REVENUE FROM CYPRUS Sia,—News that the Board of Inland Revenue
in Whitehall " has arranged " that the unfortunate colonies of Mauritius, Cyprus, Seychelles and others shall have their import duties doubled, without any agreement previously reached with the various trade interests, makes one wonder if Whitehall has forgotten so soon the Boston Tea-party and the events of 1776. About the other sisters in misfortune the writer cannot comment, but with Cyprus—a country that has not known war for over a century —where the cost of living transcends anything known in Asia, where the ordinary people do not taste meat from one month's end to the next, where sugar is controlled at a shilling a pound, where all imported goods
are now from 9.11 to 14.35 over 1937 prices and where rents have soared from five to eleven times, the above fact, if true, makes one wonder whether the lessons of the past have ever been learnt. For within a decade total revenues have been raised from under £400,000 to nearly £4,000,000 and vast sums hidden away in budget overplus, whilst no accounting has reached the public of profits arising from Government trading. And no Cypriot yet has any vote or any power or rights of any kind, except to go to jail, if he fails to pay these enormous exactions. And yet we preach of " democracy "!—Yours, &c.,
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