DESERTED CYPRUS. (Home News)

Evening Post, Volume XVIII, Issue 5, 5 July 1879, Page 3

DESERTED CYPRUS. (Home News )

Barely twelve months have elapsed, and already our latest possession is practically abandoned, except by a handful of hardened administrators, who care nothing for tropical ""* fevers, and a small garrison of regular troops. The exodus, which commenced last autumn, has continued steadily. First the black regiments left in a body, then tbe skeletons of the whites were withdrawn to more temperate climes. Alter these the energetic and übiquitous British trader, who discovered that there was no room for him and no prospect of a fortune within a week, disappeared. After them the enormous establishment of Bta_ officers, far io excess of the requirements of the island, was gradually reduced in numbers, and one by one Sir Garnet's men and chosen colleagues drifted back to England or found employment elsewhere. Now Sir Garnet himself is on the flit. , Cyprus is not exactly popular with anybody just now. Its success Is neither apparent nor assured. As an experiment in colonisation under Imperial patronage, it has certainly failed ; as a stronghold in Levantine waters it is of far less practical utility than a smaller island with greater natural advantages would have been. That the Government will abandon it. as its officials seems disposed to do, cannot be very confidently predicted ns yet, but it must make very substantial progress before it can be counted among the well-established dependencies of the British Crown.