SENDALL IN CYPRUS 1892-1898, A GOVERNOR IN BONDAGE BY
DIANA MARKIDES, Moufflon Publications, 2014, 233 pp, ISBN-10: 996362322
Written by British-Cypriot historian Diana Markides,
this book was published in 2014 by the Moufflon Publications Ltd in Nicosia.
The author writes in the “Preface” to her book that “the Sendall years remained
shrouded in obscurity.” Therefore, she took the task to research those years,
when the British High Commissioner, Sir Walter Joseph Sendall, was in service
in Cyprus. In order to get a full picture of events and developments from 1892
to 1898, she studied letters, memoirs and other official documents in libraries
and archives in England, Athens and Cyprus. The six years of the British
occupation were written in the six separate chapters of the book, ending with
an epilogue. It is a good and recommendable study. Let us make some interesting
notes from those years:
“The administration of Cyprus had been in a sorry
state when he arrived in April 1892” (p.29) and “in September 1892 the Times of
Cyprus was grumbling about the ‹disgraceful› state of the principal road in
Cyprus, the Larnaca-Nicosia road and described the rest of the roads in the
island as ‘impassable.” (p.34) The road to Paphos did not exist. There was lack
of bridges. Little had been done to extend the road network once the ‘spend
nothing policy was strictly enforced. (p.31) Therefore Sir Sendall started with
several construction works, building bridges and maintaining the existing roads.
The Pyroi bridge on the main Larnaca-Nicosia road was opened by Sir Walter
ceremonially on 25 November 1893 (p.60). The Peristerona bridge was completed
in 1897. (p. 141) No less than 30 bridges were built. The building of dams for
better irrigation was another project and the dam in Kuklia was completed in
1900 (p.203).
The construction of the Papadopoulos Theatre began in
1893 for an audience of 600 people near Phaneromeni church in Nicosia as a
replica of a small opera house in Italy. It was completed in 1900 and was used
also by British and Turkish Cypriots. (p.54) The British High Commissioner
secured permission and a tiny loan from the Treasury for the capital’s
municipality council, so that the Pedios river, which was used as Nicosia main
drain, passing through the old city, could be covered for sanitary reasons.
(p.47)
The old Venetian Palace, which was used during the
Ottoman administration as the Serai of the Governor, was demolished in 1897, in
order to build new offices, but it did not get underway until Sendall’s
departure. The only government office constructed in Nicosia during his term
was the small government printing offices opposite the secretariat (in 1896),
which housed the government printing office, but which has recently been converted
into a crèche for PASYDY, the Civil Servants Association.
A new Evkaf
office was proposed by Sendall, but it was excluded from construction plans by
Chamberlain, Secretary of State for Colonies. (p.155)
When Sir Sendall arrived the island, it was observed
that the crime rates were rising with gangs of brigands active. This never
occurred during the Turkish administration, when there was corporal punishment.
(p. 35) Law and order was the priority. Reform of the police force started in
1894 from top down. (p.84) The Büyük Khan, an Ottoman caravanserai in the
middle of the old city, was converted into a prison (p.42), like the old forts
in Limassol and Larnaca, which had no facilities for isolating prisoners.
(p.69) Sir Sendall’s first decision was to build a new central prison in
Nicosia, which was finally completed in 1904.
The author gives us two cases of notorious bandits,
one of Yiallouris, who was convicted of murdering the mudir of Paphos (p.77)
and the other of Hasanpouli brothers, Mehmet Ahmet and Hasan Ahmet, who were
escaped convicts for over a year and had committed eleven murders, five acts of
abduction and rape, nine of shooting and wounding and numerous acts of highway
robbery. (p.137) They were all eventually hanged in 1895.
Lady Sendall was an energetic fund-raiser, who worked
hard for local charities, particularly the lepers. The chief medical officer,
Dr. Heidestam, who had been in the island since Ottoman times and was fluent in
Turkish and Greek, had a close friendship with Sendalls and Lady Sophia had
collected in England and in Cyprus, enough money to build Greek Orthodox church
for the 80 or so lepers colony outside Nicosia. (p.75) Lady Sendall also raised
money for the new Anglican church, being built outside Nicosia. Both the
Christian and Moslem leaders were present as she laid the first stone to
foundation of the Anglican church of St. Paul’s. (p.53)
In the summer of 1893, Sendall made a start on
educational reform. (p.65) Both the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot schools
were extended to include lyceum. The author reports on the new Hellenic school,
inaugurated ceremonially on 24 December 1893, where the chief cadi and
principal Turkish notables were also present. (p.71) But she omits to report
about the inauguration ceremony of the Turkish Cypriot school on 26 December
1897, which was raised from the status of rüştiye to idadi (wrongly written as
rusty’e and i’dade-p.157. Also the name of the chief cadi, Mustafa Fevzi
Efendi, is wrongly written twice as ‘Ferzi’ -p.65-67): “Both Sir Sendall and Lady Sendall were also
present, when the new building of the school was inaugurated on 26 December 1897.
They were greeted with the British national anthem ‘God save the Queen’.”
(A.An, The Values Cyprus Cultivated (1782-1899), Ankara 2002, p.145)
Since the author does not know Turkish language and
could not use Turkish Cypriot archives, she had asked me to prepare some
material for this purpose, but she did not to use this in her book. There is
only one reference to a Turkish Cypriot newspaper, Kıbrıs, dated 15 April 1985
(p.106). This weekly newspaper was published by Kufizade Asaf Bey, from 1893
until 1898, covering almost the whole period when Sir Sendall was in office.
Diana Markides writes: “A deputation of leading
Muslims, headed by the mufti, urged Sendall to prohibit the meetings” (p.106),
but she does not mention about the protest letter of the Turkish Cypriot
delegation headed by Mufti Hacı Rıfkı Efendi, which could be found in the
famous English book “A History of Cyprus” by George Hill. We read from there
that the delegation complained to Sir Walter Sendall about the articles,
published in the Greek Cypriot newspaper “Foni dis Kipru”, defending the union
of the island with Greece (enosis). The Turkish Cypriot newspaper “Yeni Zaman”
responded to these articles on 23 January 1893. The delegation was happy with
the British administration in Cyprus and told Sir Sendall that Cyprus would
remain to be a part of the Ottoman Empire. (Cambridge 1972, Vol.4,
pp.498-499)
Diana Markides allocates several pages (pp.171-179) for the activities
of Ethniki Etairia in 1897 and writes: “The dispatch of Greek soldiers to Crete
was a move which intensified nationalist emotions in Cyprus.” (s.174) without
giving the reactions of the Turkish Cypriot notables and the newspapers. On the
other hand, rightly enough the author reproduces the petitions to Queen
Victoria in Greek and Ottoman Turkish script by Christian and Muslim leaders,
asking for Sir Walter Sendall to be granted a second term as High Commissioner
(pp.196-197), but he and Lady Sophia caught the next mail boat to Egypt on 1
January 1898. (p.195)
As a last point, I can say that Diana Markides’ book Sendall in Cyprus
1892-1898, A Governor in Bondage is a scholarly academic work like her first
book, published in q998: Cyprus 1957-1963: From Colonial Conflict to
Constitutional Crisis: The Key Role of the Municipal Issue. She illustrated
there in detail the origins of the separatist policy of the Turkish Cypriot
leadership. My review of that book was published in the Turkish Cypriot weekly,
Yeni Cag, on 11 July 3003 (http://can-kibrisim.blogspot.com/cy/2013/11/ayri-belediyeler-anlasmazligi-uzerine.html) Especially Cypriot readers will benefit a lot from
reading her last book about Governor Sendall, which took a spotlight to an
early and formative time in the British-Cyprus relationship.
(*) Ahmet
Cavit An is a retired paediatrician who has devoted his adult life to the
reunification of his country. In 2003,
just before the Green Line opened, he won an ECHR case against Turkey for
preventing him from meeting with his Greek Cypriot compatriots, with whom they
formed the bicommunal Movement for an Independent and Federal Cyprus. His
archives and books, mainly in Turkish, are the basis of many other studies more
available in English or Greek.
(Friends of Cyprus Report, New Year 2016, Issue No.58, pp.49-50)
