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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference:

CO. 885

12 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

1

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No. 244.

(CYPRUS.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

MY LORD,

WE were honoured with your Lordship's commande, signified in Mr. Bramston's

Temple, 8th January 1881. letter of the 23rd December, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to acquaint us that your Lordship's attention had been called to the difficulties which would arise in the way of enforcing the neutrality of Cyprus in the event of war breaking out, especially one involving any of the Mediterranean States. That a very complicated development of the apprehended difficulty would arise in the case of war between Turkey and Greece, as Cyprus remained in theory a portion of the Ottoman Dominions whilst nearly all the population would sympathize strongly with one side or the other.

2. That the Foreign Enlistment Act, 1870, was not in force in Cyprus, and its provisions could not be extended to that island without considerable modification of language, inasmuch as Turkey was not a foreign State in regard to Cyprus, that the Cypriots were not British subjects, that there was no Admiralty jurisdiction in the island, and that Cypriot ships were not British ships, and were neither entitled to British protection nor subject to British control beyond Cyprus waters.

That, moreover, unless a state of war actually existed, the Foreign Enlistment Act, even if recast, would not meet a difficulty which might at any time present itself, namely, the recruiting in Cyprus of inhabitants nominally the subjects of the Porte for service in the Greek army, which was being put on a war footing with the evident object of invading Turkey.

That to prevent this mischief it would be necessary that a law corresponding to the Indian Foreign Recruiting Act of 1874, which had been extensively adopted in the Colonies, should be enacted by Order in Council or as a Local Ordinance of Cyprus, but that the language of the Indian Act would also have to be modified so as to make it extend beyond question to the prevention of recruiting in Cyprus for the service of Turkey, an event which must be contemplated as possible to happen should the Ottoman Government feel pressed for men.

3. That your Lordship conceived that there could be no difference of opinion as to the paramount necessity so long as England continued to occupy and administer the Government of Cyprus (of preventing the inhabitants of Cyprus) whether Christian or Moslem from taking part in any hostilities which might arise, and of preventing the island itself from becoming a theatre for the display of the hostile passions of the two races. That your Lordship also conceived that there could be no question of the duty of this country towards the Ottoman Government of preventing the inhabitants of Cyprus who sympathize with Greece from taking any part against the Ottoman Government which they would not have been able to take had they not been practically released from Ottoman control by the Convention of the 4th of June 1878. was equally the moral right of this country to insist as against the Ottoman Govern- That it ment that, that Government should regard Cyprus for the purposes of war as outside its dominions, and the Cypriot Mussulmans as forming no part of the population on whose military service it could count, as otherwise the enemies of the Porte might claim to treat Cyprus as a hostile country.

4. That with a view to our considering the questions which arose in those circum- stances, he was to enclose for reference the following documents:—

The Convention between Great Britain and Turkey of the 4th June 1878.

The annex to that Convention.

The Supplementary Convention between the same powers of the 14th August giving

to Her Britannic Majesty legislative and certain other powers free from the Porte's

control.

The Order in Council of the 14th September 1878, making provision for the exercise

of Her Majesty's power and jurisdiction over the island of Cyprus.

The Imperial Foreign Enlistment Act, 1870.

The Indian Foreign Recruiting Act, 1874.

▲ 12916.-998. 25.-19/84.