Andrekos Varnava starts his latest book ‘British Cyprus and the long Great War, 1914-1925: empire, loyalties and democratic deficit’ with a quote which sums up the British attitude to its colonised population.
In June 1919, the new British governor to Cyprus Malcolm Stevenson remarked that “all classes of the community combined in a cheerful and resolute manner to assist the Government of the island by willingly meeting the many demands made on them”, by which of course he means the British colonial government at the time.
This, according to Varnava, was a “rosy assessment of loyalty” and a generalisation, as not all classes were loyal to the British war effort. He goes on to explain the strengths and weaknesses of the British Empire during the war and the loyalties and disloyalties of a colonised population.
“This book explores for the first time the role of the island and its people in the Great War and the impact that the war had on the politics of the island,” is how the author described it to the Sunday Mail.
“Most importantly in trying to understand the later division of Cyprus, it shows how the British colonial government well-understood the potential for the actions of the Εnosis faction to cause a major cleavage with the Turkish Cypriot community and the actions it took to prevent such a conflict eventuating.”
Who should read it? Those who seek to understand Cypriot society and want to become better acquainted with how issues are connected. Its plethora of information makes it an extremely useful resource for anybody who wants to do more research on the subject.
Varnava himself sets out three reasons why the book is important. The first is because it is the first comprehensive book on any non-settler parts of the British Empire during the Great War and the period immediately after.
The second reason is that it provides a comprehensive analysis on the social, economic and political developments in Cyprus during the years from 1914 until 1925.
Thirdly, it focuses on a deconstruction of society along broad class lines, including those who are not part of the elites, British imperialists and colonial authorities.
Lower class priorities, for example, were often said to be governed purely by survival and thus pecuniary motives, but Varnava argues that this is not the whole picture. Despite the claim that the wish for enosis was widespread at the time, more Greek Cypriots served in the British forces in the Great War than in Greek forces, even though the Greeks paid more.
Thus, Greek Cypriots were at least as loyal to the British at the time as to the Greeks, if not more so.
The author further claims that the Εnosis demand failed because popular demand for it was weak, at least at the time of the First World War, though other authors have later concentrated on its importance.
British Cyprus and the long Great War, 1914-1925: empire, loyalties and democratic deficit, Andrekos Varnava, 2020, Routledge, ISBN 978-1-138-69832-1
