Report on My Trip to Cyprus
author: Arthur Ruppin
source date: June 05, 1935
language: eng
availability: This work is protected by copyright and may only be reproduced and published with the consent of the rights holder. It may be downloaded for scholarly or private use.

TRANSCRIPT

Report on My Trip to Cyprus.

I departed from Haifa on Wednesday, May 22nd, at 10 p.m. and arrived the next morning at 10 a.m. in Larnaca. Dr. Bruenn, who had previously agreed to travel with me, took us in his utility bus to his farm Kooklia, which is reachable in 3/4 of an hour on a paved road from Larnaca. About a year ago, Dr. Bruenn acquired approximately 10,000 dunams of land from the ICA for a company he founded, and he aims to prepare the soil for subdivision and sale to individual settlers. – During my visit, there were two representatives present from the German “Frontkämpfer” settlers of Gross-Gaglow. Their farms in Gross-Gaglow had been expropriated by the German government, and they are now looking to resettle either in Cyprus or in Palestine. – On the farm, Dr. Bruenn found the old ICA buildings in fairly good condition and housed his Jewish staff and foremen there. He employs workers from the neighboring Turkish village, paying them an average of 10 Cypriot piaster, i.e. about 6 Palestine pence per day. He drilled a well on the land and claims to have tapped into a groundwater stream providing more water than expected. He has currently planted part of the land with grains and fodder, also a small section with vines and orange trees, established a nursery, and started vegetable planting. He has selected a favorable location for building homes for settlers and plans to begin selling parcels of 100–150 dunams of non-irrigated or 30 dunams of irrigated land to individual settlers soon. He believes there are people whose capital is insufficient for settling in Palestine but who can start a farm in Cyprus due to lower land prices and lower wages. He did not provide me with a cost estimate for such a farm. I assume he is still preparing the necessary documents. One of the settlers from Gross-Gaglow told me that setting up a farm would cost £600–700.

From Kooklia I drove on a paved road to Nicosia, the capital of the island, in two hours. There I had a lengthy conversation with Dr. Dr. Simenauer, a doctor from Berlin, who moved to Nicosia two years ago, immediately after the Nazi takeover, on the advice of a Cypriot who had worked in a Berlin hospital as an assistant physician. He is the only German doctor who received a license to practice. Later applicants were denied a license due to protests by the local Greek doctors. Dr.S. has a practice, especially among the Turkish population, but says his income is only sufficient due to the very low cost of living. – I noted that e.g. car rides cost only one-third of what they do in Palestine, namely only two Cypriot piastres (= 1.2 p.p.) per English mile. Eggs, meat, and vegetables cost half or a third compared to Palastine. Rents in the cities are extremely low, at £5–10 per room annually. The price of agricultural land suitable for grain was only one pound per dunam a few years ago. Since then, it has risen to two pounds due to Jewish purchases and exaggerated rumors about Jewish acquisitions. For especially well-located, irrigable landsuitable for oranges (deep soil), up to £10 per dunam (Cypriot dunam, i.e. 1.3 Palestinian dunams) has already been paid. Dr. Simenauer believes that the Greek population and the government will not object to the immigration of a few dozen or even a few hundred Jews, but larger Jewish immigration will meet fierce resistance. Already now, the government records the religion of all arrivals, including tourists, which was not the case six months ago.

Near Nicosia another Jewish company led by Mr. Tulipmann from Jerusalem also purchased around 10,000 dunams of land from the ICA to establish orange groves. Unfortunately, I could not visit this project personally, but I asked Mr. T. to send me a report, which I will attach if I receive it.

From Nicosia we drove into the Troodos Mountains, rising up to 2,000 meters and still snow-covered in one area. At 1,800 and 1,600 meters, there are hotels frequented in summer by Syrians, Egyptians, and also Palestinian Jews. At the moment, they were still closed, and I stayed overnight in Platros at about 1,000 m altitude. The Toodros Mountains have beautiful forests, mostly pine, but also oak and plane trees.

From Platros we drove again on well-paved, scenically cut mountain roads to Limassol. There we met, as agreed, Mr. Chassidoff from Jerusalem, who founded a company with a capital of about £40,000 involving Jews from Palestine and Egypt as well as some non-Jews, and who purchased about 5,000 dunams of land about 15 km from Limassol, with plans to acquire more. 600 dunams of orange trees have already been planted and are in very good condition. Overall, the farm makes a good impression. There are a few Jewish foremen, including the son of a former ICA colonist who was born in Cyprus and has never left. All other labor is carried out by Greeks and Turks, who are paid the same daily wage of 10 Cypriot piastres as in Kookia. Mr. Chassidoff told me that the company has sold orange plantations, including maintenance until year 5, for £50 per dunam and plans to continue doing so. Despite this low price (compared to Palestine), they still make a good profit. Land for oranges in this region now costs £10, although it used to be much cheaper.

I then returned from this farm to Limassol, and from there back to Larnaca. About 10 Jewish families already live in Larnaca including around five recent immigrants from Germany who have purchased land and run farms or pensions, etc. Also located in Larnaca is the factory for artificial teeth founded by Mr. Blum from Tel-Aviv, employing five or six Jewish clerks and foremen.

Besides these Jews, there are a few families in Larnaca and Nicosia, while I heard of no Jewish families in Limassol or Famagusta. Overall, if one adds together the agricultural and urban Jews, including family members, there are probably no more than 60–80 Jewish souls on the island.

As far as it is possible to draw conclusions from a brief visit, I would like to say the following in conclusion:

- 1. As long as we can bring people and capital to Palestine it is our duty to bring them to Palastine.

- 2. Should certain individuals be unsuitable for Palestine e.g., those who want to farm but are too old to manage without wage labor, and who cannot afford a Jewish labor-based farm in Palestine, Cyprus may be considered an option—a Jewish Yishuv in Cyprus is still more desirable from a Palestinian standpoint than one in Brazil or Uruguay.

- 3. Mass Jewish settlement in Cyprus is entirely out of the question. Jewish workers cannot survive there due to the low cost of living and wages of the native workers. All the arguments used in Palastine to justify paying Jewish workers above-market wages do not apply in Cyprus. Whether a settler with their own means needs less capital in Cyprus than in Palestine, is currently unclear, especially since in Palastine Jewish settlers have access to credit and the possibility of receiving JNF land, which does not exist in Cyprus. On the other hand, the settler in Cyprus must endure the great disadvantages of an isolated life, far from anything Jewish or European—an experience that is likely tolerablefor German immigrants only in exceptional cases.In addition, the language barrier is significant:only Greek and Turkish are spoken in Cyprus. Capitalists (especially those not residing in Cyprus) who plant orange groves using local labor will likely make a good profit, as, for now—as already mentioned—land prices and wages are still low compared to Palestine, and Cyprus oranges match the quality of Jaffa oranges, being their only competitor. However, it remains unclear how much land in Cyprus is suitable for oranges in terms of soil depth and water access. Large parts of the coastal plain are unsuitable due to shallow soil or salt content. Expansion of orange groves is further limited by the fact that low land and wage costs will only remain as long as Jewish immigration remains minimal. Once demand for land and labor rises, a sharp price increase is likely—eliminating Cyprus’s main advantage over Palestine.

In conclusion, I explicitly note that this brief sketch does not claim to be complete or precise, but merely aims to provide an approximate picture of the prospects for Jewish settlement in Cyprus.

Dr. Arthur Ruppin.

Jerusalem, June 5, 1935.