RAVAGES OF WAR

Taranaki Daily News, 17 August 1935, Page 21 (Supplement)

RAVAGES OF WAR

ISLAND ROBBED OF TREES. SORROWS OF CYPRUS,. A commission which has recently vis-, ited Cyprus reports that this Mediterranean island would be an earthly para-: dise if ft; had more water. ■. • Cyprus is at present: a poor country, and its people are still. suffering from the effects of the war, which robbed them of Nature’s most valuable gift, trees. The forests •of the ■ island were ruthlessly cut down to supply the needs of British troops in Palestine and that treeless country Egypt. This was a desperate necessity of war, and as a consequence the island became more liable to drought than before. Forests catch and retain the moisture borne to them by the breezes from over the sea, and have an important influence on the climate around them. Driven by war to cut down the trees of Cyprus, we ought surely to have been driven by logic to replant them at once. The area of forest is only 630 square miles out of a total of the island’s 3584 square miles, and much of it still remains a waste. Goats, caterpillars, drought and fires caused by villagers with a grievance have. prevented the much-needed recovery. This lack of forests tends to keep the island dry. In any case rain only falls during the six cool months of the year. Three. large reservoirs have been built by the Government at a cost of £60,000, but they have not been kept in proper repair, the water escaping from one of them through 13 breaches. Another fly in the ointment is the mosquito in the water, which often has to be drawn off at the time it is most required in order to control the menace of malaria. The result is that reservoirs built to irrigate 38,000 acres only serve, 4000. Yet a very small sum is spent in the direct attack on malaria, which affects thousands • of peasants. The .commission is not very hopeful about the future of. this island, though it found that it was : being governed on a .sound financial, basis. One of the: suggestions was for the development of the orange industry, but that is meeting with severe competition, from. Palestine. The Cyprus peasants are overwhelmed by debt and their property is being sold. The commission recommends that special courts should’be established with power to reduce these.debts.

Britain took over the entire responsibility for this island at the outbreak of the war, and its people, the majority of whom are Greeks, are looking to Britain to give them a helping harjd in their .difficult struggle toward recovery.