§ MR. H. SAMUELSONasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether Petitions in Greek are received and dealt with by the Government of Cyprus upon equal terms with those in English and Turkish; whether the Greek language is officially recognized and used in the law courts; and, whether Greek is the language of the majority of the islanders?
§ MR. BOURKE, in reply, said, the Government were not aware of any restrictions having been placed upon the language used in Petitions to the Government of Cyprus. As to the official recognition of the Greek language, their information upon the subject was not very recent; but they were aware that shortly after Sir Garnet Wolseley arrived in the Island, he expressed himself averse to any change in the official language—it was the Turkish. With regard to the last part of the Question, he did not think there could be any doubt that Greek was the language of the great majority of the inhabitants.
§ MR. H. SAMUELSONwished to know, Whether the Government would ascertain whether Petitions in Greek were officially recognized?
§ MR. BOURKEsaid, now the subject had been mentioned, the Government would do so.