Status Updates From Bittere Limonen: Erlebtes C...

Random thing, but as violence against the British gets started in Cyprus, all the officials immediately draw parallels to Palestine and fear that will be the endgame. I never really considered how 1945-48 in Israel/Palestine looked from a British perspective, but for the officials in the colonial office it seems to be a humiliating defeat (which, fair assessment). Interesting parallel.

I finished the 1st half which I thoroughly enjoyed. But as I’m entering the 2nd, more political half, I don’t know if I should push through as his discourse is becoming more and more difficult to excuse. It can be quite infuriating to see how the people he loved so much become, when taken as a whole, an uneducated and almost unworthy of autonomy mass in the second half.

Should I push through ?

8.26.56

“But our own present was forever tugging at one like a hound which nothing could quiet, and racing along the form straight arrow of road towards the capital I would once more become aware of the thousand preoccupations of office waiting for me, and the noisy contentions of demagogues and illiterates which had begun to fill the empty theatre of world affairs with the shrill waspish voice of the times - nationalism.

“I used to walk about its grassy galleries with my friends or duty-companions, enjoying the silence which grows up between sentences utters among the ruins of time; and conscious that one day our history must touch and marry its own, to join the great confluence of tides which meet forever at the point where present meets the past in a death-embrace.”

“We had become, with the approach of night, once more aware of loneliness and time — those two companions without whom no journey can yield us anything.”

“…he was an agreeable man, rotund and sleek, with a costly set of dimples round his smile - like expensive cuff-links in a well-laundered shirt.”

“Travel can be one of the most rewarding forms of introspection…”

guys leaving cyprus having read 10% ugh now i need to finish immediately

Tried really hard but just could not get into it.

‘[…] “Yes,” he continued in the slow assured tones of the village wiseacre, “yes, even Dighenis, though he fights the British, really loves them. But he will have to go on killing them—with regret, even with affection.”’

‘“Even Dighenis,” he said thoughtfully, “they say he himself is very pro-British.” It was one of those great conversations which carry with them hallucinating surrealist flavour—in the last two years I had enjoyed several hundred of them. […]

Despair, relief and disillusionment on quitting his duties: ‘I was, I realized, very tired after this two years’ spell as a servant of the Crown; and I had achieved nothing. It was good to be leaving.’

Athens Radio reiterated time and again, to enflame the population, that freedom is won by blood, that chains don't fall from limp hands. Is Cypriot society still plagued by the historic violence? Durrell observes that all the trust in society was thoroughly undermined (pp. 215–7).

Karaolis was the head of a terrorist organisation that murdered administrators and civilians to antagonise the British government into harsher measures and thereby provoke the Cypriots into unrest. Countenanced by a refractory local government bound by central policy, they could not make the government act by force (p. 224). It had a Cypriot youth willing to murder out of pride (p. 200).

After the announcement that Karaolis is to be hanged, there is a sadness. Panos and Janis are both sad. Panos was bitter about England's lie (p. 241) and appears to be disillusioned by the tactlessness of English colonialism; EOKA has a political nous the English do not possess (p. 224). Is Karaolis a freedom-fighter?

‘[…] I could not help reflecting what a sad waste of money and reputations the whole problem had been; and if the peace could only be kept with the help of twelve thousand armed men what security could the island enjoy as a base? …’

‘[…] (For example the deportation of the Archbishop which was operationally just was politically nonsensical—as he was not only the one true representative of the Greek community who could not be replaced, but is absent left the fuel open to the extremists. Though his complicity in EOKA was obvious, nevertheless he was the only break to terrorism and the only person who could curb it.) […]

‘[…] To try to marry military and political considerations at this stage was like trying to play a drum from a piano score. We had all of us been made the clowns of short-sightedness at home, for now military solutions precluded the political. […]

‘[…] “I shall come back for a holiday myself one day,” he smiled, “And by the way, do keep your eye open, and if you feel we're going wrong for goodness’ sake don’t hesitate to tell us so.”
‘But what could I tell him? The very decisions which were operationally necessary to the present situation were political lunacy for whatever must follow upon the present. […]

Durrell in conversation with the Field Marshal after informing the military government that he would be on leave for four months. ‘“I think you should come back,” he said, “when you're feel like it—after all this is over.” I regretted only that there had not been time and opportunity to be his guide to Cyprus. […]

‘[…] The sun and cleared them now now and they were taking on that throbbing dark mauve of which inhabits the heart of a violet.’

‘The Spring water was cold and pained one—as a drink or iced wine will hurt the back of the throat—but it was delicious. I abandoned myself to the running tide, not swimming, but simply keeping a float, to be drawn smoothly out into the bay from where the whole screen of luminous mountains was visible. […]

‘“[…] As you say in Bellapaix, ‘He can't gather honey without killing the bees.’ How, then, can you gather the honey of a peaceful Cyprus?”’

‘“[…] In this case the neighbours are your own Labour Party, UNO, and many others; we are provoking you to beat us so that our cries reach their ears. Then, from another point of view, your operations against the terrorists must be conducted across the body of the Cyprus people—like a man who has hit an opponent through the body of the referee. […]

‘“[…] They are not politically as stupid as the authorities believe them to be. They have, in fact, very much shaken the British position and they realize it. The peasants of your village have two little proverbs which illustrate the present state of Cyprus perfectly. Of a stupid man they say ‘He thought he could beat his wife without the neighbours hearing.’ […]

‘“[…] Then a few bangs followed and you agreed there was a problem, but that it couldn't be solved ever. More bangs followed. Then you agree to try and solve it, but in fact only to bedevil it further. Meanwhile however EOKA has seen that a few bombs could change your inflexible ‘Never’ to ‘Sometime’; now they feel they have a right to provoke an answer to the question ‘When?’ […]

‘[…] “How do you mean?” He stretched himself upon the rock now, face downward, and thrust out his hands until his fingers were buried in the dense clumps of anemones. “O Lord!” he said, “I promised myself not to talk politics. But sometimes you ask such silly questions. Can't you see? First there was no Cyprus problem. […]

‘[…] “What do I know? Nothing. It is true I am not as patriotic as most people, though I believe that Enosis is right and must one day come; I am a Greek, after all, and Cyprus is as Greek as … Vouni. But of course I shrunk from violence though I see that it will certainly bring Enosis sooner than polite talk will.”’
‘[…]

Panos receives the ‘second-rate’ death-threat: ‘“[…] And besides, I am only one of dozens who have received such letters, and nothing has happened to them.”
‘“But I am a Government Official [and you met me today].”
‘“Yes, that is true.”
‘“They might suspect you of giving information.”
‘[…]