not genuinely reluctant to accept responsibility for additional taxes in the trade depression or, when the responsibility had been accepted by the Government for them, genuinely conscious of lost prestige. Consideration of their attitude to individual questions borders indeed upon irrelevance, and its totally misleading, unless the extreme degree in which they were bound by the theory that in politics unique value belonged to the cause of union with Greece is first appreciated.

7. No announcement was issued after the Saitta meeting, but it was generally known, and mentioned in the Press, that the members had formally resolved to address a manifesto to the people calling upon them to refuse to pay taxes and to boycott British goods by way of protest. The resolution was, it was stated, subject to the approval of the National Organization, and, until this had been obtained, no action was to be taken. Meanwhile, certain of the Orthodox members proceeded to include in their public speeches some indirect but non-actionable exhortation or reference to refusal to pay taxes.

8. The National Organization was a body, first formed in 1922 under the title of the National Assembly, which claimed as members "all adult male Cypriot-Greeks and all Cypriot-Greeks living abroad" with the object of employing "all powers and means" to achieve union with Greece. The President of the Assembly of the Organization and of the Executive Committee was the Archbishop of Cyprus, and the Bishops presided over the District Committees. The Organization, which was supported by subscriptions and by the Church, maintained a representative in London for propaganda, and employed a secretary in Cyprus who had recently established a number of "National Youth" clubs in the villages to extend the movement. The Orthodox members of the Legislative Council were ex officio members of the Assembly of the Organization, which contrived to exercise strict control over their functions in the Legislature. They were answerable both in theory and practice to the National body, rather than to their constituents, for all political opinions and activities. Reference, therefore, to the Organization of the Saitta resolution accorded with precedent.

9. The Orthodox members and the members of the National Organization eventually met to discuss the Saitta resolution at the Archbishopric in Nicosia on the 3rd October, soon after the return of the Government from Troodos. Dissension at once ensued principally, it appears, because the Orthodox members were unwilling to resign their seats in the Legislative Council, and they were pressed to do so. I enclose a copy * of a communique issued after the meting announcing an adjournment of the discussion, which had dissolved in uproar. Meetings were held again on the 10th and 11th, and on the 17th October, but no decision resulted. Apart from the question of resignation from the Legislative Council no agreement had been possible on the terms of the draft manifesto, which were reluctantly but progressively modified to meet the general opinion, openly acknowledged by the Press, that an appeal to the people to resist the payment of taxes was doomed to failure. The inability of the national leaders to come to conclusions, the futility of their suggested boycott of British goods, and the fact that they had already paid their own taxes for the year exposed them to ridicule. They were allowed no dignified way of retreat to a rational standpoint. Foreseeing retreat and refusing to be involved in any weakness, the extremist section of the National Organization resigned in the course of the meetings.

10. It will be convenient at his point briefly to review the capacity of the National movement to support the prosecution by its leaders of desperate counsels. The policy of memorials for union, delegations to England, local demonstrations with flags and processions, anti-British invective from the Press and platforms, and non-co-operation and obstruction in the Legislative Council had come to nothing; and among the extremists in the movement the cry had gone up that they must look in future to deeds rather than words to achieve their object. The new policy of action had, however, no apparent programme and the cry for deeds seemed only to connote a change of words. Invective against British rule became more bitter and more direct in the political speeches, and vague incitement to unspecified deeds was more frequently included, with occasional references to the revolutionary example of other dependent countries. Many of these speeches were delivered in villages whither the leaders had carried the campaign with determination, not only for electioneering purposes, but in order to prepare an atmosphere contradictory to the criticism that adherence to their cause was restricted to town-bred advocates, priests, and schoolmasters. In 1930 (a year of elections) reports of 555 political speeches delivered in villages were received from the police, and 246 in 1931 before the 17th October. Numerous speeches also were made in village churches, and there were others of which, for various reasons, no record was obtained. Among the peasantry the campaign of misrepresentation and abuse of Government had been favoured by the deterioration of economic conditions and by rustic ignorance. Dislocation of markets in the trade depression might have shaken the apathy of the villagers towards agitation, but their confidence in the established order was deep-rooted; they would take no initiative in opposing the Government, and, if any consequence was to follow from the flow of rhetoric, would look for it to the towns whence the lead should come.

11. In the towns the movement had in the process of time continued to make headway. Fresh generations of youth sedulously indoctrinated with disloyalty had been launched by the secondary schools (in Cyprus non-governmental) on all the professions; and, outside the Government service and the realm of Government influence and activity, every branch of public life in the Orthodox community was in some way allied to the cause of union. Athletic and social clubs in particular were identified with the movement. The boy scout organization, apart from three loyal troops, those of the commercial and English schools and that organized by my aide-de-camp, was subjected to it. Ceremonies of a quasi-martial nature staged by an "ex-service" association of a few Cypriots who had fought in the Greek wars excited fervour not only among the students but the people generally, to whom the realities of any kind of military service were quite unknown. In connexion with demonstrations for union the consistently correct attitude of the Greek Government had in previous months been gravely compromised by the acting Greek Consul, a young man of Cypriot antecedents who had taken it upon himself to accept public homage in his official capacity from the disloyal elements. His indiscretions were flagrantly exploited and an impression created that with sufficient clamour diplomatic intervention might be invoked in the cause of union.

12. Undesirable as these manifestations of disaffection were they differed only in scale and intensity from those which had been tolerated in Cyprus for over fifty years. Personal memories of such manifestations in past decades vary considerably and official records incline to reticence on this subject. They were not in themselves illegal nor, in the light of experience, a likely prelude to illegality in any serious form. A strong counteracting tendency existed in the tacit by increasingly widespread recognition among educated Cypriots of the generous benefits attaching to the status of Cyprus as a British colony. Appreciation of the many-sided development of the island's resources in recent years was by no means confined to the mercantile community. Apart from Orthodox politics, sympathetic relations and additional points of contact with the Government were increasingly perceptible. The very vehemence of the anti-government propaganda was an unpremeditated tribute to this growth of understanding. Moreover the habit of respect for law and order was firmly rooted in the inhabitants of the country and enabled the hostile movement to be conducted--securely, as it seemed--like a game of make-believe. The danger lay with the irresponsible elements in the town populations which, in the intensity of feeling that had been engendered, might fail to respect the rules of the game.

13. During my absence on leave in the summer minor disturbances had occurred at Nicosia and Larnaca in consequence of the opposition of the national party to the spread of communism. The communist party had openly attacked the national movement and succeeded in gaining many adherents. The national leaders thereupon decided to suppress all communist meetings, and they had secretly persuaded large bodies of the riff-raff in the towns to attack the communists. The disturbances were well handled by the police and kept in check, and the leaders on both sides were severely warned. But sufficient assaults had been perpetrated and injuries sustained to frighten the communists. As your predecessor was informed at the time, the successful employment of mob violence by the national party was a disquieting factor in the general situation.

14. When the Orthodox members met on the 17th October, the Bishop of Kitium had read out to them and sought their approval of a manifesto he had drafted, of which I here enclose a translation *. To this the members agreed generally but stipulated that the draft should be considered at a further meeting in a week's time. The next day they learnt with astonishment that a manifesto in precisely the same terms had been published by the Bishop independently under the previous day's date and had been widely circulated together with a letter tendering his resignation from the Legislative Council. Eight of the members thereupon abandoned all their previously professed intentions and concentrated upon denunciation of the Bishop's treachery. I enclose a translation * of a public announcement of their attitude which they issued immediately. A supplementary attack on the Bishop appeared in a voluminous broadsheet entitled "Above all sincerity" under the signature of George Hajipavlou, one of their number. The problem of the joint manifesto passed into oblivion and the ground of the political crisis shifted.

15. I shall now allude to the measures of precaution that were taken by Government after the nature of the deliberations at Saitta had been reported. Intelligence of the subsequent meetings was immediately communicated to me, and my principal advisers remained on duty in Nicosia in readiness for developments throughout the week-end holidays in which meeting were held. The Treasurer was instructed to expedite the collection of all outstanding taxes, and the police were warned to be prepared to assist collectors in the event of an emergency. Arrangements were made for the issue of warrants for seizure of property on a large scale should that become necessary, and special directions were imparted to the tax collectors. Through the Commissioners the collaboration of the mukhtars was enlisted in advance. It was arranged to proceed against all well-to-do taxpayers in the first instance. I had decided that if the Orthodox members were actually to issue any form of manifesto of the kind they threatened, I should immediately dissolve the Legislative Council. At the same time I was anxious to assist them, if possible, to withdraw from the compromising position in which they had placed themselves. I, therefore, caused two invitations to be addressed to them invoking their co-operation with the Government in the study respectively of the Estimates for 1932, then in course of preparation, and of certain measures that were contemplated in assistance of agriculture. Neither invitation was accepted.

16. From the 18th October the situation centred in the Bishop of Kitium. His advocacy of illegal measures was hailed with satisfaction by the extremist elements. His manifesto and resignation were followed the same day by a speech at Larnaca in which he was reported to have used the following words: "For the benefit of this country we must not obey their laws. Do not be afraid because England has a fleet. We must all try for union and if necessary let our blood flow." I was subsequently advised that it was doubtful whether this speech would support a prosecution for sedition under the criminal code, but the Bishop, as I was informed at the time, hourly awaited apprehension by the police. Arrest, martyrdom, and widespread demonstrations at the scene of his trial or for his release from prison were it appears to be the phases of his scheme. As it was, no consequences ensued of any sort. I made my preparations for a flying visit to England on urgent business somewhat eased in mind by the turn political events had taken. I was due to sail on the 22nd October.

17. On the 20th October the Bishop arrived in Limassol. He had come, it seems, at the request of Mr. N. K. Lanitis, who announced that the Bishop would explain his reasons for resigning from the Council. Church bells were rung to summon the people, and a cortege headed by a slowly moving motor car draped with a large Greek flag went out between 4 and 5 p.m. to meet him. He was thus escorted to the Stadium, where a crowd of about 3,000 people, including schoolboys, had assembled. I enclose a translation * of the speech he made. After a few more speeches the crowd moved off singing and cheering to a club in the town where, from a balcony, the Bishop again addressed them briefly in inflammatory terms. He was followed by Lanitis and Zenon Rossides, recently the representative in London of the National Organization, who reminded the people that the struggle should now be pursued not with words but deeds. At 7 p. m. the crowd quietly dispersed, and there were no signs whatever of impending trouble. On the 21st the Bishop attended a church ceremony in a neighbouring village and again urged his audience to disobey the laws.

18. The Bishop's words appeared to have fallen on deaf ears in Limassol, and his call to revolt was destined to be answered by those who had not heard them. In the afternoon of the 21st Mr. N. K. Lanitis telegraphed the following exaggerated account of the meeting in the Stadium the day before to Nicosia: "An unprecedented huge meeting of the town and suburbs. Bishop of Kitium spoke to the crowd which filled the Stadium. Mayor addressed the Bishop, a demonstration followed without precedent and under leadership of Bishop of Kitium, mayor, and ourselves followed by many thousands of people from town and villages, students and ex-service men. The crowd assembled below the club where the Bishop of Kitium, Lanitis, and Rossides spoke. Never before has there been a more panegyric approval by town and district." The effects of this telegram were instantaneous.

19. In Nicosia the campaign against the Bishop's independent action had failed to carry conviction, and it was generally felt that the Bishop's policy had been forced on him by the procrastination and half-hearted counsels of his colleagues. The younger men of extreme persuasions saw their opportunity to discredit and perhaps displace the leaders. Provocative discussion, fed by the fabrication of tendentious rumour, allied with secret scheming, pervaded the clubs and political meetings before the outbreak. The fist blow had fallen on the Orthodox members when, on the night of the 18th October, a printed announcement of the formation of a new and radical National Organization for Union was widely published. I enclose a copy * of the announcement. The programme was vague and many of the signatories, who came from all over the island and from many trades and professions, were little known. The announcement was generally interpreted as a threat to the unresigning Orthodox members to tender their resignations, and was supposed to have been inspired either by the Bishop of Kitium or the Bishop of Kyrenia, Loizides' confederate. The young leaders of the new Union were, however, more self-sufficient than was supposed at the time, and their aims were not confined to the immediate crisis. They were out to precipitate the crisis and also to exploit it. They had acquired the allegiance of a political journalist of extreme opinions and quiet resolution, and with his assistance proposed to launch a subversive newspaper on the country in support of their programme.

20. The sequence of events on the 21st October in Nicosia after the telegram from Lanitis had been delivered was as follows. Manuscript copies of the telegram were made and posted in the clubs. The news spread. At 5.30 p. m. it was generally known that the Orthodox members of the Legislative Council in Nicosia had decided to resign. Members of the new National Union collected at the Commercial Club and sent emissaries to cause the church bells to be rung to summon the people. Others went round the town telling the shopkeepers to shut their shops and assemble at the Club. Speeches began and the crowd swelled from 300 to about 3,000 persons who swarmed inside and around the Club's extensive premises. The resigning members arrived and spoke in turn. The keynote of the speeches was that all differences of opinion and party must be set aside. The members had lost ground to recover and rose to the occasion. Hajipavlou raised one discordant note of criticism of the Bishop and was shouted down. Both he and Theodotou referred to my impending departure for England the next day, and the cry arose "To Government House. To Government House." Dionysios Kykkotis, chief priest of the most important church in Nicosia, then stepped forward and "declared revolution." A Greek flag was handed to him and he swore the people to defend it. One more speech was made, the speaker kissed the flag and the cry "To Government House" was renewed with frenzy. The leaders seized the flag, and about 6.45 p.m. began to lead the crowd in procession through the town. It is about a mile and a-half from the Club to Government House. A straggling advance guard, which greatly increased en route, impeded the main body. The main procession moved in dense formation and very slowly. There was not much noise apart from occasional outbursts of cheering, mostly from spectators. Passing the Government timber yard, at about one-third of the distance to Government House, the crowd helped themselves to sticks of various sizes, and they tore up the wooden tree-guards along the roadside. At this point some of the crowd or stragglers diverged from the main road and moved in a parallel procession of almost equal density through the suburban village of Ayii Omoloyitades. A spectator from a house on the main road recalls that there passed for ten minutes a broken stream of men and students and for ten further minutes a thickly massed column. Ten minutes later the final stragglers were clear. Sticks, bicycles, lanterns, electric torches, and huge banners are remembered and, among the stragglers, priests holding their skirts up as they hurried forward. The advance portions of the crowd began to reach the first gate of Government House about 7.45, and the main body after 8 p.m.

21. Police headquarters had learnt immediately and were kept continuously informed by telephone of these occurrences. Eight mounted police and a baton party of twelve foot police had been despatched before 7 p.m. with instructions to prevent the crowd from entering Government House grounds. A patrol of five foot police was sent to watch and report by telephone the movements and action of the crowd on its way to Government House. Five mounted police were in line across the first gate of Government House drive and eight foot police with batons in the road in front of them. Here the advance parties of the crowd stopped and thickened gradually from the rear. The police who tried to push the crowd back were assailed with sticks and stones and eventually the horses stampeded and the crowd poured into the drive. I had learnt before 7.30 p.m. that a crowd was on its way to Government House and some ten minutes later the acting Colonial Secretary and the Commissioner arrived and reported to me. I arranged that the Commissioner should go down to the first gate and consent to speak to three representatives. When he and the acting Colonial Secretary went to the gate the main procession had not arrived and eventually, when the police broke, they were driven back at the head of the crowd to the top of the drive some 30 yards from the house. Here for about 20 minutes the crowd waited for the main procession and the Commissioner spoke to some of them. They were mostly students with a few irresponsible spectators. The police re-formed and kept the people from pressing forward into the large circular terrace in front of the house. The crowd thickened suddenly and was pressed from behind. It surged forward right across the terrace up to the front door of the house. The Commissioner, acting Colonial Secretary, and the Inspector and police that had not been dispersed in the crowd took up their position at the porch facing the people. Theodotou, Hajipavlou, Pheidias Kyriakides of Limassol, the priest Kykkotis and a few others who appeared to have been leading the main procession struggled through the mass, which now enveloped the whole terrace and surrounding garden, to the porch. With them was a man carrying a trumpet and a large Greek standard. A noisy demonstration ensued with cheering and clapping and continuous shouts of "Enosis" (union). At this stage I informed the Commissioner that if the crowd withdrew to a respectful distance I would see one or two of their leaders. He and the leaders from the step of the porch attempted to tell the crowd to withdraw, but without avail. Their words were drowned in cheering and only those nearest the porch could have heard them at all. In the uproar Theodotou was heard to exclaim "The Governor justly (d??a???) refuses to see us." A few stones were thrown and some windows broken and, as I learnt afterwards, a Greek flag was hoisted on the roof of the house. It became increasingly clear that words would not move the crowd to go and that its enthusiasm and determination would not easily be exhausted. About an hour after their arrival, i.e., about 9.30 p.m., the leaders, realizing that they had no control, and fearing the consequences, sent messages of apology to me and decamped. It seems that quite a number of the crowd followed them and thereafter the crowd tended steadily to diminish though the movement was difficult to follow and there was much coming and going, and shifting of position. Along the road between Government House and the town parties came and went. Large groups of people stood about and jeered and threw stones at any police that passed.

22. About 9 p.m., police headquarters had learnt by telephone that stone throwing was going on and that windows had been broken, and the Local Commandant, with the Chief Commandant's concurrence, despatched the armed party of 40 men that had been held in reserve at the barracks under the senior police inspector. The inspector by a devious route avoided the crowd and brought his men into Government House from the rear without opposition. He reported to the Commissioner at the porch. The Commissioner and leaders were then attempting to parley with the crowd. Not long afterwards violent stone throwing began and the Commissioner and police were driven from the porch into the house. Further police reinforcements and a copy of the Riot Act were sent for. The bombardment of stones increased and soon all the windows in the front of the house had been smashed, a number of police were injured, many of the electric lights were broken, and the telephone room, near the porch, had been wrecked and rendered untenable. The police reinforcements of an inspector and 22 men arrived in four cars in front of the house. They were heavily stoned and entered the house, as best they could, through the broken windows, at about 10.15 p.m. Before this the Commissioner had ordered the police to make a baton charge. Only the small original police party of twelve had batons and there was a long delay in collecting them. Eventually the party attempted to debouch from the front of the house, but they were quickly driven in by the fusillade of stones. Many of the stones or rocks thrown that night were larger than coconuts and some, propelled with slings, arrived with sufficient force to shatter the masonry of the porch and to break in the front door. The door was propped up with heavy furniture but was again smashed in by timber used as a battering ram. The senior police inspector had asked for permission to fire, but the Commissioner refused because the crowd appeared to him to be composed largely of young students and because he considered that further effort should be made to disperse the rioters with unarmed police. The chief difficulty was that the now greatly diminished crowd was disposed in groups on and around the terrace and many had withdrawn into the shadow of the trees facing the house, across the terrace, whence they directed the cannonade of stones with increasing volume and accuracy. To the occupants of the house the only clearly visible target was the parties of youths in front. The roughs behind made occasional sallies to support them in destructive acts.

23. Soon after the arrival of the 22 police reinforcements the acting Colonial Secretary's car just in front of the porch was seen to be on fire. It had been wrecked and overturned earlier in the evening. A little later the crowd set fire to three of the four cars in which police reinforcements had arrived in front of the house. The crowd then threw burning sticks and blazing material through the windows of the house. Where possible police were posted under cover along the front of the house inside the windows, but the torrent of stones and havoc wrought made it difficult to maintain an effective guard. When he was satisfied that definite attempts to set the house on fire had been made the Commissioner decided that rifle fire must be employed, but first ordered the baton party again to charge, this time from the west side of the house. The charge was launched under a hail of stones and failed to reach any of the groups of the crowd. The Commissioner had previously succeeded in reaching some of the students in front of the house. They were too excited to take any notice of what he said. Having ordered the firing party to get ready he again went out to satisfy himself that no other method but rifle fire would stop the riot. He then led the firing party round by the back of the house to the east side. Here further attempts at incendiarism were seen. The Commissioner read the Riot Act, the sense of which was also shouted in Greek by a policeman. The bugle sounded and further warning was shouted. About 100 of the crowd were visible and these at first withdrew but came back quickly shouting insults at the police. The bugle sounded again and the order to fire was given. The party, composed of twelve men, was told to fire one round per man and to aim at the legs of the crowd. The volley was fired, followed by a few scattered shots. The crowd dispersed and was pursued by the police, who were ordered to clear the grounds by charging. Two wounded rioters were left on the ground; seven in all were wounded, of whom one died later. Almost simultaneously the flames from the curtains at the west corner of the frontage of the house spread to the roof and took hold of the whole building, which five minutes later was completely burnt out. The police reported that the grounds were clear. It was then just after 11 p.m. Medical assistance was sent for for the wounded and with a guard of two policemen I left in a motor car for Secretary's Lodge with the acting Colonial Secretary. We passed small groups of spectators along the roadside. In the town demonstrations continued until 1 a.m.

24. On arrival at Secretary's Lodge I sent immediately for the troops from Troodos and decided that further military reinforcements would be required. The permanent garrison consisted of three officers and a hundred and twenty-three men. Allowing for guards, transport, and men in hospital, less than a hundred would be available for parade. The police were trained and employed almost exclusively in the prevention and detection of crime and were in no sense of the term a military force. The siege of Government House had shown that they could not be expected to cope with serious disorder adequately except by rifle fire. The outrage at Nicosia appeared to have been partly prompted by a sense of rivalry with Limassol. Further rivalry and disturbance were sure to arise and should be dealt with firmly at the outset before more damage could be done without, if possible, recourse to firing. The political agitators had roused the mob but could not, even if they wished, control it. In Nicosia, it seemed, the mob had taken charge. If similar situations were to arise in the other towns and spread to villages, or if there was to be any concerted outbreak, widespread anarchy was likely to follow. The swiftest precautions were necessary to ensure that any such consequence could be forestalled. I therefore telegraphed to the General Officer Commanding British Troops in Egypt for additional troops to be sent by air as soon as possible and to the Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet for an aircraft carrier or cruiser. I cabled an account of the situation to your predecessor and cancelled the leave granted to me. I also caused all Commissioners to be advised by wire to take precautions in their districts and to report the situation by wire twice daily until further notice. They were informed that grave disturbances had occurred at Nicosia.

25. During the night the Chief Commandant of Police ordered the various posts around the town envisaged in the Internal Security Scheme to be manned. An office for the Officer commanding the troops was prepared at the depot (police headquarters) and the acting Colonial Secretary arranged for certain members of his staff to be there in rotation on continuous duty. He himself remained with me at Secretary's Lodge, which was soon connected to the depot with a direct, and additional, telephone line. The Telegraph Company was asked to submit all private cables for abroad to the Secretariat for censorship and all inland telegrams were to be censored by the Commissioners. The necessary warrants were duly issued. The Commissioner issued large printed notices, stocks of which were kept available at all district headquarters, warning the public to remain within doors from sunset to sunrise, prohibiting assemblies of more than five persons, the carrying of firearms, and provocative conduct, These were posted in the town by daylight on the 22nd.

26. These warning notices were part of the Colony's emergency scheme for disturbances. Though it was not often possible to enforce them completely they were found useful as a preliminary measure both in Nicosia and other districts. It was clear, however, that further powers than those for "apprehended rioting" would be necessary. Tense excitement was reported from Famagusta and disturbance was expected both there and at Larnaca before the end of the day. The situation in Nicosia was extremely uncertain. I conceived that strong confident government should succeed the regime of apprehension as soon as possible and that extraordinary powers of a wide and, if necessary, permanent character, should be immediately acquired. Other considerations apart, the prestige of the Government demanded that martial law should at all cost be avoided. I, therefore, sought and in the short interval of three hours obtained by telegraph your predecessor's approval to introduce the Defence (Certain British Possessions) Order in Council, 1928.

27. The Officer commanding the troops with one platoon had arrived from Troodos at 7.30 a.m. and reinforced the police piquets. Three more platoons arrived at 10.30, bringing the military strength at Nicosia to 3 officers and 91 other ranks. Excited gatherings inside the walled town were reported, schools were shut, and normal business suspended, but the exits from the town were now under control and all important Government property was protected. Before noon the Officer commanding the troops decided to send two platoons via Larnaca to Famagusta to clear up the situation there.

28. At Larnaca the Commissioner had mustered the police in the barracks and sent for the political leaders to warn them of their responsibilities. He informed them that the police had orders to shoot if any burning or looting occurred. A mass meeting had been arranged for the afternoon and, as he had not sufficient force with which to prevent it, the Commissioner decided to allow it on the understanding that the organizers and speakers would be held responsible. The meeting took the form of a heated protest, led by the mayor, against the action of the Government in shooting unarmed people in Nicosia. The meeting broke up just as the two platoons arrived on their way to Famagusta: the officer-in-charge detained one platoon to assist in the preservation of order and there was no disturbance.

29. At Famagusta an ugly crowd had gathered and persistent rumours reached the acting Commissioner that Government property was to be attacked. The leaders were sent for and warned. They promised to use their influence to prevent rioting, but said they could not guarantee to keep the mob in check. One of them stated his policy would be to urge the people to passive resistance and to diminish the Government revenue by ceasing to smoke tobacco and refrain from using imported goods. Urging an excited mob to passive resistance to Government and to refrain from smoking was, of course, tantamount to provocation; and this absurd contradictory assurance was typical of the irresponsibility and dangerous equivocation of even the more serious-minded of the leaders throughout the disturbances. The need for sacrifice and bloodshed was freely mentioned in their speeches and, at Famagusta on this occasion, the "meanness of the English in fighting unarmed people." From noon onwards an attack was expected. All British women and children were evacuated on board a Khedivial steamship in the harbour and, thanks to the example and energy of the General Manager, Railway, a volunteer force of 20 British officials and others was organized and armed in support of the police. The platoon of military arrived at 5 p.m. and a protected area was established and certain key positions guarded. Notices were issued closing all licensed premises.

30. The Commissioner, Limassol, had telegraphed in the morning that all was quiet and that he did not anticipate trouble. His view was shared by the local Commandant of Police. The police were kept in barracks in readiness for an emergency and reserves were called for from the district. Quiet continued until 6.30 p.m. when two motor lorries arrived with a few soldiers from Nicosia to procure provisions. The market was opened, but while supplies were being brought out to the lorry from the market a crowd collected. The crowd soon showed signs of resentment at the market being opened for British soldiers, and eventually they rushed at the lorry and threw the sacks of supplies to the ground. Soon afterwards the church bells began ringing and the people were urged to assemble at the Bishopric. A police officer and a zaptieh were present there when the Bishop addressed the crowd from a balcony. They made no notes at the time but reported immediately that he had spoken as follows: "Since the Nicosia people refused to supply rations to the troops it is a shame for the Limassol people to give them. We must prevent by every means the taking out of rations from Limassol. Please allow us five minutes time to consider what action should be taken." A patrol of police was soon afterwards sent to the Army supply depot whither the crowd was reported to be proceeding.

31. At 8.15 p.m. the Commissioner telegraphed the situation as follows: "Town quiet but excitement prevails. Bishop still here and if more propaganda is made we shall probably have trouble. The mob has just prevented lorries loading food for troops. When warships arrive consider it advisable to send one here." Having despatched this telegram the Commissioner proceeded by bicycle to his house a mile and a half distant. About half way he overtook a crowd heading in the same direction and getting thicker as he progressed towards its front. The people were shouting "Union" and were carrying sticks. Some of them manifested hostility to him, and his bicycle, from which he had dismounted, was struck. He arrived at his house simultaneously with the head of the crowd and entered his house through the back yard. The crowd entered the yard also and began stoning the house and smashing the windows and wooden shutters. They set fire to a pile of prunings and cut the electric wires. A car arrived with tins of petrol and the crowd set fire to the back door of the house. Inside the house the Commissioner, alone with his wife, twelve-year-old daughter and two servants, was powerless. He had attempted to go out to speak to the crowd but was driven in by a hail of stones. One of the servants whom he sent to warn the police was turned back by the crowd but eventually succeeded in getting through. Seeing that the house was well alight, the Commissioner and his family made their escape from the front door. They were led by two well-disposed persons down to the sea and rowed to the Customs shed where they landed and went to the police station. When the police arrived at the scene of the fire they were too late to extinguish it and the bulk of the crowd had departed leaving a residue of spectators. The police had had no warning of any intention to burn the Commissioner's house, their attention had been diverted to the Army supply depot and their movements were handicapped by lack of motor transport. One private car which they used stuck in a bank of sand at the side of the road and had to be abandoned. It was burnt by the crowd.

32. I received the Commissioner's telegram reporting that his house had been burnt and that the police were unable to cope with the situation at 10.45 p.m.; and the Officer commanding the troops agreed to send him the platoon from Larnaca, which since the dispersal of the meeting at 6 p.m. had been quiet. Had there been any warning of serious disturbance from Limassol military assistance might have been sent much earlier, but the lorry incident was quite unexpected and it is not unreasonably contended that but for that incident the further outbreak might not have occurred. The platoon reached Limassol at 3 a.m. the next morning. From Pathos excitement and demonstrations had been reported, and the telegraph wire had been cut. It had not been possible to send reinforcements, but as will be seen later the situation was still in course of development. At Nicosia the church bells had been rung in the afternoon and the crowd had collected and refused to move. Six thousand people were said to be massed in Lydra Street, heading towards the New Entrance, where they opened a bombardment of stone-throwing and threatened to rush the piquet. The New Entrance is on the direct approach to the town from the Government offices and Secretary's Lodge. A barricade of barbed wire "knife rests" was erected, the piquet withdrawn and a Lewis gun posted. Warnings were shouted that anyone approaching the barricade and attempting to move it would be fired at. Great credit is due to the troops and police for the skill and patience exercised on this and similar occasions under great provocation. Before midnight the crowd had dispersed.

33. In the course of the 22nd I attempted, but failed, to establish direct wireless communication with the fleet through the Khedivial steamer at Famagusta. At length I learnt that two cruisers and two destroyers were on their way to Cyprus and I requested, and it was agreed, that the two cruisers should proceed respectively to Limassol and Larnaca and the destroyers to Paphos and Famagusta. The fortunate decision of the Commander-in-Chief to send four vessels when one only had been asked for enabled the troops to take the initiative in suppressing the insurrection much earlier than would otherwise have been possible and it ensured in the meanwhile the prevention of further extensive destruction of property in the towns. The ships were due to arrive next morning and the Officer commanding the troops informed his headquarters in Egypt that in the circumstances he would not require the reinforcements, additional to those arriving by air, that had been offered. The reinforcement by air (one company) was due at 11 a.m. on the 23rd. They arrived punctually in troop carriers at the emergency landing ground 5 miles west of Nicosia where preparations had been made for their reception.

34. On the arrival of H.M.S. London at Larnaca the Commissioner, in accordance with my directions, proceeded on board and described the situation generally to the Rear-Admiral Commanding. It was arranged that the Admiral should motor under escort to Nicosia for a consultation with me at mid-day. He was asked and consented to land immediately 200 men at Limassol, 100 at Larnaca, and as many as possible up to 50 at both Famagusta and Paphos. At my conference with the Admiral the respective roles of the navy, military and police were decided on. The closest co-operation with Commissioners was to be maintained and daily conferences held by them with police and naval or army officers in charge in all districts. The Admiral made it clear that only to meet a grave emergency would he send naval parties inland. In the event of necessity for armed intervention by His Majesty's Forces, the senior naval officer on the spot was to take command at the ports, elsewhere the responsibility for command was in such circumstances to rest with the Officer commanding the troops. Thereafter I communicated with the Admiral at the pre-arranged hours twice daily by telephone. The arrangements for co-operation and command were successfully maintained throughout.

35. At Famagusta and Paphos the situation was complicated by the incursion of villagers into the towns. Agitators were busy in the district urging them to come in. At Paphos the Commissioner was the only British official, and he and his wife the only British residents. The force of police was limited to 38, and on the morning of the 23rd he wired for military support. Throughout the 22nd mass demonstrations had continued, and the leading citizens, when warned of their responsibilities had confessed that the situation was beyond their control. The populace awaited in tense excitement the promised arrival of the Bishop of Kitium. The Commissioner placed a small guard on his house, and with the bulk of the police awaited developments at the police barracks. At 10 p.m. the crowd dispersed and the Commissioner learnt that a deputation was proceeding to Limassol to urge the Bishop to come to Paphos on the 24th to address a meeting to which all villagers were to be summoned. On the 23rd at 10 a.m. two officers and a naval party landed from the destroyer and went straight to the police barracks. The Commissioner's wife was received on board. Demonstrations had recommenced early in the morning, the telegraph wires were again cut, and attempts were made to block the road to the harbour. A platoon of the Royal Welch Fusiliers that had been relieved by the Navy at Limassol arrived at 6 p.m. They turned back a procession which was moving in the direction of the Commissioner's house intent on destruction. The officer commanding the platoon was anxious to take immediate steps to break up the disturbance, but the Commissioner had decided that he would withhold the initiative until the day following, when the deputation of ringleaders would return, perhaps with the Bishop, from Limassol. Meanwhile the situation was closely watched, and guards were posted on Government property. The Commissioner prudently matured his plans.

36. At Nicosia one of the wounded rioters had died in hospital in the night. When this was known bell-ringing started, a crowd assembled at the Archbishopric, and a deputation proceeded to the Commissioner to obtain permission for a funeral procession. After consideration I allowed this to be granted on the strict understanding that a prescribed route approved by the military would be followed. The funeral was at 3 o'clock and a crowd, estimated at 8,000 persons, proceeded from the church in the town to the cemetery outside. Boy scouts, ex-service men, representatives of all the political clubs carrying banners and Greek flags attended, and speeches were made urging the people to continue the struggle. In the church a collection had been made for a fund with which to support the police, who were to be persuaded to desert the Government. A number of hooligans attacked the house of a police officer just outside the town on the prescribed route, and a party of the troops, who had been withdrawn to special dispositions at a discreet distance, was sent to drive them off. At the same moment the procession arrived from the cemetery on its way back to the town. With admirable coolness the troops succeeded in dispersing the hooligans and holding up the procession under a hail of stones. Later the crowd again stoned the piquet at the New Entrance, and it was some hours before they could be persuaded to disperse. The Commissioner, assisted by the mayor, warned them of the consequences if they did not do so, but, as on all such occasions in the towns at that time, the excitement, pressure of people, and confusion were such that the threat of force had little effect.

37. A disturbance which started at 5 p.m. that day at Larnaca was very successfully handled by the police and navy. A crowd gathered, summoned by bell-ringing, and was seen to be moving towards the Commissioner's house, which lies a mile away from the centre of the town. The local Commandant of Police ordered his twelve troopers to ride through the rear of the crowd and disperse them, using their whips if necessary. The Commissioner and local Commandant followed with an armed party of 14 police in two motor-cars. The troopers, six of whom were injured in doing so, drove the crowd on to the sides of the road, and the cars rushed through heavily assailed with stones. The windscreens of the cars were smashed and personal injuries sustained. The armed party took up a position blocking the way to the Commissioner's house, and the Commissioner went forward and shouted to the crowd, which had reformed and was advancing, that unless they dispersed fire would be opened. The crowd wavered and it was seen that a naval platoon, which had been warned by the Commissioner to watch developments, was coming up from behind, using their entrenching tool handles as batons with excellent effect. Soon the crowd broke and fled in various directions. From one party that was pursued two revolver shots were fired. The naval officer ordered a volley of six rounds to be fired in reply. No casualties resulted. Two much smaller crowds, one composed of villagers, were broken up by the police in the town later that evening. No demonstrations were reported from Larnaca afterwards.

38. In the course of the day the Commissioner of Paphos had telegraphed that it was essential that the Bishop of Kitium should be prevented from going to Paphos, and the Commissioner of Limassol had been told by wire to prevent him. Meanwhile a large crowd supplemented by villagers was on guard outside the Bishop's house as his arrest was anticipated. To consider the situation I summoned a conference at which among others were present: the acting Colonial Secretary, Officer commanding the troops, Chief Commandant of Police, and Commissioner, Nicosia. All were agreed that the Bishop should be arrested that night, and that if possible the most prominent ringleaders in Nicosia should be arrested simultaneously. However important it might be to suppress the Bishop, the situation, it was strongly held, centred in Nicosia, and until order and obedience had been restored in the capital it would not be possible to deal effectively with disturbances elsewhere.

39. The Officer commanding the troops and Chief Commandant of Police undertook to effect the arrests that night. I proposed that the arrested leaders should be deported under the powers I had by then acquired under the Defence Order in Council and regulations, and that they should be removed forthwith to the warships until arrangements could be made to deport them finally. I was advised that his proposal was preferable to any alternative both from the legal aspect and that of public security. No adequate alternative, indeed, was seen. There could be no serious question of the criminal guilt of the responsible ringleaders. The removal of their influence and reassertion of the Government's authority by force of examples were an urgent necessity. Their detention within reach of the populace would be likely to provoke the crowds to further excesses in the hope of securing their liberation. I viewed with apprehension the prospect of an assault on the prisons such as was actually threatened in Nicosia. The avoidance of situations which would lead to bloodshed was my constant duty. In my belief and that of all competent observers at the time it was mainly due to the power of deportation that I was able to take the initiative decisively at this critical stage.

40. It was thereupon decided to arrest and deport the following Nicosia ringleaders:--

George Hajipavlou

Dionysios Kykkotis

Theofanis Tsangarides

Theofanis Theodotou

Theodoros Kolokassides

41. By 5 a.m. on the 24th the six prisoners were on board warships. In Nicosia private cars from the Volunteer Force with soldiers and police had collected the prisoners, within half an hour, just outside the town on the road to Larnaca whither they were conveyed under escort by lorry. No resistance was met with except from Hajipavlou who locked his front door, attempted to escape, and when apprehended refused to move. The Volunteer Force was also employed that night in distributing to all district headquarters supplies of the Defence Order in Council and large printed posters containing translations of the Defence Regulations.

42. The arrest of the Bishop at Limassol was successfully effected. A small crowd on guard at his house was found asleep and no resistance was offered. A rocket let off as an alarm from the roof of the house appeared to be unanswered. Half an hour later the church bells rang and a crowd collected and approached the building, while police and sailors were still inside searching the villagers for dangerous weapons and taking their names. The police officer sent for reinforcements and brought out eleven police to stop the crowd. His party was stoned and driven back to a position guarded by a naval party facing the house. The crowd increased and began to force in the door of the house and the police opened fire. Twenty-one rounds were fired, six casualties inflicted, and the crowd dispersed; one of the wounded subsequently died. No further rioting occurred in Limassol.

43. Early on the 24th it was reported that a number of cars and lorries were leaving Nicosia for the villages to bring in villagers and firearms. Precautions were taken by additional piqueting, and a deputation from Morphou which arrived at the entrance to the town by motor car was stopped, severely warned and sent back to Morphou. I arranged for the troop-carriers to fly round the island demonstrating above the chief towns, and following a route above those villages from which excited meeting had been reported. The news of the arrests did not become general in Nicosia until about midday when a crowd gathered at the Archbishopric and a meeting was held there to discuss what measures should be taken to force the Government to liberate the ringleaders. At this meeting a reconciliation, engineered by Emilianides, was concluded between the communist leaders and the church. Vatiliotis, the Moscow-trained communist, kissed the hand of the Archbishop and promised him the support of his party in the immediate struggle against the Government.

44. Shortly afterwards the Archbishop sent his chaplain to seek an interview with me. I caused him to be informed that I was willing to see him but that his route to and from Secretary's Lodge would be prescribed by the Officer commanding the troops. Both the Officer commanding the troops and the acting Colonial Secretary were present at the interview. I enclose a translation * of the communication which the Archbishop read to me. I then requested him to withdraw in order that I might frame my reply. On his return I told him forcibly that I had no intention of liberating any of the ringleaders, that the Government and not he was responsible for law and order, and that the armed forces would not hesitate to take extreme measures to repress any further disturbance. His proper sphere of responsibility, I said, was to urge his flock to obey the civil power and to warn them, as I had warned him, of the consequences of disobedience. The chaplain took notes of what I said and I dismissed them.

45. In the evening the crowd again stoned the piquet at the New Entrance and refused to move. Assault on the electric light plant and law courts within the walls and on the Government offices and central prison outside had all been threatened; and the Officer commanding the troops decided rightly that the crowd must be dispersed. One round was fired by the piquet and one man wounded by it; the crowd dispersed immediately. The wounded man died the next day. All British women and children living outside the guarded zone were concentrated that night in an hotel within it. The police reported that the height of feeling in the town endangered the lives of British officials. Inside the walls in the Greek quarters the police had no control. Cyclist-patrolling out of range of the crowd was all that was possible.

46. At Paphos on the 24th demonstrations outside the police barracks again started early in the day. The telegraph wires were still being cut, and the navy had erected a wireless installation within the barracks. The deputation that had gone to Limassol to persuade the Bishop of Kitium to come to Paphos returned without him at 11 a.m. Among them was Galatopoulos, ex-member of the Legislative Council, who on the way back, as was learnt later, had incited the inhabitants of Pissouri, an intervening village, to destroy some valuable Government property in the neighbourhood. The return of the deputation was a signal for the crowd to assemble in force and they massed outside the barracks. The Commissioner, who had been awaiting this opportunity, emerged from the police barracks and proceeded towards the crowd followed by a naval and military party, with fixed bayonets, which extended in line on either side of him. He spoke to the crowd and briefly explained the regime which had been introduced under the Defence Order in Council. Police came forward and unfolded like aprons in front of them and exposed to view the large posters of translated regulations under the Order. The Commissioner then called on the crowd to disperse and the line of soldiers and sailors advanced upon them. The crowd melted, the notices were posted and all clubs and cafes were closed. Patrols of police were sent out to all adjacent villages to warn them of the consequences of their expected incursion into the town. In the town curfew was rigidly enforced. Thereafter the Commissioner rigorously suppressed irregular bell ringing and the flying of flags. Any symptoms of disturbance were immediately and firmly dealt with, and the police were soon able to turn their attention to outlying villages.

47. The situation at Kyrenia in both town and district had so far been quiet. Savvas Loizides and two other agitators were known to have gone on the 20th to Dikomo, a village in the southern foothills of the Kyrenia range, to consult the Bishop who was touring his diocese and thereafter Loizides was heard of, now in Kyrenia now in Nicosia. The police expected trouble but none resulted. On the 23rd the Commissioner had suggested that as there were 54 Europeans in the town naval or military protection should be sent there. He added that he did not contemplate any disturbance, and that there was no hint of rioting; and he was informed on the 24th that assistance could be sent only if he reported a serious emergency. Kyrenia is only 16 miles by road from Nicosia. He was advised to organize the male British residents and visitors as a defence corps. The same evening intelligence was received that the Bishop of Kyrenia intended to visit Nicosia next day and the Commissioner confirmed by wire that this was so. It was most undesirable that the Bishop should be allowed to fulfil his intention at that moment, and it was decided to refuse

him admission to Nicosia. The Commissioner was advised by wire of this decision.

48. The Bishop arrived at the outskirts of Nicosia at 7 a.m., was stopped by a piquet, and, after a scene of violent protest, obeyed the order to return to Kyrenia. He proceeded straight to the church where a service was concluding. He was seen to be pale with anger and suppressed emotion, and when the service ended he addressed the congregation on what had happened. "I went to Nicosia," he said, "and was stopped by bayonets." He raised his voice to a shout and words and phrases followed in a tumult. "This is a Greek place and must be given to Greece. Englishmen are tyrants and malefactors" are reported phrases and, finally, "I shall hoist the Greek flag where it should be." He led the people--about 300 followed him--straight to the Government offices and, at his direction, the Union Jack was hauled down and torn in pieces. The Bishop's personal servant hoisted the Greek flag in its place. Warned of the event the Commissioner came running to the scene, mounted the stairs to the balcony and called on the crowd to disperse immediately. "Speak to us in Greek," the Bishop shouted, and, after further warnings, led the procession back to the town. The Greek flag was hauled down and a new Union Jack at once hoisted.

49. The Commissioner summoned and warned the leading inhabitants. They would be responsible, he said, for any failure to exert their influence in preventing further disturbance. The telegraph wires had been cut and he sent a report of the situation to Nicosia by motor-car. At 12.30 p.m. two sections of soldiers arrived under the command of a sergeant and were used for patrolling and piquets in the town in support of the police. It was not possible to guard the entrances to the town completely and throughout the day the crowd at the Bishopric greatly increased. Villagers from neighbouring and even distant villages continued to come in. Some came in buses which stopped well outside the town, allowing the villagers to cross the fields straight to the Bishopric. By 8 p.m. one thousand people were assembled there, most of them armed with heavy sticks and pieces of iron. About 9.30 p.m. it was reported from Karmi, a hill village five miles distant, that most of the inhabitants were on their way to the town. A party of troops and police, sent to prevent them, found that they had already reached the Bishopric where speeches and shouting recommenced. Soon a yelling mob advanced on the armed party. The police inspector stepped forward and ordered the people to drop their sticks and return to their villages. The armed party advanced with fixed bayonets and were heavily stoned and forced to retreat. Stones continued to be hurled and both the inspector and army sergeant were hit. After a further warning the armed party fired twelve rounds. The crowd recoiled and then came on again. A second volley was fired whereupon the crowd retired to the Bishopric. Three rioters were found to have been wounded and were instantly removed to the hospital. One of the wounded died.

50. On receiving the Commissioner's situation report in the morning I had asked the Admiral whether he could send one of the seaplanes attached to the cruisers or, now that an additional cruiser had arrived, release the destroyer from Famagusta to reinforce Kyrenia until sufficient troops could be sent there to quell the disturbance and arrest the Bishop. Naval support was not, however, practicable owing to distance. The officer commanding the troops had arranged to send a platoon there after dark, when the Bishop's arrest could best be effected, but could not spare more that the two sections until then. He was still engaged in clearing up the situation in Nicosia, his first and most important objective, where desperate elements of the crowd were still active and were reported to be arming themselves with miscellaneous weapons. He succeeded in dispersing the crowd that day without firing, by raiding the town in a lorry protected with wire netting. The communist, Vatiliotis, was caught in this way in the act of addressing the people and was brought back in the lorry under arrest.

51. Reports were now coming in of numerous demonstrations and of acts of sabotage and defiance of law in the villages. At the usual conference on the 25th with my advisers, the Officer commanding the troops was asked whether further military reinforcements from Egypt would not be necessary. He replied that he would not require them but that he would ask for a section of armoured cars to expedite suppression of disorder in the villages. He agreed also, in view of the continued cutting of telegraph wires, to ask for wireless installations for all district headquarters. The Royal Air Force had established wireless at the depot in Nicosia, and, so long as the Navy remained, wireless communication was assured with al the port towns except Kyrenia. I had, however, to look farther ahead to the time when the warships would be withdrawn.

52. The Commissioner, Kyrenia, had been warned that the Bishop would be arrested that night and that reinforcements would be sent. When, therefore, the platoon arrived there, after 1. a.m. on the 26th, they were immediately escorted to the Bishopric and they surrounded and entered the building. Fifty men armed with sticks were found inside but offered no resistance. The Bishop attempted to shake off his escort but was overpowered, placed in a lorry and brought straight to the central prison at Nicosia. In view of the serious developments at Kyrenia the arrest of Savvas Loizides had also been ordered. He was found to have escaped to Nicosia, where he was apprehended later. I decided that he, the Bishop of Kyrenia, Vatiliotis, the communist, and his colleague Costas Skeleas should all be deported with the other ringleaders. Skeleas was seized later in the day at Limassol, where he had arrived from Nicosia with pamphlets announcing the communist party's decision to join the nationalists.

53. At Famagusta (Varosha) the crowd was still out of hand and many villagers were congregated in the town. There had been a mass meeting of about 8,000 people on the 24th, at which the leaders, in response to further warning, made some attempt to discourage violence, but continued to equivocate. The mayor's speech was thus reported: "We have called you here to demand our rights and in order to approve the measures taken by our representatives. My position does not allow me to go farther." The Archimandrite followed, telling the crowd that freedom could not be realized without sacrifice and bloodshed, but adding that freedom should be fought for lawfully. Others continued in the same strain, and called on the people to disperse quietly. Considerable resentment was manifested against the leaders. The police clerk who reported the speeches records that he heard much "grievance" expressed that rioting was not allowed by the English soldiers. "While the British soldiers and zaptiehs are killing our brethren and innocent schoolboys who are unarmed in other towns, must we leave them here untouched?" they asked. "How can we go back to our village after we have kissed our wives and children and bade them good-bye?" exclaimed some villagers from Paralimni.

54. On the 25th, the cruiser Colombo arrived and landed 30 marines. The substantive Commissioner returned from leave in England and took over. It was decided to retain the women and children on board a steamer in the harbour in view of persistent rumours of mob action, though already there were signs of a return to normality in the town. The decision was justified soon after 5 p.m. when, urged by certain communists, the mob forced the proprietors of licensed premises to reopen. This was followed by a concerted attack on the Varosha police station, a building in the town isolated from the local police headquarters and little used during the disturbances. Windows and doors were smashed and police property and records thrown into the street or destroyed. The captain of the Colombo with two officers, two ratings, and a party of police, proceeded to the police station and established a guard there. Returning through the town they were insulted and stoned by the crowd. Adzes, bottles, and earthenware pots were also thrown at them, some being dropped on their heads from balconies. An officer with seven marines and a few police was sent to bring in the guard from the wrecked police station. Threatened by the crowd on two flanks and assailed with various missiles, including iron shovels, the party opened fire. One rioter was killed and two wounded. Minor injuries were sustained by the marines, and the officer's steel helmet was heavily indented. The activities of the crowd continued until midnight. The collection of large stores of missiles was reported, and, in order apparently to create a diversion, which would weaken the armed forces in the town, a wooden bathing hut belonging to the English community some little way outside was set on fire. Additional forces were landed from H.M.S Colombo, and additional guards posted. There was no further rioting in the town after that night.

55. On the arrival of the Colombo, the Rear-Admiral agreed to relieve the army platoon at Famagusta. He also relieved the platoon at Pathos. This enabled the Officer commanding the troops to concentrate his force at Nicosia and strike out quickly into the districts wherever required. Reports of disturbance in villages were disquieting and demanded prompt measures of suppression. In Nicosia district telegraph and telephone wires had been cut, the railway line had been interfered with, and, in two villages, payment of taxes had been refused. Many rebellious demonstrations had been reported. The platoon from Paphos left in lorries in the evening of the 25th, spent the night on Troodos and proceeded early on the 26th to Nicosia, deviating from the direct route in order to visit certain villages in which disturbances had occurred. A flight of day bombers, which had been sent from Headquarters, Middle East, Royal Air Force, accompanied the troops and demonstrated without bombs above the villages. At the village of Zodia a crowd of some 300 people attempted to stop the lorries and stoned the soldiers. They paid no attention to warnings that were shouted by the police and, taking cover behind a wall at the side of the road, continued to throw stones. The officer in command ordered fire to be opened and dispersed them. One man was killed, another wounded. A ricochet bullet wounded a girl inside a house. In Akacha, another village in the Nicosia district, a ration lorry was held up by a crowd that morning and the warrant officer in charge, who had an escort of two men only, was forced to open fire. Two men were wounded, one of whom died later. In a village in the Paphos district, the police opened fire in defence of a police station, and one man was slightly wounded. No other casualties were inflicted by rifle fire in the villages during the disturbances.

56. Another platoon from Nicosia perambulated a sector of the Nicosia district during the 26th, certain arrests were made and general warnings given. Small army patrols with British officials as guides and interpreters were also sent by motor car to culpable villages in remote areas, and this system proved most effective. I enclose, for the purpose of illustration, a report * by the Chief Veterinary Officer of action taken in this way at Kambos, a village in the Paphos Forest (Nicosia district), were since the 22nd disorder had prevailed, telephone wires had been cut, and Mr. G. W. Chapman, Assistant Conservator of Forest, had been held up by the villagers on his way to Nicosia and forced to return to his station in the forest. When opposition was met with, the patrols dispersed the people and imposed obedience with the threat of force, supported where necessary by the butts of rifles. By the 27th, the Defence Regulations had been posted throughout Nicosia district and thereafter there was no more rioting either in the capital or the villages. The sight of military patrols, the scope of the Defence restrictions, the knowledge that ringleaders had been arrested, and the increasing consciousness that crime would be punished and damage paid for by those responsible sobered the turbulent and encouraged the law-abiding to exert their influence even in the town.

57. Order had by the 27th been restored in all the towns in the island, but in other districts, which had not had the advantage of the military patrols, disturbance and sabotage continued in villages. In the Paphos district the Navy co-operated with the police in village patrols. Apart from two attempts to burn police stations, which were successfully resisted, the disturbances there were not serious. In the Larnaca district the damage done was confined to destruction of telegraph lines, the cutting and blocking of a road and illicit collection of fuel. In Kyrenia district telegraph wires were cut, one police station was broken into and one salt store looted. In Limassol and Famagusta districts more serious conditions prevailed.

58. On the 25th, in the Limassol villages there were, apart form demonstrations, two thefts from police stations, and in three villages the police were forcibly disarmed. The destruction of valuable Government property at Pissouri on the road to Paphos, to which I alluded in paragraph 46 above, occurred the day before. A tax collector was robbed and many villagers collected salt from the Limassol lake. The majority of villages were reported to be opposing the police, and a small police patrol sent out to deal with the robbery of the tax collector (at Apeshia) was met and threatened by a crowd and failed to enter the village. The District police were ordered to return to Limassol, and a strong police patrol left there in a lorry at midnight, with orders to use sufficient force to restore order and effect arrests in offending villages. The patrol made a lengthy and successful tour next day. One further rifle was stolen and, on the 27th, a small detachment of police was ambushed and forcibly disarmed on its way to Limassol. Salt continued to be stolen, villagers coming from far and near with donkeys, and even motor lorries, to collect it from the lake. On the 27th an army platoon visited Limassol in troop carriers and penetrated into the district in support of the police. On the 28th all the stolen rifles were retuned. On the same day the inhabitants of Mandria repaired, on my orders under the Defence Order in Council, a bridge on the main road from Troodos to Limassol which they had destroyed. On the 29th the Principal Forest Officer, with a party of soldiers and police, dealt summarily with the responsibility of certain villages in the hills for offences against the Forest Laws: extensive destruction of the forests by fire had been threatened. Investigations and arrests proceeded, and in the course of the first week of November the District police were all returned to their normal stations.

59. On the 26th in the Famagusta district two forest plantations and some forest buildings were set on fire, four police stations were broken into and wrecked and one customs building was looted and destroyed by fire. On the 27th one police station was burnt and another broken into, three forest buildings were destroyed by fire and three salt stores looted. Two further forest stations were burnt on the 28th and 29th respectively. On the 28th an army platoon arrived at Famagusta by air from Nicosia and patrolled certain villages in the immediate neighbourhood which were considered responsible for the continuous damage to the telegraph and telephone lines and the railway track. The platoon returned the same day to Nicosia. A police patrol was sent on the 29th to the Karpass peninsular whence the most serious damage had been reported. On the 30th, K.P. Rossides, a former member of the Legislative Council, who was known to be touring the district and alleged to be inciting the people to acts of destruction, was ordered under the Defence Regulations to quit the district and to reside in Nicosia, where his activities could best be controlled. The same precaution was subsequently taken in respect of other political leaders who were suspected of continued agitation against the Government. A small detachment of troops under the command of a sergeant was sent to reinforce the police in the Karpass on the 31st. By the 2nd November order was restored throughout the Karpass, many arrests had been made and the villagers in that area had begun to rebuild the Government property which a week before they had destroyed. To enable the police to expedite their investigations the Captain of the Colombo relieved them of all duties connected with the enforcement of curfew in Varosha.

60. There were in all some 200 villages in which excitement prevailed and demonstrations were made, but without breach of the law. Less than 70 villages were guilty of destruction of property. Many outrages were the work of small gangs of malefactors or individuals, but no satisfactory distinction can be drawn between communal and individual responsibility for incitement. There are 598 Greek Orthodox villages and mixed Orthodox and Turkish villages in the island. Three hundred and eighty-nine of these took no part at all in the disturbances.

61. The nature of the occurrences in disturbed villages is, as will be appreciated, difficult to define. The news that the towns had defied authority appears to have been brought to many villages by special emissaries from the towns who assured the villagers that the Government was overthrown and the millennium approaching. Meetings were held at which the shout was raised, "There is no Government--this is the end of the English period--this is the day of revolution and hurrah for union." Drunkards and bad characters generally made the most of the occasion. Law-abiding villagers who continued to pay their taxes were derided. Police and tax collectors were avoided or ignored. If they obtruded themselves and persisted in unpopular duties they were told that they were no longer required. No tax collectors and only a few police were assaulted in the villages. Thus situated, some of the police went out discreetly on patrol until conditions should improve, and others displayed very considerable courage and resource remaining at their posts to reason with the people and resisting, sometimes single-handed, illegal acts and acts of violence on the part of the crowd. Many mukhtars and elders announced their resignation. Some resigned under pressure and others, to avoid calumny, said they had done so when they had not and bided their time. Those resignations which were actually received by the Commissioners were not accepted and were soon withdrawn. A few mukhtars confidently supported the police. The notion that the Government had been overthrown was, it appears, very superficial, and amid the turmoil an acknowledgement of authority persisted by sheer momentum. At Apeshia, where the tax collector been robbed of his collections, only their recent payments were taken by the people. The balance in the tax collector's satchel was handed for safe custody to the treasurer of the church. In the Famagusta district, it is told, one villager who had stolen salt complained to the police that some of the salt he had taken from the looted salt store had been stolen from him by a fellow villager. One troublesome village in the Paphos district was effectively threatened that, if it did not behave, the detachment of police there would be removed to another village. In the Famagusta and Limassol districts, villagers with disputed grazing and other rights in the state forests seized the opportunity to attack the property of the Forest Department. A large number of offending villages were situated on the borders of the forests. The most general offence was the theft of salt. The opportunity to profit materially for the relaxation of normal control was readily appreciated.

62. The speed with which order could be restored in the districts was only conditioned by the availability of visiting patrols and the time required for reaching distant villages. The process was complete in the first week of November. The return to normal life in the disturbed villages was, moreover, absolute. Agitators and malefactors were freely blamed and the investigations of the police welcomed and openly assisted by well-disposed villagers. At Lythrodonda, a village responsible in October for a hostile demonstration, it was possible on the 9th November to allow unrestricted attendance at the annual fair. As many as 5,000 villagers were present and no manifestation of unrest or disorder supervened. In the towns, however, subterraneous agitation continued and no sign of public regret or repentance was forthcoming. A section of the populace was still open to persuasion that the insurrectionary movement might, after all, prove successful and might yet be reinforced with outside assistance in the form of arms or diplomatic intervention. Every nerve of government has been strained to dispel these illusions and to teach obedience. I can here record good progress, though completion of the task is not even now in sight.

63. On the 30th October I had been able to publish widely throughout the Colony your predecessor's telegram of the 28th. The unqualified approval there expressed of my action in arresting the ringleaders and the statement that sedition and disorder would not be tolerated by His Majesty's Government were of vital assistance. On the 3rd November six of the deported ringleaders sailed for England and Gibraltar, and the remaining four followed them on the 6th. The fact of the ringleaders' departure and that they were deported for life was announced through the local Press. This helped to clear the air of the rumours which were fabricated that the extraordinary powers and measures taken by Government would soon be cancelled. These rumours still persist, but their power of conviction continues to diminish. On the 3rd November a notice was published announcing that the cost of reparation of Government property destroyed would fall on Greek-Orthodox communities in relation to responsibility, and that a law to give effect to this decision would be promulgated shortly. Notice of the issue of Letters Patent abolishing the Legislative Council was published on the 16th November, and on the 1st December three new laws passed by me under the new Letters Patent were promulgated. Respectively they prohibited the unauthorized flying or exhibition of flags, restricted the ringing of church and other bells to prevent recurrence of their abuse as tocsins, and vested in me, as Governor, the power of appointment of village authorities. The Reparation Impost Law, implementing the decision that destroyed property should be replaced and repaired at the cost of the responsible towns and villages, was passed on the 21st December. The imposts amounted in all 34,315 [pounds sterling] and over 80 per cent. of the total has since been paid. More than 2,000 persons have now been convicted by the assize and magisterial courts for specific offences connected with the disturbances and have received adequate sentences.

64. Meanwhile the garrison of His Majesty's forces in the Colony was progressively reduced. On the 5th November an additional company of

infantry arrived from Egypt and relieved the naval landing parties at Famagusta, Larnaca, Limassol, and Paphos. His Majesty's ships sailed the next day for Malta. The section of armoured cars that had been asked for also arrived. They toured the island and then, being unnecessary for practical purposes, were returned to Egypt by the first available opportunities for steamship transport. One infantry company was stationed at headquarters in Nicosia, the second company was divided equally between Famagusta and Larnaca, and the third was stationed at Limassol with two sections at Paphos. At the end of November the detachment at Paphos was withdrawn and those at Famagusta and Larnaca each reduced by half. One of the two reinforcing companies then returned to Egypt. On the 31st December the second reinforcing company also returned to Egypt, the original garrison company having in the meanwhile been brought up to full strength (4 officers and 175 men). The curfew restrictions, the enforcement of which had been undertaken by the military, acting in support of the police, were removed in all towns in which they had been imposed on Christmas Eve. The restrictions had been rigid: no lights or noise of any kind had been permitted during curfew hours.

65. The goodwill of the large Moslem population and the other minorities towards the Government never wavered throughout the disturbances, though they suffered the hardships of the curfew orders and other restrictions in common with their fellow townsmen. Their loyalty was fully shared by their Greek-Orthodox compatriots, who form the majority of the civil service and the police. A greatly increased burden of work and responsibility was cast upon almost all branches of the administration: it was borne cheerfully. The police responded to every call made upon them without hesitation.

66. In the opening paragraphs of this despatch I have described at length the circumstances existing in the Colony which rendered possible the outbreak in October. The facts and considerations there set out have for the most part long been known to His Majesty's Government. They are all directly related to the seditious agitation which has been tolerated in Cyprus for over fifty years. There is no evidence to show that the outbreak was premeditated or prearranged. Any such theory would be sufficiently contradicted by the haphazard nature of the deplorable events, which, in preceding paragraphs, I have placed on record. The nature of the events disposes also of any suggestion that the upheaval represented a widespread desire on the part of the Greek-Orthodox inhabitants for the transfer of Cyprus to Greece. The ground for disturbance was prepared by the leaders of the union movement in the hope that the occurrence of generalized demonstrations would advance the cause of union by means of publicity. Demonstrations occurred, but rapidly degenerated into orgies of criminal violence on the part of mobs and malefactors over which the union movement had no control. The destructive crowds were largely composed of roughs and students. The majority of respectable citizens either kept out of the way or, in order to avoid the stigma of disloyalty, cheered for union. It is indeed in this stigma of disloyalty that the strength of the union movement chiefly resides. Until the shadow of union is finally removed from the political horizon, the leading inhabitants are not likely to come forward in large numbers to support the Government and cooperate openly in the progress of their country under British rule.

67. In conclusion, I desire to reiterate and place on record in this despatch my deep appreciation of the services rendered by the contingents of His Majesty's naval, military, and air forces which cooperated in the restoration of order in Cyprus. The unfailing readiness of the officers respectively in command to understand the peculiar problems of the administration and the needs of the moment rendered their assistance a source of strength which could not be measured by platoons and companies. For the support and sympathetic guidance of your predecessor, yourself and your department throughout a most anxious and difficult period I am profoundly grateful.

I have, &c., RONALD STORRS, Governor

Appendix

I.

Enclosure 1

(Translation)

NATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF CYPRUS Communique

Last Saturday, 3rd October, 1931, the National Organization held a lengthy meeting. After a short introduction by His Beatitude, as President, regarding the matter to be discussed, the members of the Legislative Council explained their views in connexion with the disposal of the surplus balances of the Colony and the enforcement of the Customs duties by Order in Council and as to the measures to be adopted in order to face the state of affairs thus created.

After a long discussion, decision on these matters was postponed for the next day, but on account of the absence of many members it was considered advisable for the National Organization to hold another meeting next Saturday, 10th October, 1931.

FROM THE OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATION

Enclosure 2

(Translation)

GREEK BRETHREN,

Fifty-three years of English occupation have persuaded all and have proved most clearly:--

(a) that enslaved peoples do not get liberated by means of prayers and solicitations and appeals to the tyrants' sentiments;

(b) that the reply to the latter is contempt for the beseeching humble slaves, and arrogance;

(c) that our only salvation from all points of view is our national liberation and that the foreigners are here in order to serve their general and special interests with a certain result, our moral and material misery.

Looking therefore steadily at the bright star of new Bethlehem and of our national salvation we have one and only one way to walk, the way which is narrow and full of sorrows but leads to salvation. We should hoist under the light of the day the flag of union and in the kiln of our continuous endeavours standing close together round it, reconciled and setting aside our differences we should with sacrifice and every means pursue our national liberation by getting united with mother Greece. In the name of God, the Protector of justice, morality, and liberty, of these benefits in life which are insulted by the foreign tyrant, in the name of the eternal ideal for a united Greek Fatherland, let us be obedient to the voice-law, voice-order which comes down from the Mount Sinai of the National Legislations.

Let us be disciplined trusting in the triumph of justice over might. What even if the foreign tyrants rely upon colossal columns of beastly force and power? Against force let us set up the justice of our cause which is sure to be triumphant at last, especially so when it is inspired with all the force of the soul. Against beastly force let us oppose the unconquerable arms of the soul which are inspired and fortified by the steady strength of unenslaved faiths knowing and capable of being always victorious and of moving even the motionless steep mountains of impossibilities.

Let us show obedience to this voice, which is the voice of the Fatherland, a voice ascending from the graves of those who for seven centuries had sown their bones in the bosom of the land of Cyprus without the realization of their aspirations and dreams for a national salvation having sweetened the miserable days of their life of many woes. Citizens in thought of a free Greek land we betray those while being obedient to the laws and orders of the foreign ruler to whom and to whose illegal laws we owe no obedience. Let us oppose his unjust and arbitrary wishes and let us strain every nerve in order that he should clear out from our country for the sake of his own purification, this abomination which is called English occupation and Administration of Cyprus.

I have said that this way is narrow and full of sorrows and leads through sacrifices to the salvation of liberation. Children of that race which set up the triumphs of the heroism of the holocausts of Messolonghi and Arcadi, let us not interrupt our way, the way which leads to the steep tops of the success of victory.

Let us on then and let the youth lead the way. Let them show that they are not young in body only but that they have also a young soul rushing towards the difficult aims and the difficult struggles for a free country, for a happy morrow which belongs more to them than to us. Let us on for God who has not created his peoples and his creatures to be the slaves of others is with us.

NICODEMOS, Bishop of Kitium

17th October, 1931

Enclosure 3

(Translation)

COMMUNIQUE BY THE BODY OF THE GREEK MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL

The body of the Greek Members of the Legislative Council surprised at the one-sided and secret resignation of the Bishop of Kitium met in the afternoon of Monday last in the great refectory of the Archbishop's residence and resolved upon abstaining for the present from duly characterizing the strange attitude of the Bishop of Kitium who has secretly retracted at the last moment, torpedoed the unity of the body of the Greek members and annihilated by his one-sided action and the manner in which he carried it out, the significance and the weight of a collective resignation with a Pancyprian and well-defined programme, and especially by means of a document much more radical and revolutionary than his own and bearing the signature not only of the whole body of the Greek members but also that of the Ethnarch.

We further decided, in the face of the treacherous activities of certain infernal circles who have, unfortunately, led astray a few Cypriots of good faith, to remain upon the asphyxiating battlements on which we have been ordered to stand as martyrs by the people if not for anything else at least for preventing the repetition of the tragic story of the time of "The Seven," a story that soiled the history of our Island and delivered the liberties of the people chained by our own hands to the foreign ruler.

We further decided, inter alia, to remain on the battlements owing to the lack of a collective, harmonious, and responsible struggle, as those who have already resigned (except Mr. Pheidias I. Kyriakides) had not declared that in case of re-election they would not attend the meetings of the Council or that they would resign again, and because we have recently marked out a specially radical and revolutionary policy aiming principally at the attainment of Union, which we will pursue with all powers and sacrifices when the Council will shortly be supplemented.

The Members of the Council

ST. STAVRINAKIS, Member for Nicosia

TH. THEODOTOU, Member for Dagh

G. HAJIPAVLOU, Member for Morphou-Lefka

M. SHACALLIS, Member for Famagusta

D. SEVERIS, Member for Kyrenia

K. P. ROSSIDES, Member for Karpass

CHR. GALATOPOULOS, Member for Paphos

CHAR. NICOLAIDES, Member for Khrysokhou-Kelokethara

Enclosure 4

RESUME OF A SPEECH DELIVERED BY THE BISHOP OF KITIUM, NICODEMOS MYLONAS, ON 20TH OCTOBER, 1931, AT THE SPORTS GROUND AND AT "ENOSIS" CLUB, LIMASSOL (AS REPORTED BY THE LOCAL COMMANDANT OF POLICE)

GREEK BRETHREN,

I thank the deputy Mayor, the President of the Labourers' Confederation, and the people of Limassol who received me on my arrival. In the name of God and people I declare the union with mother Greece and the disobedience and insubordination towards the illegal laws of the immoral, vile and reproachful regime which is called "English regime" and which rules Cyprus without any human right, without our consent, the consent of a people which is more dignified and capable than they are. Yes, England is a great nation, but they must know that they will fall because they ill-treat the other peoples, they do not know how to rule them and they consider them as brutes.

The time that some people in the world had other peoples under them as slaves has passed. The Roman Empire which used to rule and torture the poor has fallen, and there is no doubt that English reign will also fall one day because it is dishonest and immoral. I was blamed that I am inconsistent and insincere but it is not the time now to apologize. I shall, however, apologize before my twelve comrades and before the whole people of Cyprus when we shall be united with Greece. I do not want to appear as a vanguard, but the vanguard will be the one who will act in actions. I declare the disobedience and insubordination to the illegal laws of this immoral, vile, and shameful regime; I invite every Greek Cypriot to the highway of sacrifice. The time has come to show to the foreign rulers that we are a people with national sentiments and educated and that we must live free under the Hellenic flag. Down with the vile and reproachful regime! Long live Union.

Enclosure 5

(Translation)

THE CYPRUS NATIONAL RADICALIST UNION

TO THE PEOPLE OF CYPRUS,

A common impatience of the slavery of our Island, a common yearning for freedom and a common readiness for work have brought us to-day from the four corners of the Island to Nicosia to form the "Cyprus National Radicalist Union.".

What we aim at, how and where we shall march, is stated below in the principles of the "Cyprus National Radicalist Union" which constitute its programme, of which principles we shall henceforth be the plain soldiers and faithful keepers.

Principles Constituting the Programme of the Cyprus National Radicalist Union

The members of the Cyprus National Radicalist Union--Greek inhabitants of the Island of Cyprus--being profoundly conscious of their obligations to themselves as human beings on the one hand and on the other of their great Greek fatherland and the immortal Greek civilization (decide as follows):--

(1) They lay down as their aim the fanatical pursuit of the union of Cyprus with the Greek political whole.

(2) They firmly believe that the annexation of Cyprus to the free Greek political whole not only satisfies an inalienable human right but is the only means of creating (suitable) conditions for the real spiritual and material progress of the inhabitants of the Island.

(3) They proclaim without fear before God and man that their moral world as human beings and as Greeks is in no way consistent with any state of bondage or dependence, however much it might be relaxed at any time.

(4) To show their indignation at the slavery of their Island and manifest their intractable bent for freedom, they oppose absolutely any co-operation with the foreign Government in its legislative, executive, or administrative jurisdiction--both under the present form of government and under any other which might be given to Cyprus in the future.

(5) They shall regard as an enemy of their country any Greek inhabitant of the Island whose conduct is opposed to or in any way slackens the national struggle, which has one aim--union and nothing but union.

(6) They shall work untiringly for the sound and national education of the people--they shall endeavour to make as close as possible the ties with their free fatherland--they shall support with fanaticism everything Greek and shall avoid doing anything inconsistent with Greek dignity.

(7) They shall support to the best of their ability the products of the land, the industries and the handicrafts of Cyprus.

(8) They shall be closely bound to one another in their national activity and they shall give one another all possible moral and social support.

(9) They shall observe strictly the principles of the Cyprus Nationalist Radicalist Union--they shall be inspired with these only, looking solely to the idea and not at all to persons in the carrying out of their national struggle.

(10) They shall work with perseverance for the propagation of the Cyprus National Radicalist Union and they shall follow faithfully its programme and decisions.

Greek Cypriots,

Those of you who embrace the above principles of the Cyprus National Radicalist Union, and desire the speedy and sure fulfilment of its stated aim, come to its bosom.

The Cyprus National Radicalist Union will have as its official organ for regular communication with the public the newspaper Irreconcilable, which will begin to be published as from next Saturday, the 24th October.

Nicosia, 18th October, 1931

ANDREAS CH. GAVRIELIDES, Advocate, Varosha.

ANTONIS CH. OEKONOMOU, Journalist, Larnaca.

ANTONIS E. GEORGIADES, Doctor, Yialousa.

ARGYROS DROUSHIOTIS, Headmaster of the Gymnasium, Limassol.

GEORGHIOS PHASOULIOTIS, Journalist, Limassol.

EVAGORAS G. PAPANICOLAOU, Advocate, Nicosia.

THEOKLITOS SOPHOCLEOUS, Headmaster of the Gymnasium, Kyrenia.

THEOPHANIS TSANGARIDEs, Merchant, Nicosia.

IOANNIS PIGASIOu, Doctor, Nicosia.

K. ZACHARIDES, School-usher, Nicosia.

COSTAS PIKIS, Merchant, Nicosia.

LEFKIOS EVGEN. ZENON, Advocate, Limassol.

XENOPHON COUMPARIDES, Professor, Evrychou.

Petros ADAMIDES, Merchant, Varosha.

PIPIS CONSTANTINIDES, Dentist, Nicosia.

POLYKARPOS S. IOANNIDES, Clerk, Kyrenia.

SAVVAS LOIZIDES, Advocate, Kyrenia.

STELLIOS KLYTIDES, Advocate, Nicosia.

CHRISTOS TRACHONIDES, Grocer, Nicosia.

PHOTIOS GEORGIADES, Advocate, Paphos.

ALEXANDROS DIMITRIOU, Merchant, Varosha.

Enclosure 6

(Translation)

LETTER FROM THE ARCHBISHOP OF CYPRUS TO THE GOVERNOR

YOUR EXCELLENCY,

IN my capacity as Ethnarch of Cyprus and on the insistence of the people who have of their own accord assembled outside the Archbishopric I came here in order to bring to Your Excellency's knowledge that on account of the arrest of certain citizens of Cyprus the situation created is such as to be pregnant of imminent dangers in general.

I have felt it my duty to inform Your Excellency of the situation and to recommend, for averting any untoward events, that all those arrested should be released. This measure will ward off any danger.

I divest myself, Your Excellency, of any responsibility in case you will not be willing to enforce this measure, so imperatively called for in the present circumstances and highly beneficial for the interests of the Government and the country.

This is what I had to state, Your Excellency, with the certainty that His Majesty's Government will not delay any longer the fulfilment of the sacred and just national aspirations of Cyprus which is unanimously demanded by the entire Greek population of the Island.

I have, &c., CYRIL, Archbishop of Cyprus

Archbishopric, 24th October, 1931 To His Excellency The Governor of Cyprus

Enclosure 7

REPORT ON ACTION TAKEN AT KAMBOS, 26TH OCTOBER, 1931

OFFICER COMMANDING TROOPS,

Two sections of the Royal Welch Fusiliers accompanied the volunteers to Kambos--there were no incidents en route. On arrival all villagers (men) were assembled at the main coffee house, where Mr. Chapman addressed them in the terms of the proclamation, and informed them that they must return the stolen telephone instruments, yield their arms, help to repair the telephone line, and refrain from hostile demonstration or other action against the interests of the Government.

After some parleying the telephone instrument was produced and troops searched the houses for arms, recovering six shot guns and one barrel of a broken gun.

I then informed the assembled villagers of the true state of affairs in Nicosia and elsewhere, the action already taken by Government in dealing with the ringleaders and the serious consequences which would follow any attempt on their part to fail to comply with the Defence Regulations--the latter being explained in detail. Those present expressed their willingness to comply with the regulations and not to create any breach of peace, it being understood by them that any punishment for such offences would be general. It was further explained to the people that the telephone line must be repaired by this evening, and that thereafter any interruption of the telephone service would produce punitive expeditions by air and other means.

A Greek flag found in the coffee-shop was seized and, together with the arms mentioned above, taken to Nicosia and lodged at Police Depot.

Mr. Chapman, Mr. Dommen, and the police corporal left for Stavros, retaining their rifles, and the other volunteers returned to Nicosia with the two sections of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, arriving at 4.15 p.m.

ROBERT J. ROE

4.40 p.m., 26th October, 1931

II.

Extract from a telegram from the Secretary of State for the Colonies to the Governor of Cyprus. (Sent 8.45 p.m., 9th March, 1932)

Immediate. No. 28

My telegram 8th March, No. 26. As every Member of Parliament has received copy of Coundouriotis' circular I think it is right you should have immediately by telegraph a summary of allegations in enclosure "Information regarding recent uprising of the Cypriots and its suppression".

Following is summary main allegations:--

Ten Cypriots killed, about hundred wounded; two Archbishops, one priest, two late members Legislative Council, four other citizens banished for life, their property seized and relatives forbidden to send money for their subsistence. Number of other political leaders deported to villages far from their homes.

Large number of men and women maltreated and homes destroyed; thousands of arrests made, mostly on absurd or even imaginary grounds, e.g., arrest of all inhabitants of Limassol owning Underwood typewriters.

Following are cited as well-authenticated facts giving concrete idea of methods employed in suppressing revolt:

21st October. After burning of Government House when bulk of crowd had dispersed police wounded stragglers, eight by gunshots, fifteen by bayonet thrusts, three of whom died next day.

23rd October. Kyriakos Mathaios, of Limassol, bayoneted by British soldier while entering Nicosia, died same night in hospital; at celebration of Mass at Varosha police attacked congregation, killed two men, Christou and Papaiossif, wounded eight others, of whom one, Phylis, died two days later.

24th October. On occasion arrest metropolitan of Kition, British troops fired on crowd "by way of intimidation" wounded eight persons, of whom two, Dimitriou and Constantinidis, subsequently died: same night fifty sailors entered residence of Archbishop of Kyrenia and demanded delivery Archbishopric flag; on receiving no answer they struck him in the face.

25th October. British officer with sixty soldiers entered village Akaki and ordered George Ioannou take down Greek flag flying from church; on his refusal officer ordered soldier to fire killing Ioannou.

26th October. Same officer and detachment proceeded Kato Zodia: in panic following arrival two women, Helen Polycarpos and Maria Zodiatis (latter pregnant), wounded; Zodiatis died soon after; hundred sailors commanded by Army captain and Unwin proceeded to Arsos, ordered priest sign bond 60 [pounds sterling] for fellow villagers for sticks gathered without permit; on his refusal they dragged him half naked to village square and maltreated him in presence assembled parishioners; eight villagers then caned till blood ran; detachment then departed after forcibly taking 134 [pounds sterling] from inhabitants.

27th October. Sixty British soldiers under Police Sergeant Pinkerton entered Pissouri, assembled men of village, tied them up, flogged them, to make them denounce the person who had set fire to neighbouring customs station. Christodoulou, youth of twelve, tortured by twisting rope into flesh of head in order to force father to give desired information. Detailed report of this filed at office of Archbishop of Limassol; also report of rape two women, Maria Prokopi and another of tender age, name not stated: same detachment proceeded Trimiklini, broke into church and destroyed Bishop's chair and carried off sacred vessels, etc.

28th October. Detachment thirty sailors sent Mandria to force villagers repair burnt bridge, dragged from bed old man named Saloumis where lying with high fever, loaded him with heavy beam and ordered him carry it to bridge. On the way as old man slow, stumbling, one of force bayoneted him in back; victim died few minutes later.

29th October. Detachment British troops led by Armenian police officer proceeded Angastina, assembled villagers and selected four younger men beat them with butts of rifles until dropped unconscious. Summary ends.

On 12th November I gave official casualty figures in Parliament as Cypriots six killed, thirty wounded (one wounded died later). Police casualties thirty-nine. Are these figures correct?

Am publishing your despatch of 11th February but please telegraph any further information which will enable me to reply to charges summarized in this telegram.

III.

Telegram from the Governor of Cyprus to the Secretary of State for the Colonies (Dated 14th March, 1932.--Received in the Colonial Office at 7.10 p.m. on 14th March, 1932)

Immediate. No. 29

Your telegram No. 28 of the 9th March. Allegations in Coundouriotis, circular utterly false, malicious, and baseless in almost every particular. Cypriot civilians six killed thirty wounded (one died later), police casualties, fifteen Greek-Orthodox, twenty-three Moslem, Cypriots. No property deported persons confiscated except the correspondence mostly in censorship. No interference even in transmission of available funds to them. Thirteen ringleaders of outbreak still required reside outside their districts. No women touched, but a few men guilty of sabotage may have been handled roughly. Two houses burnt and compensation paid. Seven inhabitants of Nicosia detained police station during examination of their typewriters and correspondence owing to large numbers of threatening letters; no incident of this kind at Limassol. 21st October. All civilians, sufferers from riots Government House, attended private Greek Cypriot doctor; full list published in local newspapers at the time and medical certificates given. Two only certified wounded by bayonets, both recovered rapidly. 23rd October. No one shot or bayoneted in Nicosia. Story of congregation at Mass being attacked at Varosha unfounded lie. 24th October. No sailors at Kyrenia. No episode there on this date. On the occasion of arrest of Bishop of Kitium, police heavily stoned, fired, killed one man wounded five, no military present. 25th October. No troops at Akaki this date. At Varosha large crowds stormed police station, five police casualties, Royal Marines fired killing one civilian, wounding one. Bishop Kyrenia arrested by officer and men of the King's Regiment, made violent attempt to escape coming out of the palace, hat knocked off, no evidence of his being struck. 26th October. Major of the King's Regiment seven men visited Akaki, no shot fired. Greek flags removed from buildings. Same date same troops with Captain of Royal Welch Fusiliers and fifteen men visiting Kato Zodia were attacked by mob, three rounds fired, one man killed and one wounded and one woman, Polycarpou, wounded from ricochet, completely recovered, no ill effect. Village authorities certified Maria Zodiatis quite unknown and no other casualties. Unwin with seven soldiers and three volunteers visited Arsos, levied 60 [pounds sterling] for serious damage to forest; Committee of Executive Council visited village recently and took evidence from village priests and nineteen villagers. 27th October. Captain Royal Welch Fusiliers and fifteen men visited Pissouri, warned inhabitants who had destroyed Custom House. Village authorities have made affidavit characterizing story of any flogging, torturing or rape as untrue and preposterous. Youth, Christodoulou, and woman, Procopi, entirely unknown. Affidavit saying that soldiers behaved very well. Trimiklini village visited; Church searched for rifles. Bishop's Chair slightly damaged. Priests consider this due to soldiers standing on it in search. No allegation of any sacred vessels being carried off. Affidavit from village authorities discrediting this entirely *. 28th October. Fifteen men the King's Regiment under Sergeant-Major compelled Mandria rebuild bridge. Salloumis, in road near cafe, before being required to work said nothing of being ill but walked back after first trip to bridge and complained of being ill; was released from work, sat in cafe and was taken home where he unfortunately died from hear-failure as certified by Greek Cypriot doctor there at the time. This may have been partly due to some exertion but brutality quite impossible. 29th October. Patrol of the Royal Welch Fusiliers sent to Angastina to arrest villagers for sabotage. Village authorities have made affidavits that it is quite untrue that four or any men were beaten unconscious. It is a matter of no less regret than surprise that so distinguished a name should have lent itself to utterances of such calumnies against officers and men of Civil and Military Services of a friendly Government.

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* Affidavit subsequently received from village priest of Trimiklini states that no sacred vessels or church ornaments whatever were taken by the troops.