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SIR SAMUEL WHITE BAKER
CYPRUS AS I SAW IT IN 1879
page 416 View PDF version of this page ith commercial and agricultural reforms, the same energy now bestowed by the governor and other officials would rapidly expand the resources of the island. W e are prone to expect too much, and must remember that at the time I write, only twelve months have elapsed since the day of the British military occupation. N o officers understood either the language, or laws, of the people they had to govern ; they were for the most part specially educated for the I military profession, and they were suddenly plunged
•rinto official positions where agricultural, legal, commercial, and engineering difficulties absorbed their : entire attention, all of which had to be comprehended through the medium of an interpreter. It is rare that the most favoured individual combines such general knowledge ; Turks and Greeks, antagonistic races, were to lie down contented like the lion and
jthe lamb under the blessing of a British rule : all animosities were to be forgotten. The religion of Mussulmans would remain inviolate, and the Greek Church would hold its former independence : freedom and equality were to be assured when the English flag replaced the Crescent and Star upon the red ensign beneath which Cyprus had withered as before a flame ; the resources of the country were to awaken as from a long sleep, and the world should witness the marvellous change between Cyprus when under Turks, and when transferred to Englishmen. " Look upon that picture, and on this ! " Th e officers of our army were the magicians to effect this transformation, not only strangers to the climate, language, laws, customs, people, but without money: as the island had been robbed of revenue by the conditions of the Turkish Convention,
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