Of an English occupation nothing can be done to awaken
resources that have so long lain dormant. Money is wanted--money must
be had. Without an expenditure of capital, riches may exist, but they
will remain buried in obscurity.
A responsible official would reply--"We will give you a concession, we
will give you every possible encouragement." The capitalist will ask one
simple question, "Is Cyprus a portion of the British Empire upon which I
can depend, or is it a swallow's nest of a political season, to be
abandoned when the party-schemes have flown?"
Any number of questions may be asked at the present moment, but in the
absence of all definite information no capitalist will embark in any
enterprise in Cyprus, which may be ultimately abandoned like Corfu; and
the value of all property would be reduced to a ruinous degree.
The mining interests of Cyprus must remain for the most part undeveloped
until some satisfactory change shall be effected in the tenure of the
island that will establish confidence.
Polis was a straggling place situated upon either side of a river,
through the bed of which a very reduced stream was flowing about three
inches in depth. A flat valley lay between the heights, both of which
were occupied by numerous houses and narrow lanes, while the rich soil
of the low ground, irrigated by the water of the river withdrawn by
artificial channels, exhibited splendid crops of wheat and barley.
Groves of very ancient olive-trees existed in the valley, and we halted
beneath the first oak-trees that I had seen in Cyprus.
