"We Have No Money." This Is Absolutely True, Although I Have
Heard The Assertion Contested By Certain Authorities.
The people as a
rule are miserably poor, and cannot afford to run the risks of
experiments, especially during the present uncertainty connected with
the British occupation.
The opinions that I personally offer are based upon the assumption that
England can never recede from the position she has assumed in Cyprus,
which she must continue, for better or for worse, as a point of honour.
Any abandonment of the protection we have afforded to the inhabitants
would tend to aggravate their position, should they return to the
authority of the Porte, and their only hope would lie in the occupation
of our empty bed by France, who certainly requires a coaling depot
towards the east of the Mediterranean. Should we wash our hands of
Cyprus, and evacuate it in a similar manner to Corfu, we should become
the laughing-stock of Europe, and no future step taken by England in the
form of a "protectorate" would ever be relied upon. Had we retained
Corfu to the present moment, no doubt would have existed as to any
change in our intentions respecting Cyprus, but the precedent
established by our retirement from that grand strategical position has
borne its fruit in the want of confidence now felt by all classes in the
permanence of our new acquisition.
It will be admitted that a general want of elasticity has succeeded to
the first bound of expectation that was raised by the sudden
announcement of a British occupation; the government cannot be held
responsible for the disappointment of rash adventurers, but their true
responsibility commenced when they assumed the charge of the inhabitants
of Cyprus.
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