" Your question No. 2
follows, "Why do you not plant trees now that the English have occupied
the country?" The reply is stereotyped, "We are not sure that you will
remain here permanently, and if you abandon the island the Turks will
resume the old system with even greater oppression than before." This is
an unanswerable dilemma, which no doubt retards improvements; but there
is a third difficulty which is invariably brought prominently forward
when any suggestions are made for an extension of agricultural
enterprise: "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.
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