LIX.

CYPRUS AND PALESTINE

THE Anglo-Turkish Convention had given a new and unexpected addition to the already extensive list of British territorial responsibilities. It is true that a “conditional” element ... enters into the connexion formed with the Turkish Government; and the claims to interpose between the Sultan and his subjects, as well as the circumstances which would render interference necessary, are not very clearly defined. But the British Government, not only by entering into the Convention, but by the prominence with which important events invested that treaty, as also by its positive acquisition of the island of Cyprus, stand pledged before Europe and the world to secure to the populations of Asiatic Turkey a deliverance from the corrupt rule which has hitherto burdened them....

“In the minds of all thoughtful men there is a strong belief that this country is the instrument by which freedom, peace and true religion will be carried to the uttermost ends of the world. If that be so, there is assuredly no portion of the earth’s surface which more needs the possession of these blessings, or from which can come in keener despair the cry ‘Come and help us.’ The countries of Asia still remaining ... include those whereon the earliest progenitors of the human race appeared, and those which are familiar to us in Biblical records, or interesting as the platform upon which mighty nations strove, and empires fell in the strife which was raging then as now between the powers of Good and Evil.”¹

¹ Cyprus and the Asiatic Turkey, by J. M. London, 1878, _pp._ v.‒vii.