The present volume was planned to cover the history of Cyprus from the Turkish Conquest down to the time of writing, and so complete the task which was, too light-heartedly, undertaken more than ten years ago. When the narrative had reached the period of the British Occupation, and the history of the subsequent seventy years had to be faced, two facts fairly soon became apparent. The first was that an adequate account of the events of those years and of the work which had been accomplished by Britain in the government and administration of the island would require a fifth volume; the second, that a critical treatment of many of the matters involved demanded a specialized knowledge quite beyond my reach. Perhaps it would have been best to lay down my pen at this point and leave the British regime to a more competent hand. But before I could bring myself to such renunciation, I had written certain detached essays for which the material had gradually accumulated under my hand. These are collected in the second part of this volume. In preparing them, the Colonial Office and Foreign Office documents enumerated in the list of my sources were consulted. Permission to examine them was granted on condition that the resulting draft should be submitted, as it was, to the authorities concerned. This does not, however, apply to the short chapter on Strategic Considerations, which does not reflect and which was not influenced by official policy as disclosed in any of the documents to which I was given access.