§ MR. STANLEY LEIGHTON (Shropshire, Oswestry)asked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether the Government have received any communications from officers who have administered the government of Cyprus, urging that the inhabitants should be released from the annual Tribute now paid to the Governments of England and France, and that more money should be spent on public works in the Island; and, whether he will lay such Reports upon the Table of the House? The hon. Gentleman also had the following Question on the Paper:—To ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether it is true that, on the 27th of December last, a mass meeting was held at Nicosia, the Capital of Cyprus, at which Resolutions were passed, asking for relief from taxation, and condemning the system under which an annual payment of £99,000 was made out of the Taxes to England and France; whether the Resolutions were presented to the High Commissioner by the Archbishop for transmission to the Colonial Office; and, whether he will lay the Resolutions upon the Table of the House, together with the answer of the Secretary of State for the Colonies?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Baron HENRY DE WORMS) (Liverpool, East Toxteth)Certain proposals have, from time to time, been made by officers administering the government of Cyprus for lightening the burden of the Tribute by commutation, not by abolition. A larger expenditure on public works has been urged, as will be seen by reference to Parliamentary Paper, C 3,661, of 1883; but it was decided by the then Secretary of State that the annual expenditure on this head should be limited to £13,000. As regards the next Question, meetings have been held in different districts of the Island and Resolutions passed embodying the views of those present in regard to the state of affairs; but in those Resolutions the question of the Tribute and its present destination was not mentioned. There will be no objection to presenting the Correspondence; but it will be more convenient to include it in a collection of general Correspondence relating to the affairs of the Island, which is in course of preparation.