Introduction
In June 1969, Sydney Rothman, the Chairman of Rothmans of London Ltd., visited Cyprus and announced at a luncheon at the Hilton Hotel in Nicosia that Rothmans cigarettes would now be made at the factory of Garanis & Petrides, formerly the A.G. (or Taki) Patiki factory. This was the third major international cigarette manufacturer to make cigarettes in Cyprus in partnership with a local subsidiary company. In 1961, Carreras of London Ltd., a sister company of Rothmans after they had merged in 1958, had started to manufacture Carreras brands at the Taki Patiki factory.Footnote 1 The moves by Carreras in 1961 and Rothmans in 1969 solidified their international partnership and ensured that popular cigarettes such as Craven A, Rothmans King Size Filtered, and, from 1970, a new Rothmans brand, Royals, were manufactured in Cyprus for the local and export market. This was a salvo against the possible domination of the industry and market in Cyprus and its surroundings by British American Tobacco (BAT). BAT had started manufacturing cigarettes in Cyprus through its subsidiary, Ardath, which built a factory and established Ardath (Cyprus) Ltd in 1951. In 1963, in response to the move by Carreras in 1961 to combine with Taki Patiki, BAT-Ardath merged with Dianellos & Vergopoulos, the oldest cigarette company in Cyprus, having been established in 1864, bringing Dianellos & Vergopoulos into the BAT family, with BAT owning an 89 percent share in it.Footnote 2 Thus, in the first decade of Cypriot independence, starting in 1960, a duopoly emerged over the cigarette industry between BAT-Ardath and Carreras-Rothmans after merging with local cigarette manufacturing companies.
This article is about how all three companies began their presence in Cyprus during the colonial period. It aims to show how they started manufacturing cigarettes in Cyprus after years spent importing large quantities of cigarettes to the island through local representatives and purchasing substantial quantities of tobacco leaf cultivated in Cyprus. The main aim of this article is to explore the origins, evolution, and impact of “big tobacco” companies in Cyprus during the British colonial period.
There is a major gap in this subject which this research aims to fill. A study on the history of BAT, although useful in many ways, did not explore all the imperial connections and stopped in 1945 before it began to manufacture cigarettes in Cyprus.Footnote 3 In addition to adding to the history of BAT in the British Empire, there has been no research on Carreras-Rothmans cigarette manufacturing in the British Empire, which this article aims to rectify with its focus on Cyprus. While there is no history of the industry in Cyprus, there has been one in Egypt by Relli Shechter, allowing for a contrast. Egyptians preferred the aroma and taste of “Eastern’ tobaccos, while Cypriots preferred Virginia cigarettes, meaning that BAT could not adopt its preferred method of operations in Egypt, which was to start by importing English and American cigarettes, before acquiring control of local firms and manufacturing, which is what it did in Cyprus. Yet in both, the British approach was one of “laissez-faire” capitalism; cigarette factories were started by foreign migrant entrepreneurs, especially Greeks, such as those in Cairo near the Shepheard’s Hotel on Kamil Street, Melahrinos, Demetrino, and Gianaklis, with the latter also having factories in Suez and Ismailia, and at Port Said there was Lardicos Freres. Those that lasted mechanized their production the earliest. Also there was one big difference with the role of global companies, even if both saw duopolies develop. During the interwar period, Egyptian mechanization drove the duopoly that emerged with BAT, which had first established itself in Egypt in 1905 when it purchased Maspero-Frères, and subsequently others. It merged with Eastern Tobacco Company in 1927, which became its local subsidiary. Its rival was United Tobacco Company, a major local company working with several smaller companies and in cooperation with Phillip Morris International. The main link between Egypt and Cyprus was the Melkonian Institute, an Armenian school opened in 1926 after the brothers Garabed and Krikor Melkonian sold their cigarette factory in Egypt to Eastern, thus allowing them to establish this international school, which attracted Armenians from throughout the region and beyond.Footnote 4
In addition to the focus on the cigarette industry in Cyprus during the last four decades of colonial rule, this article also explores the prevalence of smoking and the antismoking messages in the newspapers. This has also not been the subject of any sustained research, either in a broader colonial context or in the case of Cyprus. This article builds on research in a recent article.Footnote 5
The context here is important. The widespread smoking of cigarettes was largely a twentieth-century phenomenon. Before cigarettes were available on a mass scale, production was limited because they were rolled by hand. Tobacco was also smoked more in pipes, water pipes (nargiles), cigars, and cigarillos, but the smoke was not usually inhaled. Early cigarettes were wrapped in various materials, from leaves to newspapers. This changed with the invention of machine-made cigarettes by James Buchanan Duke, of the US company, W. Duke & Sons & Co., in the early 1880s. This led to the rapid and cheap manufacture of cigarettes, making them affordable and available on a global scale. Unlike smoking a pipe, which needs to be constantly relit and repacked, and usually cannot be smoked while working (because the tobacco would fall out of the bowl and one would need to stop to refill and relight), cigarettes could be smoked all day, one after the other, while working. The combination of cigarettes being accessible, convenient, and inhaled meant that they had a different impact on the health of those who smoked them. Adding to their detrimental health impact was the fact that while all tobacco leaves contain some nicotine (some more than others, e.g., Cypriot Latakia contains one of the least), cigarette manufacturers were able to add more nicotine and other harmful and addictive chemicals to cigarettes, making them even more damaging and more addictive than the natural leaves smoked in a pipe. It is telling that there were few advertisements in the Cypriot press from the 1920s-1950s on pipe tobacco, such as that Dunhill tobacco and pipes were available at Spinney’s in Nicosia.Footnote 6
Lastly, the article will also explore, through a close examination of the local newspaper, whether the government and civil society informed the public on the dangers of cigarette smoking after the link was made in 1950 between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. By the late nineteenth century, cigarettes were known as coffin nails, but the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer was not made until the mid-twentieth century. The first to make the link were Nazi scientists, leading to the first antismoking movement in Nazi Germany, even if controls were inconsistent.Footnote 7 In 1950, the British researchers Professors William Richard Doll and Austin Bradford Hill published a study linking cigarette smoking to lung cancer, which began to shift attitudes regarding cigarette smoking in the West.Footnote 8 By 1953, there were warnings in the UK about the danger of cigarette smoking.Footnote 9 In 1954, the US researchers E.C. Hammond and D. Horn confirmed the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer.Footnote 10 Cartwright noted, however, that official policy responses to the research were gradual, with British and American tobacco companies initially deflecting questions of health, as did certain scientists, many of whom are now suspected of collusion with the industry.Footnote 11 Various national research organizations recommended action to discourage cigarette smoking, such as the Australian National Research Medical Research Council from 1957, but governments, such as in Australia, into the early 1960s refused to act, claiming it was a personal choice.Footnote 12
To frame the exploration of the cigarette industry, cigarette smoking, and antismoking in colonial Cyprus this article addresses four broader and interrelated fields and historiographies: the histories of local and international cigarette manufacturing companies in Cyprus; the British Empire and its colonial development policies, in this case on tobacco leaf cultivation and cigarette manufacturing; the importing of commodities, in this case cigarettes, to the British colonies and the role of local agents and intermediaries; and colonial public health policies and practices, and how and to what degree civil society, through the press, engaged with these, namely in relation to smoking-related cancers.
Theoretically, the article draws upon two conceptual frameworks. First, it uses “prosumption,” coined by Alvin Toffler in 1980 and adopted by others, which involves understanding the complex relationship between consumption and production.Footnote 13 Shechter also used this to show how producers (BAT, via Eastern) and consumers (Egyptians) interacted in markets.Footnote 14 Similarly, this study will show how BAT, via Ardath (and later through its merger with Dianellos & Vergopoulos), did something similar in Cyprus, though BAT-Ardath built a new factory in 1951, thus exhibiting backward integration. This set the model for Carreras-Rothmans in its relationship with Patiki in the last years of the colonial period, before merging in the first years of the Republic. Both cases evolved from importing consumer-preferred cigarettes to manufacturing these on the island, which differed from the Egyptian case. Other differences with Egypt were that Ardath was not a local company in the same sense as Eastern, since it was owned by BAT, and it was later that the merger occurred with Dianellos & Vergopoulos. Also, in Cyprus, there were ultimately two examples of multinationals merging with local manufacturers, with their complex evolution straddling the last decades of colonial rule and the first decades of the postcolonial period. Like in the Egyptian case, the Cypriot examples show a connection between prosumption and glocalization, the second conceptual framework, though the Cypriot cigarette preferences aligned much more closely with those of the multinationals, since they did not prefer the “oriental” cigarettes to the global phenomenon of Virginia-blended cigarettes, which were the mainstay of BAT-Ardath and Carreras-Rothmans brands.
In relation to public health policies and practices in the nonsettler British Empire, although nothing specific has been published on antismoking, in general terms, the findings in this article mirror those on more general subjects. In general, the British were late to transfer public health policies and practices from the metropole to the periphery. In the case of Cyprus, this has been shown in the examples of venereal diseases and tuberculosis, though action was taken more quickly in Cyprus than in many other parts of the British Empire.Footnote 15 This article shows that this was no different, and probably even worse given the pressure from the cigarette industry, when it came to antismoking messages and measures, which were nonexistent during the colonial period.
The structure adopted is to first establish the characteristics and evolution of the tobacco growing and cigarette manufacturing industries, and their links to “big” tobacco companies, before exploring the prevalence of smoking and antismoking messages, especially after the link was made between cigarette smoking and lung cancer in 1950. Drawing on archival material from the National Archives of the UK, the State Archives of Cyprus, the National Archives of Australia, the Charles Foley Collection at the Hoover Institute, and Cypriot newspapers at the Public Information Office in Nicosia, this article establishes the expansion of multinational cigarette companies in Cyprus and the lack of British colonial information and action on the dangers of smoking as they emerged from 1950.
Tobacco Cultivation and Cigarette Manufacturing in Cyprus, 1920-1960
Tobacco cultivation and cigarette manufacturing in Cyprus emerged in the nineteenth century, and while they were inconsistent industries for various reasons, they emerged from World War II as significant ones. For most of this time, they were largely separate industries because local cigarette manufacturers primarily used imported tobacco leaf, and Cypriots primarily smoked imported cigarettes. The industries began to become linked during World War II when the colonial government created the “standard cigarette” and forced the cigarette manufacturers to use Cypriot-grown tobacco in their blends. While the “standard cigarette” was stopped after the war, manufacturers were still forced to use local leaf in blends, and therefore, the cultivation of the leaf became more intertwined with the manufacturing of cigarettes. What mostly united the growers and manufacturers was the role of the multinational companies, which originated in the 1920s but evolved in the 1950s into a closer relationship, since they purchased most of the tobacco grown in Cyprus, worked more closely with local manufacturers, who were also importing their brands, and with one, BAT, even building a cigarette factory in Cyprus in 1951.
Tobacco Cultivation and Cigarette Manufacturing Before 1920
Tobacco cultivation, cigarette manufacturing, and the prevalence of smoking in Cyprus predate the British arrival in 1878. Tobacco leaf cultivation was inconsistent during the Ottoman period, from when tobacco was first cultivated in the eighteenth century, and during the first four decades of the British occupation.Footnote 16 Practically all of what was grown was exported, with Cypriot smokers preferring the imported tobacco from Macedonia, which was imported at about twice the weight of the tobacco leaf exported.Footnote 17
The first cigarette factory in Cyprus was established in Larnaca in 1864 by Constantine Dianellos and Georgios Baroni, nephew and uncle. The family originated from Kisson Pyliou, Thessaly, and Constantine was the nephew of Gregorios Papaflessas, an influential figure in the Greek War of Independence.Footnote 18 In 1881, a second factory was established in Nicosia, and after Constantine died in 1905, his nephew, Ioannis Vergopoulos, took it over and renamed it Dianellos & Vergopoulos. There were thus two factories separately managed, with Demetrios (or Demetrakis) Dianellos (Constantine’s nephew) managing the Larnaca one, and George Poulia the one in Nicosia from 1922 after Vergopoulos, his uncle, died.Footnote 19 By the 1890s, cigarettes were made and sold in Cyprus by the factories of Dianellos & Vergopoulos in Nicosia, by Dianellos and the little-known Kouser in Larnaca, and by A.G. Patiki in Limassol, which was established in 1888, with cigarettes sold throughout the island.Footnote 20 The factories grew in capacity, and during the Great War, Dianellos & Vergopoulos donated 20,000 cigarettes to the Lord Mayor of London for forces in military and naval hospitals.Footnote 21
The preference for imported Macedonian tobacco prevented British efforts to increase cultivation of tobacco for local use in cigarette manufacturing, despite passing a law in the first decade of the twentieth century permitting the tax-free cultivation of tobacco and distributing seed.Footnote 22 In 1906, the Cyprus Agricultural Journal Footnote 23 reported on the factory of Dianellos & Vergopoulos and stated that despite efforts under Joseph Chamberlain, when as Secretary of State for the Colonies (1895-1903) he tried to revitalize agriculture, including tobacco cultivation, no tobacco was being grown in Cyprus.Footnote 24 The article claimed that tobacco had been grown from time to time, but the quality was not there to sustain an industry, and expertise was needed to advise growers.Footnote 25 In 1913, the Cyprus Agricultural Journal revealed that Houry’s Cyprus Tobacco Association Ltd. was formed to revive tobacco cultivation and would experiment with growing “Turkish” tobacco, namely the varieties “Samsun,” “Trapezon,” “Kavalla,” and “Xanthi” in Limassol and elsewhere after it expanded.Footnote 26 In 1916, five samples of Cyprus-grown “Turkish” tobacco were examined at the Imperial Institute, and were found to be satisfactory, and it was hoped that the growing of “Turkish” and “Egyptian” types would be expanded.Footnote 27 In 1917, 481,000 okesFootnote 28 (in Cyprus 1 oke was equal to 1.27kgs) was produced from cultivation across the entire island and at the end of that year the High Commissioner, Sir John Clauson, restricted the growing of tobacco to persons granted a license to increase the production of foodstuffs.Footnote 29
Tobacco Cultivation and Cigarette Manufacturing During the Interwar Years
Tobacco growing and cigarette manufacturing thrived in the 1920s and early 1930s, before declining momentarily before the outbreak of World War II. By 1920 tobacco was mainly grown in the Karpas Peninsula, with smaller quantities elsewhere.Footnote 30 By now, most of the locally grown leaf, mainly “Yellow-leaf” (Oriental or Turkish, mostly Samsun and Smyrna varieties) with smaller quantities of “Cyprian” Latakia (first grown in Cyprus during the Great War by Syrian refugees)Footnote 31, also referred to as “fumigated tobacco,” used mainly in pipe tobacco blends, were primarily exported to the UK and the Netherlands.Footnote 32 In 1927, British-American-Tobacco (BAT), which had formed in 1902 from the merger of Imperial Tobacco Company and American Tobacco Company and had purchased the overseas rights to trade Ardath Tobacco Company products in 1925, opened a trade concern and warehouse in Nicosia under its Ardath subsidiary, where it stored its purchased tobacco and imported cigarettes for the Cypriot market.Footnote 33 This coincided with the growing popularity of Virginia cigarettes, with Oriental tobacco forming a small component, around 10 percent, of the blend in most Virginia cigarettes.Footnote 34 The government attempted to control the industry by passing a law in 1927 to again make growers apply for a license and by providing advice to growers on the method of growing.Footnote 35 These changes saw the cultivation of tobacco boom for several years. In 1922, the industry was described as “thriving” in the colonial government annual report. In 1925 there were seven cigarette manufacturers, four with automated machinery, mostly still using imported tobacco.Footnote 36 The 1934 harvest was one of the largest on record, especially for Cyprian Latakia (254,000 okes), with Yialousa and Rizokarpaso having the biggest harvests and best quality tobacco.Footnote 37 However, the local cigarette manufacturers continued to import most of the tobacco they used, and in July 1935 it was announced that the Agricultural Board would restrict the cultivation of tobacco in favor of cotton.Footnote 38
In the early 1930s the government also worked with the Empire Marketing Board in the UK to market Cypriot cigarettes. The Empire Marketing Board had been formed in May 1926 by the Colonial Secretary Leo Amery to promote interempire trade and to persuade consumers to “buy empire.” It commissioned Frederick Charles Herrick, a leading post-World War I graphic artist, having trained at Leicester School of Art and the Royal College of Art, London, to design a poster marketing Cypriot cigarettes (see Figure 1).Footnote 39
Figure 1. “Buy Cyprus Cigarettes,” by Frederick Charles Herrick, Empire Marketing Board, c. 1930.
Source: © author’s personal collection.
The increase in cultivation and marketing allowed the British to finally include Cyprus in its interwar policy of “imperial preference” on tobacco.Footnote 40 The government announced in March 1935 that it had signed an agreement with a British company, the Cyprus Tobacco Company, giving it a five-year monopoly to exclusively purchase at a fixed price and export “Yellow-leaf,” believing that this would increase demand and cultivation, and thus create a prosperous industry.Footnote 41 The company director, Ronald McNair Scott, wanted to create a market in the UK for Cypriot-branded cigarettes, which he marketed as “Kyprinos” from 1936 (see Figure 2).Footnote 42 But after the company purchased a significant quantity in its first year, that is, two-thirds of the bumper 1934 crop, it did not need to purchase anywhere near as much in the ensuing years.Footnote 43 Complaints about the wisdom of the agreement first appeared in 1936, especially from merchants and growers, since they were blocked from exporting the tobacco not purchased by the company elsewhere. Initially, the colonial authorities and settlers, such as the editor of the Cyprus Mail, continued to support the agreement, referring to the stricter control over licenses given to growers and that in 1936, there was a 60 percent increase in sales of cigarettes made from Cypriot tobacco.Footnote 44 But by the end of the decade the industry was crippled by the agreement and tons of locally grown tobacco was destroyed. Despite this, in 1938, owing to government wavering, McNair extended the agreement.Footnote 45 These restrictions, as well a drought, saw production dramatically decline in the late 1930s.Footnote 46 Opposition to the agreement increased from 1938. Although the general economic outlook for Cyprus, especially for Famagusta, was promising,Footnote 47 it was generally agreed that the monopoly had damaged tobacco growing and should be ended. The calls were increasingly heard in the Greek language newspapers and at public meetings, especially in the Karpas Peninsula.Footnote 48 Finally, the government paid-out McNair Scott to end the agreement in early 1940.Footnote 49
Figure 2. Cyprus Kyprinos Cigarettes Box, 28cm x 21cm, 1936.
Source: © author’s personal collection.
The monopoly had little if any impact on cigarette manufacturers, who continued to primarily use imported tobacco. In the 1930s there were four major manufacturers. The aforementioned Dianellos & Vergopoulos in Nicosia, marketed “DV,” mostly using tobacco imported from Greece.Footnote 50 The next largest concern was A.G. Patiki & Co., in Limassol, which built a factory during the interwar years on Ledra Street, in Nicosia, near the Büyük Han, which produced “The Pindos” (see Figure 3), from Greek tobacco from the Pindos Mountains of Greece, “Virginia Yellow” and “Jockey” cigarettes, marketed as “extra Virginia,” and from 1940 a new brand, “Ariston.”Footnote 51 The largest Turkish Cypriot cigarette factory was “Six Arrows,” owned by Nekati Ozkan, which hand-rolled cigarettes. It marketed its cigarettes in Greek newspapers as being made from the choicest Turkish and Greek tobaccos, and including “Yioltas,” “Altiok,” “Nekati,” “Yiannitse,” “Acasia,” “Virginia B,” “Turan,” “Payian,” and “Katin.”Footnote 52 The fourth major concern was that of Dianellos in Larnaca, which did not use local tobacco.
Figure 3. “The Pindos” Cigarette Factory, A.G. Patiki, Limassol, Cyprus, c. 1930s.
Source: © author’s personal collection.
Importing cigarettes was an even bigger component of the tobacco industry and this increased significantly from the early 1920s. In Cyprus local importers represented various major international and regional cigarette manufacturing companies and imported their cigarette brands. Virginia, English and Oriental (Turkish, Egyptian, and Greek) cigarettes were the most popular. Regionally, cigarettes were imported from Greece, Turkey, and Egypt. From Greece, cigarettes, such as “Ellas No. 1” and “Old Navy” made by Papastratos, which formed in 1930, were imported by I.F. Xieridan, Nicosia.Footnote 53 M. Seyfi Akdeniz & Son importers from Nicosia imported various Turkish-made cigarettes (and Turkish beer) and were the sole agents of the Turkish State Cigarette Monopolies.Footnote 54 Egyptian cigarettes were imported by Phaedon Constantinides in Limassol, who became the Cypriot Commissioner in London in 1956,Footnote 55 and by Leondiades Bros., in Famagusta, who imported Kyriazis Factory brands, such as “Kaef,” “Ideal,” and “Zenith.”Footnote 56 Most of the cigarettes were imported from London-based manufacturers, with some from the US. Abdulla cigarettes, which included English, Egyptian, Turkish, and Virginia blends, and were made from 1927 by Godfrey Philips in London, were imported by Theophanis Nicolaou.Footnote 57 Godfrey Philips also made Marcovitch Black & White,” which were imported by Costas Mourtouvanis, based near Phaneromeni Church, in old Nicosia.Footnote 58 The cigarettes of the Westminster Tobacco Co., London, such as the Virginia cigarettes “Regent,” were imported by Costas Englezakis in Paphos, who also imported Turkish blends by Axton-Fisher Tobacco Co., Louisville, such as “Twenty-Grand.”Footnote 59 Camel cigarettes, a major international brand popular in Egypt, which blended Turkish and Virginia tobaccos, and pipe tobaccos, such as “Prince Albert,” were imported by Christodoulides Bros., which had offices opposite Phaneromeni.Footnote 60
The above were small players in an industry increasingly controlled by the international, multinational, cigarette companies. Two international companies emerged as the major stakeholders in Cyprus. The cigarettes of Carreras of London Ltd. were imported by Melik Melikian, who had a store called “Black Cat” (after the Carreras brand name) on Ledra Street, Nicosia, from 1922 (see Figure 4).Footnote 61 The year was no accident, since Carreras had launched the internationally popular Craven A in 1921, which established it as a major exporter of cigarettes, especially to the British Empire, and a major competitor of BAT, since by the 1930s it had captured 13 percent of the UK market.Footnote 62 BAT, through its subsidiary Ardath Tobacco Company, had Panayiotis M. Tseriotis, based in Nicosia, and a major importer representing over 20 international companies, including the carmakers Jaguar and Volkswagen, as its representative, importing popular BAT and Ardath brands such as Ardath Cork Tipped and State Express 333 and 555.Footnote 63 At this stage, however, neither Carreras nor BAT made cigarettes in Cyprus.
Figure 4. “Black Cat” Shop, Melik Melikian.
Source: Cyprus Mail, 20 November 1935.
A third major international company, Rothmans, was also on the scene. Rothmans did not begin to substantially export cigarettes to Cyprus until 1959, by which time it had merged with Carreras. It was a player in the Cypriot industry after acquiring the interests of the Cyprus Tobacco Company in 1940 and purchasing annually a substantial proportion of the Cypriot-grown tobacco, which it mixed with Virginia and Turkish tobacco to make various brands, including Kyprinos cigarettes.Footnote 64 For example, in 1944, Rothmans purchased 65,000lbs of Cypriot tobacco.Footnote 65
Tobacco Cultivation and Cigarette Manufacturing during World War II
With the outbreak of World War II and the ending of the monopoly in 1940, tobacco cultivation and cigarette production once again boomed. Although exports of tobacco leaf and imports of foreign cigarettes were limited owing to the lack of shipping, local cultivation increased. In 1942, the official tobacco crop was 300,480 okes. But owing to much of it not being declared, the true figure was between 400,000 and 500,000 okes. Although there was demand for Cypriot-grown tobacco from British companies, and 40,000 okes could be exported if shipping were available, the government wanted to reduce the crop for 1943 and 1944 to about 160,000 okes.Footnote 66 But despite the warnings to grow less, more was grown in 1943 than 1942, and 173,000 okes of “Yellow-leaf” was available for export, while the total declared crop was estimated at 423,000 okes. Thus, the government decided to reject applications to grow tobacco if applicants had not done so during the previous three years.Footnote 67 But this did not reduce the yield for 1944, which produced 200,000 okes for export.Footnote 68 From 1931-1935 the average quantity of locally grown tobacco leaf used annually by local manufacturers was only 4,300 okes, while the average annual quantity of imported leaf used was 169,300 okes. This shifted during the war. From 1941-1945 the average quantity of locally produced leaf used by Cypriot manufacturers was 180,000 okes, while the average quantity of imported leaf used was 65,000 okes.Footnote 69 This indicates a significant increase in local cigarette manufacturing, from around 173,000 okes from 1931-1935 to 245,000 okes from 1941-1945.
With the war resulting in an increased production and consumption of cigarettes and havoc with shipping, the colonial authorities introduced measures to force cigarette manufacturers to use a substantial proportion of local tobacco in their cigarettes. They did this by creating the “standard cigarette,” sold at lower prices than other cigarettes. It had to have 50 percent Cypriot tobacco in its blend and 75 percent of cigarette production at each factory had to be the “standard cigarette.” This was then purchased by the government and sold cheaply by sellers. Consumption and excise duties were frequently increased, and despite complaints from growers and manufacturers for different reasons, the British held firm since the industry had become lucrative, in fact revenues relied upon it as inflation was high.Footnote 70
By World War II, the industry was important for the local economy and employment and this only became more so after the war. Peasants and larger growers planted tobacco because it helped with soil regeneration on unirrigated land where cereals were grown in winter and because it provided additional income, despite the complaints from growers about the restrictions and what they believed were low fixed prices. By 1951 it was estimated that of the 3,000 growers half grew tobacco on an area of less than five donums (1.2 acres). Thousands of locals, primarily women, were employed by growers to plant, harvest, thread, hang, and cure the leaf, and by cigarette manufacturers because of the lower wages, especially those that continued to use old methods of manufacturing such as Ozkan and Tsolakides & Tzetzas, a small factory formed in Famagusta during the war.Footnote 71 In the 1946 census there were 324 people employed in the tobacco/cigarette industry, and of these 237 were women, mostly tobacco graders and separators.Footnote 72
The Industry after World War II
As a result of more tobacco being grown and the encouragement of the industry, the British attempted to improve the quality of the tobacco leaf and explore cultivating Virginia tobacco. The latter was globally the most sort after tobacco and the British now shifted from purchasing its stocks from the US to wanting to grow more in the British empire, with Rhodesia becoming its chief source.Footnote 73 It took three years of planning and funds under the Colonial Development and Welfare Act, for the government to appoint Geoffrey Corbett, who had built up the tobacco industry in Mauritius over 20 years there.Footnote 74 Corbett was initially negative about the quality of “Yellow-leaf,” but he thought it could be improved by growing other varieties and with better curing methods. He recommended abandoning the idea to grow Virginia tobacco because of the unfavorable climatic conditions and other factors.Footnote 75 Although some Virginia leaf was still grown, Corbett focused on improving the “Yellow-leaf,” which occurred.Footnote 76 The export of “Yellow-leaf” was high, especially to Finland and Egypt, which were markets developed during the war. Although the Director of Agriculture did not think investing too much in the industry was justified, the government persisted.Footnote 77 By the end of 1950, £5,290 had been spent on the program and about a further £3,000 was planned to be spent in 1951 and 1952. Although the experiments had improved the quality of the tobacco, without a Tobacco Marketing Board and Proctor Machine for processing the tobacco and producing moisture, growers could not fully gain from such improvement. Corbett was extended until mid-1952 to train a local, Hussein Nevzat, who also visited Turkey to take a tobacco course, to take over from Corbett.Footnote 78
The policies of the colonial government and Corbett’s recommendations were criticized by local manufacturers. In November 1949, Costis Damtsas, the director of Dianellos & Vergopoulos, a Greek national from Thessaly, stated that “tobacco growing in Cyprus is suffering a serious setback.” He gave two reasons. The first was the unrestricted importation of Virginia cigarettes, because it meant that Cypriot cigarette manufacturers had to reduce production and purchases of Cypriot-grown tobacco. He pointed out that it was a contradiction that the government was urging manufacturers to buy more Cypriot-grown tobacco and yet the same villagers who grew it preferred smoking imported Virginia cigarettes. The second factor was the restrictive government policies and the absence of commercial treaties to export Cypriot-grown tobacco and cigarettes.Footnote 79 The Cyprus Chamber of Commerce, however, endorsed the recommendations of Corbett to form a tobacco marketing board to purchase all locally grown leaf from registered members, which would then store, grade, and pack it, and sell it to merchants and manufacturers.Footnote 80 In March 1950 the Governor, Sir Andrew Wright, claimed that the devaluation of the Sterling offered better prospects for the Cypriot tobacco industry, provided that a marketing board and a tobacco station were established.Footnote 81
By 1953 only a tobacco station for testing varieties had been established.Footnote 82 Farid Houry, a former major grower, severely criticized Corbett’s efforts to develop the tobacco industry in Cyprus. Houry claimed that he had been partly responsible for the revitalization of the tobacco industry in Cyprus (referred to above as Houry Tobacco Company Ltd.), and could not agree that “Corbett had rendered a very useful service in Cyprus,” especially by publishing his report on “Yellow-leaf” in 1948. Houry was especially upset that Corbett had failed to mention the many years of pioneering work done on his Cherkez Chiftlik, where experts from Greece had assisted in improving the cultivation of “Yellow-leaf” and Latakia during the 1920s. This then led to BAT financing a scheme that allowed Houry to buy a farm in Kormakiti, Kyrenia, and another in Agios Sergios, Famagusta, and rent the Eleousa Farm in Rizokarpaso, which extended the cultivation of tobacco to all year round. This collapsed by the end of the 1930s as a result of the aforementioned monopoly, and cultivation ever since has been focused primarily on small cultivators in the Karpas. Houry rejected the idea that Virginia tobacco could not be grown in Cyprus, having successfully grown it from 1920-1926 at Cherkez. Houry also rejected Corbett’s ideas for a cooperative marketing association and a research station, because the market was too small and it would derail the growing interest of tobacco merchants and manufacturers in the UK and US, who were beginning to make serious purchases of Cypriot tobacco.Footnote 83
Despite the criticisms of Corbett, tobacco cultivation grew in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s. This was reflected in the land cultivated and the export statistics. In 1946, over 21,000 donums (one donum equaled one-third of an acre) of land were cultivated with tobacco in Cyprus, mostly in the Karpas, and produced 412 lbs. per acre of tobacco.Footnote 84 The average for the five years ending in 1949 was 348,000 okes, valued at £88,000, and of this, “Yellow-leaf” averaged 265,000 okes, valued at £73,000. During the first 10 months of 1950, 485,000 okes were already exported at £110,000, consisting of 379,000 okes of “Yellow-leaf” valued at £93,000. The US, which was the largest producer of tobacco, had risen to the third largest importer of Cypriot tobacco behind the UK and Egypt, mainly purchasing Latakia.Footnote 85 In 1951, tobacco was planted on an increased scale, and production was estimated at over 2 million lbs. (about 900,000 tons), with the US increasing its interest in Latakia.Footnote 86 By 1955, tobacco covered more than 5,000 acres of arable land in Cyprus, and tobacco excise was so important for the Cypriot economy, that from a total of £11.5 million in revenue, over £1.2 million was from tobacco excise.Footnote 87
After the war, the established cigarette manufacturers also flourished though only those that mechanized survived in the long term. In 1946 there were 19 managers and supervisors of tobacco factories and in 1947 there were seven factories manufacturing cigarettes from local and imported tobacco, producing on average 17.5 tons of cigarettes per month and in 1948 on average 22 tons of cigarettes per month, despite the factories reducing to six.Footnote 88 By 1950 they were producing 300 tons of cigarettes per year.Footnote 89 Four factories emerged as the major players, all having mechanized their operations, with the other smaller ones, which rolled cigarettes by hand, continuing to operate in the short term, except for Ozkan’s.Footnote 90 As in other places, where mechanization was seen as a tool to consolidate a new state’s political control over production and labor,Footnote 91 in Cyprus and other parts of the British Empire, mechanization was a means of imperial control of production and labor. Not only did local manufacturers that could not mechanize end up folding, but those that mechanized were forced to merge with the international multinationals to survive. So, whether intentional or not, the mechanization of the industry in Cyprus pushed local manufacturers into the arms of British multinationals.
In Larnaca, G.D. Dianellos & Son continued its production in the 1950s but closed its factory by the time Cyprus became independent, most likely because it could not partner with an international multinational like the others. It produced various brands, such as “Palmyra,” “Palmyra AA,” “Palmyra AAA,” “Samaritan,” “My Pal,” “Alexandra,” “Grace,” and “Mary” from imported Virginia and Greek tobaccos.Footnote 92 The owner, Demetrakis Dianellos, had been trapped in Volos, Greece, during the war, where he had helped many Greeks, Cypriots, and British forces escape Greece, resulting in his arrest by the Gestapo two times. Although, he had left the business in Cyprus in good hands, after he returned in November 1945, the factory declined, and in 1949, he closed it after a strike from his workers and left for London, where he died in 1950.Footnote 93 In January 1953, the factory reopened with a new board of directors, with Militiades Tzetzas as the managing director. It was announced that the new cigarette factory would be constructed in Larnaca costing £6,000, which became operational in 1955 with £10,000 worth of new machinery.Footnote 94 Then, in February 1956, a reporter from the Times of Cyprus visited the Dianellos factory and produced a feature on its history and future. It employed over 100 workers in its recently completed factory, which had the latest cigarette-making machinery. The company was one of the few that had a provident fund, in which workers put 5 percent of their wages into what would later become their pension, and workers had free medical care, were insured against industrial accidents, had one week of fully paid annual leave, and could go on excursions organized by the company.Footnote 95
In Limassol and Nicosia, the Taki Patiki Factory continued to manufacture cigarettes from imported tobacco, blended with locally grown “Yellow-leaf.” Although Patiki died in 1946 and there were complications with his estate, the company maintained its strong stake in the industry during the turbulent late 1950s by producing cigarettes in its Nicosia factory and selling its Limassol one.Footnote 96
Meanwhile, Dianellos & Vergopoulos in Nicosia also went from strength to strength. It made various brands blending imported and local tobacco, such as “Nicosia,” “Hilarion,” “Hilarion A,” “Nicosia A,” “Bellapais A,” “Troodos A,” “Alpha,” “Golden Leaf,” “Dream,” and “Lucky Dream.”Footnote 97 In June 1956, the Cyprus Mail reported on the new factory on the outskirts of Nicosia. It featured Costas Haji Stylianou, who had started rolling cigarettes by hand 58 years ago and was now presiding over the machine manufacture of cigarettes in the Dianellos & Vergopoulos factory. The company used imported tobacco from the US, Turkey, and Rhodesia, along with local tobacco grown in the Karpas Peninsula. The article described the blending of Virginia, Turkish (i.e., “Yellow-leaf”), and Cypriot (Latakia) into various brands of cigarettes. It detailed how automation had transformed the industry in Cyprus. It also discussed the work of the packing department under Demetris Demetriades, who had been with the company for 55 years, and Loizos Panos, who was visually impaired, yet could perfectly fold a cigarette packet in seconds.Footnote 98 Not to be outdone, the Times of Cyprus featured Dianellos & Vergopoulos in June 1957. The article revealed that the factory employed over 100 workers, mostly women, who were paid almost half as much as the men, and with its modern machinery, the factory produced 800,000 cigarettes daily. All workers were on a five-day, eight-hour weekly schedule, with half a day on Saturday, and were entitled to free medical care and other benefits, including access to the canteen, which provided cheap, hot, and cold meals.Footnote 99
Despite the strength of at least three local cigarette manufacturers into 1950, that is, G.D. Dianellos, Taki Patiki, and Dianellos & Vergopoulos, BAT-Ardath built and opened its factory in Nicosia in 1951 to manufacture cigarettes. BAT cigarettes, including the popular Ardath brands, continued to be imported to Cyprus by Tseriotis.Footnote 100 In 1951, after purchasing land near Atatürk Square in Nicosia, BAT built a large factory under its Ardath brand (See Figure 5) where it manufactured various brands of cigarettes, such as Savoy and its flagship brands, State Express 333 and 555.Footnote 101 This made Cyprus very important for BAT, shown by the fact that it had its own department and was the only country to do so, with other departments consisting of continents or groups of countries.Footnote 102 While BAT, through Ardath, was now producing cigarettes in Cyprus, Tseriotis continued to import various brands of BAT-Ardath cigarettes and in 1957 expanded its sales offices in Nicosia, by opening a large store on Leonidas Street, while maintaining the one on Phaneromeni Street.Footnote 103 Therefore, BAT was the first of the international, multinational companies to unite its importer, Tseriotis, who became managing director of Ardath Cyprus, with cigarette manufacturing in Cyprus through its new factory.
Figure 5. “The Ardath Cigarette Factory.”
Source: Cyprus Pictorial, 24 January 1958.
The importance of the new factory was not lost on the Cyprus Mail, which had one of its reporters visit the factory in November 1955 and which featured a story titled “how cigarettes are made.” The Ardath factory, which was incorporated in Cyprus in February 1951, was one of the most modern cigarette factories in Cyprus and the region, and had generated almost 50 jobs for locals. The tobacco leaf was imported from the US, Rhodesia and India.Footnote 104 Company directors from London visited Cyprus, such as Bill Chalmers in November 1956, to meet with local directors and inspect the factory.Footnote 105
During the EOKA (National Organization of Cypriot Fighters) emergency (1955-1959), several cigarette factories were damaged in attacks. The Ardath factory was damaged by fire and was the scene of violence between Greek and Turkish Cypriots on several occasions. Firstly, on 18 April 1956, the military leader of EOKA, Colonel George Grivas, asked the Bishop of Kitium if he should execute Tseriotis, the managing director of Ardath Cyprus, for supporting a constitution for Cyprus, which ran counter to the demand by EOKA for enosis. Footnote 106 Tseriotis was not targeted for reasons that are unclear and the attacks on the factory came from Turkish Cypriot militants. Although the “inter-communal” violence is generally dated to mid-1958, there were serious incidents in 1956. Almost 270 people were arrested for breach of curfew restrictions from 23 to 27 April 1956 in connection with violence.Footnote 107 On 23 April extensive clashes occurred in Greek and Turkish Cypriot quarters of Nicosia, including when gunmen opened fire at the bonded warehouse of the Ardath Tobacco Factory, killing Djuffer Ferhat, a Turkish Cypriot timekeeper at the factory. Although on 28 April a Turkish Cypriot policeman, Mustafa Kiani, was charged, in revenge a Greek Cypriot policeman had been shot dead on 25 April and in the early hours of 27 April the Ardath factory was extensively damaged by fire, widely believed to have been started by a Turkish Cypriot mob, with damages estimated at over £120,000.Footnote 108 On 29 April, a further 23 Turkish Cypriots were arrested in connection with the violence, believed to be members of TMT (Türk Mukavemet Teşkilatı, translated to Turkish Resistance Organisation).Footnote 109 On 3 May, three Turkish Cypriot civilians and two auxiliary police were sentenced to prison for stealing thousands of packets of cigarettes from the Ardath warehouse during the ensuing chaos on 24 and 25 April.Footnote 110 The Ardath factory closed for 23 days, and there were limited supplies of locally made Ardath cigarettes, though plenty of imported Ardath brands were available.Footnote 111 It was again set alight on 27 January 1958 and on 11 June 1958, though the damage was not as extensive as in 1956.Footnote 112 Only days before the fire in January 1958, it featured in the Cyprus Pictorial on 24 January (Figure 5). The reporter and a photographer were given a tour by the factory’s manager, G.R. Plummer, and the article, with numerous photographs of the two-story building, focused on its mechanized efficiency. It also mentioned that the Ardath Company was incorporated in Cyprus and had British and Cypriot directors, employing 30 staff, and was able to increase its production to satisfy additional demand.Footnote 113 In August 1958, the Taki Patiki factory in Nicosia was also damaged in a fire. The reports attributed the blaze to Turkish Cypriots.Footnote 114 TMT likely targeted the Ardath factory because it employed many Turkish Cypriots, and it was trying to force Turkish Cypriots not to work for Greek Cypriot businesses. Meanwhile, the Patiki factory was probably targeted because it was supportive of EOKA.
Despite the flourishing of local cigarette manufacturers, the importation of foreign cigarettes remained an important part of the local industry. Many of the major cigarette manufacturers and other importers representing major tobacco companies imported cigarettes. J.P. Sheridan continued to import the popular Greek cigarettes, Papastratos, until 1956, when Panos Constantinides in Limassol took over.Footnote 115 There was also a market for small importers. For example, on 11 May 1946, the Cyprus Mail contained two smaller notices about the availability of imported cigarettes. C.M. Christoforides, an importer from Nicosia, had imported 2,500 packets of Du Maurier Cigarettes, which would be available for sale, and Tsikkinis & Piperies, who also manufactured cigarettes, had imported 83,000 Egyptian cigarettes “Gold Flake” to sell.Footnote 116 Another example was in 1946 and 1947 when Melikian, the agent for Carreras, and mayor from 1927-1947 of the Armenian Quarter (Karaman Zade Quarter) in Nicosia, imported large quantities of Cravan and Cravan A cigarettes, as well as Cravan Tobacco Mixture.Footnote 117
During the early postwar years, the colonial government favored the importers over the local cigarette manufacturers, thus favoring UK manufacturers over local ones. At the end of 1946, one noted cigarette manufacturer complained that output was about half the minimum required for economical operation and that staff were only being retained in the hope that the government would rectify the situation. He complained that import licenses were easily obtainable and that import duty was low compared with that on unmanufactured leaf imported by cigarette manufacturers. The Cypriot & Embros took up the issue, arguing that Cypriot-made cigarettes needed protection.Footnote 118 In 1948, the government increased the duty on every oke of locally manufactured tobacco, from 1.14s to 3.2s.8p, resulting in anger from cigarette manufacturers, who argued that the tax on local cigarettes was now higher in comparison to imported cigarettes.Footnote 119 By the end of 1948, the Governor, Lord Winster, acknowledged the problem, but excused it:
In Cyprus imports of cigarettes manufactured in the UK are permitted in quantities which satisfy the demand. In fact imports in this way have been and are very large and, although consumer preference is the root cause, the local cigarette-making industry, well established since before the war, has suffered severely as a consequence.Footnote 120
This encouraged BAT to combine importing cigarettes with manufacturing them in Cyprus by establishing the Ardath factory in an example of backward integration.
The directive from EOKA for Greek Cypriots to stop smoking foreign cigarettes, as part of a wider effort to damage British interests and coerce Greek Cypriots behind EOKA, impacted the sale (and by extension the importing) of popular foreign cigarettes.Footnote 121 EOKA ordered Greek Cypriots to only smoke Cypriot or Greek cigarettes, threatening the business of the importers.Footnote 122 A typical EOKA leaflet distributed in June 1958 directed Cypriots to “support the local tobacco industry and the Cypriot laborer by smoking cigarettes made of Cypriot tobacco” and to “brand the leftists … who ostentatiously smoke English cigarettes,” thus showing the emergent intracommunal conflict as EOKA wanted to keep the Cypriot communists out of politics.Footnote 123 While many Cypriots filled empty Cypriot or Greek cigarette packets with foreign, namely Virginia cigarettes, indicating their preference for these, this risked EOKA’s violent wrath.Footnote 124 This practically brought to a halt the importation of foreign-made cigarettes, with only the larger importers surviving. Tseriotis continued to import BAT cigarettes, but the business was focused more on manufacturing at the Ardath factory. It also gave a boost to local manufacturers, especially as they supported EOKA. For example, an EOKA leaflet distributed in April 1958 stated that “our good friends Dianellos & Vergopoulos” employed “law-abiding Cypriots” and had increased production by 30 percent to meet the new demand caused by the success of the boycott.Footnote 125 Then, in 1959, a new importer emerged, Garanis & Petrides. Taking the opportunity presented by the ending of hostilities after the signing of the Zurich-London Accords in February 1959,Footnote 126 and therefore the ending of EOKA’s “ban” on smoking foreign cigarettes, Stelios Garanis, an Athenian-born manufacturer of lime and crushed stone, and his partner Loukis Petrides, became the representatives of Rothmans in Cyprus. This meant that Rembrandt, having a controlling share in Rothmans since 1954, and Dunhill brands, which Rembrandt controlled, were also imported to Cyprus.Footnote 127 Garanis and Petrides entered the cigarette business the previous year when they joined the board of A.G. Patiki, which announced a refreshed business plan and that it would renovate and refit its Nicosia factory. This came after the merger between Carreras and Rothmans, though they continued to have separate operations, working as sister companies. Essentially, A.G. Patiki, Melik Melikian, and Garanis & Petrides also became sister companies, as the importers represented Carreras and Rothmans, while Patiki began to lay plans to start manufacturing Carreras cigarettes from 1961.Footnote 128 These moves were the response of these international, specifically UK, cigarette companies to the likely withdrawal of the UK from Cyprus, which was increasingly likely by the end of 1958 if not before.Footnote 129
After the signing of the Zurich-London Accords, which ended the “Cyprus Emergency,” the market was flooded with foreign-made Virginia cigarettes, which threatened to cripple the cigarette manufacturers. The larger one in danger was Dianellos in Larnaca, which did not survive into the period of the Republic.Footnote 130 There were also issues at Dianellos & Vergopoulos in 1959 when the company began to dismiss staff.Footnote 131 It was not until 1963 that Dianellos & Vergopoulos secured its future by merging with BAT-Ardath.
Smoking Prevalence during British Rule
When, in 1950, the first studies linking cigarette smoking and lung cancer made headlines, smoking in Cyprus was at high levels. Cigarette smoking was reported as being excessive by 1930 and only increased with the introduction of the “standard cigarette,” because it was sold cheaply. After the war, although the price of cigarettes rose, smoking increased, as it was ingrained within the social and cultural fabric of society. Additionally, with the increased involvement in Cyprus of major UK cigarette companies, the marketing increased and became more sophisticated, and with the linking with local companies, it acted as a local endorsement of the foreign brands imported or made in Cyprus.
During the interwar years, reports stated that smoking among adult males was above 50 percent. The report on rural life in Cyprus in 1930 by Brewster Surridge, at the time the District Commissioner of Larnaca and a longtime official in Cyprus,Footnote 132 found that at least 51 percent of both Greek and Turkish Cypriot adult males smoked and that “very few people smoke in moderation.”Footnote 133 This aligned with observations in EgyptFootnote 134 and meant that as far back as the interwar period, there was evidence that most Cypriot smokers were heavy smokers.
The popularity of cigarette smoking increased in the 1930s as more newspapers, usually every issue, had some advertising for at least one but usually many brands of foreign and local cigarettes. Advertising during the interwar period in newspapers was primitive, yet effective. Much of it revolved around convincing text. In 1934, Taki Patiki introduced a new English-style blend of Virginia cigarettes, which it argued were “a great success that would enthuse” smokers.Footnote 135 These companies not only advertised their cigarettes through regular ads but also sponsored prizes and gave donations to charities, among other things. In 1935, Dianellos & Vergopoulos sponsored a crossword prize in the Cyprus Mail with the weekly winner receiving a box of their choicest cigarettes.Footnote 136 Melikian made the Carreras brand Craven A the most popular brand in Cyprus. BAT followed with its Players and Ardath brands, especially State Express 333 and 555. Sales were propelled by various coupon schemes.Footnote 137 In 1936 Ardath had a campaign in the Cyprus Mail asking readers to “do a littler private research” on whether State Express 333 was the best cigarette, asking readers check the color of the tobacco and firmness of the packing to determine if it was the most mellow and best tasting cigarette (see Figure 6).Footnote 138
Figure 6. “Smokers do a little private research.”
Source: Cyprus Mail, 6 April 1936.
By the interwar years, cigarette smoking was central to Cypriot culture, especially masculine culture. This was reflected across all aspects of society. One newspaper, Εσπερινί (Evening), even had a small box with text beside its masthead calling all smokers to buy Camel cigarettes.Footnote 139 It was common to donate cigarettes for various occasions. At the wake held after a funeral, for example, such donations were announced in the newspapers. In March 1935, Kokos (diminutive for George) Peristianis offered cigarettes for those attending the wake of his late father.Footnote 140 In February 1940, the mother of Kokos Sotiriadi also provided cigarettes.Footnote 141 Cigarette companies often sponsored events and donated funds to various organizations, including charities. For example, in December 1939, Dianellos & Vergopoulos announced that it was donating £100 to the Central Fund for the Organisation of Community Welfare and £50 to the Trade Union fundraiser for unemployed workers.Footnote 142 Also in December 1939, A.G. Patiki donated £10 to the fund of the locum tenens Footnote 143 for the poor, another £10 to the Greek Red Cross, £30 for the Trade Union in Nicosia, and £5 each for the Trade Unions in Famagusta, Larnaca, Paphos, and Limassol.Footnote 144 Cigarette manufacturers often sponsored sporting events, such as A.G. Patiki, which sponsored APOEL Soccer Club, which was right wing.Footnote 145 George Poulias, of Dianellos & Vergopoulos, also had close links with APOEL, and in April 1936 gave a speech at an APOEL event on the history of tobacco.Footnote 146
The prevalence of smoking cigarettes in Cyprus increased even more during World War II. This was not unique to Cyprus, as the mobilization of armed forces led governments to provide cigarettes as part of their rations.Footnote 147 In the UK and its empire, the Overseas League of Tobacco Fund was formed in October 1939 to make cigarettes available for service personnel. By July 1940, it had raised £75,000 for the purchase of cigarettes, which had been distributed to the British Expeditionary Force in France, Norway, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands, and hospitals and POWs. Anthony Eden, who had just been appointed the Secretary of State for War by Churchill, believed that this was a “memorable achievement,” for which the forces were grateful, because there was “nothing more appreciated by men on active service in war time than a good supply of cigarettes.”Footnote 148 This applied in Cyprus, where thousands were enlisted into the armed forces, specifically the Cyprus Regiment.Footnote 149
At a local level, with the importation of the Macedonian leaf restricted, Cypriots transitioned to smoking cigarettes with Cypriot-grown tobacco, with only those willing to pay more being able to purchase cigarettes made locally from foreign tobacco held in stock. Toward the end of 1941, the Controller of Supplies, none other than Surridge, determined that cigarette manufacturers held 178,000 okes of imported Macedonian tobacco (Dianellos had 66,000 okes) and 90,000 okes (Dianellos held none) of locally grown tobacco, with a further 90,000 okes of locally grown tobacco held by growers. In total, 358,000 okes of tobacco were on the island, evenly divided between imported and locally grown. Surridge estimated that the annual consumption of cigarettes, excluding Virginia, was 200,000 okes.Footnote 150
This was the birth of the “standard cigarette.” Starting in 1943, the Cypriot government arranged with the cigarette manufacturers that they deliver 75 percent of their production in standard cigarettes. The “standard cigarette” was sold at a low cost and was easily obtainable, since it was sold in government retail shops and cooperatives. The government purchased the packets of 40 weighing 10 drams for 8.7 ½, and sold them at 1/- per 10 drams, leaving an estimated profit to the government of £2,400 a month. It was a compromise on quality, as had been the case in Egyptian market during a similar period, with the different being that in Cyprus there was little option, since the 25 percent of free production that allowed manufacturers to produce more expensive cigarettes with foreign tobacco was aimed at those who could afford them, which was mostly the more affluent.Footnote 151
After the war, there was an increased availability of imported cigarettes on the market. These were relatively cheap, since they had little tax, and were preferred to the “standard cigarette,” the production of which slumped. Thus, the reasons for producing the standard cigarette no longer existed, so it was stopped at the end of 1945.Footnote 152 Nevertheless, the government negotiated with cigarette manufacturers for all locally produced cigarettes to contain 30 percent Cypriot tobacco in all blends.Footnote 153
In addition to the cheap imported cigarettes, those in the British army had access to cigarettes at NAAFI stores. Even those not in the Cyprus Regiment could obtain these cheap cigarettes and were available on the black market, including when large amounts were stolen, such as when Georgios Constantinos Orphanos was found guilty in December 1945 of stealing 165 packets and fined £15, and in 1947 when 6,000 packets were stolen from a military store in Nicosia.Footnote 154
During the postwar period, the Cypriots were smoking a staggering amount of cigarettes. In 1949, it was estimated that 18,000 okes of cigarettes were consumed in Cyprus per month, with 14,000 of these being English cigarettes, and the rest locally made Oriental (Greek and Turkish) cigarettes.Footnote 155 Although official statistics are limited, it is indicative that Dianellos, the fourth-largest cigarette manufacturer in 1955 following Ardath, Dianellos & Vergopoulos, and Patiki, claimed to have sold over 150,000 packets of cigarettes in 1955.Footnote 156 The article featuring Dianellos & Vergopoulos in 1956 revealed that thanks to the addiction of Cypriots to cigarettes, the cigarette manufacturing industry in Cyprus was worth over £1 million, and therefore, as with elsewhere across the world, the smoking habit was a “delight” to the treasury department.Footnote 157 The article featuring the Ardath factory in 1956 stated that millions throughout the world were at that moment smoking cigarettes, that one in four people smoked cigarettes, but in Cyprus, it was at least one in three.Footnote 158
Even more so than the prewar period, advertising played a pivotal role in capturing smokers, especially new smokers, from an early age. There were more newspapers and better advertising strategies, with ads featuring in almost every newspaper in every issue for various cigarette brands. Dianellos attempted to entice smokers and new smokers by stating that it imported the best Virginia and Greek tobaccos, and that Columbus had seen natives smoking cigars back in 1402 (see Figure 7).Footnote 159 The larger cigarette manufacturers, with links to international tobacco, had a greater capacity to advertise and reward their smokers. For example, in 1956, soon after the Ardath Factory was attacked, Tseriotis offered a new Volkswagen saloon (he represented Volkswagen in Cyprus) as the first prize for the “Silver Moon” Football Competition No. 5, which smokers purchasing “State Express 555” or “Silver Moon” cigarette packets were eligible to enter (see Figure 8).Footnote 160 Meanwhile, A.G. Patiki was constantly bringing out new brands to capture some market share, and was advantaged during the EOKA period by emphasizing that it used Cypriot- and Greek-grown tobacco in its cigarettes, which included new brands “Astra” and “Kypros” in 1958, along with older brands “Pindos” and “Pindos Special Fellow.”Footnote 161
Figure 7. “Tobacco,” Dianellos advertisement.
Source: Cyprus Mail, 4 November 1953, 3.
Figure 8. Silver Moon Football Competition, Tseriotis.
Source: Cyprus Mail, 1 September 1956.
Along with the advertisements and prizes for smokers, articles featured in the newspapers on the cigarette factories kept the focus on how the cigarette was not only a central part of Cypriot industries but also society. The feature article on the Dianellos factory in Larnaca in 1956 revealed that it was just about to launch a new brand.Footnote 162 In the feature on Dianellos & Vergopoulos in June 1957, the managing director, George Poulia, announced that the company would introduce its own “king size” filter-tipped brand, which had taken the world of cigarette smoking by storm. Although the consumption of locally produced cigarettes had fallen in 1956, the number of women who had taken up smoking had increased, and Poulia estimated that 30 percent of women, especially those living in towns, now smoked. He recommended their “Hellas” brand, which he smoked, and was also the choice of Archbishop Makarios, who was practically a chain-smoker away from the public gaze.Footnote 163
The role of cigarette manufacturers in society only increased in the postwar period, as society expanded its civic activities. Sport, especially football clubs, continued to be sponsored by cigarette manufacturers, with A.G. Patiki sponsoring APOEL and football in general, with prizes and awards, as well as athletics events.Footnote 164 Meanwhile, Dianellos in Larnaca built an orphanage in 1955, which contained a training school. After lobbying the government, it was exempt from tax, including on the dividends from the shares owned in the tobacco factory.Footnote 165 Both G.D. Dianellos and Dianellos & Vergopoulos indirectly donated funds to EOKA when, in 1957, Dianellos donated £1,000 to the Larnaca Committee for the Rehabilitation of Released Detainees and in the following year, Dianellos & Vergopoulos matched the donation for the equivalent committee in Nicosia.Footnote 166 Then, in May 1958, Dianellos announced that it would donate £6,000 to the construction of the new Larnaca Gymnasium, which would be built on land donated by the St George Monastery.Footnote 167 By aligning their products with popular social and cultural events, these companies normalized smoking within social and cultural contexts and popularized their brands, despite the known dangers to one’s health from smoking.
Antismoking Messages After 1950
While the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer, first made in 1950, was questioned by the cigarette companies, by the mid-1950s most medical authorities and some governments, including in the UK, had accepted it and warned cigarette smokers of these dangers. In Cyprus, there were practically no antismoking messages, despite being a British colony, and there was only a limited reporting in the newspapers of the medical findings and debates in the UK linking cigarette smoking to lung cancer. Additionally, as with the debates in the UK, the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer was always questioned in the Cypriot press.
Before 1950, there were hardly any warnings about the dangers of cigarette smoking in Cyprus. During the interwar years, there was also an unprecedented consumption of cigarettes in Bulgaria, but unlike in Cyprus, in Bulgaria, a strong abstinence movement developed.Footnote 168 One rare article published in the Cyprus Mail in 1936, titled “Smoking is Poisonous!,” referred to an American study which found that the fumes from cigarette smoking were as poisonous as those from a petrol engine. A group of workers was put into an unventilated room and made to smoke cigarettes, finding that they had absorbed as much of the poison as one might in the busiest of city streets and that the presence of carbon dioxide was traced in the room’s atmosphere.Footnote 169 Another article from earlier in 1936 discussed the increasing rate of smoking among women in the UK. The story focused on how milder tobacco, such as the varieties grown in Cyprus, contained less nicotine and were less strong than other tobacco, and that cigarettes with Cypriot tobacco should be encouraged for women and men alike because of its mild and delicate properties.Footnote 170 The allusion to milder cigarettes being healthier indicates some early consciousness that harsher cigarettes containing more nicotine might be harmful.
Throughout the 1950s, the primary mention of cigarettes in the newspapers was the advertising, followed by summaries of foreign, primarily UK, reporting of medical reports linking cigarette smoking with lung cancer, though often also pointing to the doubts over the link. The first article to discuss the links between cigarette smoking and lung cancer appeared in August 1951, summarizing a debate in the House of Commons where the Secretary of State for Health, Hilary Marquand, announced the Medical Committee (formed in 1948) would run the British Doctors’ Study to investigate further the suggested link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer because the statistics showed a massive increase in lung cancer related deaths from 1940. In that year, 2,121 men and 694 women had died from lung cancer, but in 1949, it had increased to 3,720 and 807, respectively. The article discussed the findings of Professor Doll, who argued that the primary increase in lung cancer-related deaths was cigarette smoking, adding that pipe smoking was not as dangerous. The dangers of cigarette smoking, however, were contradicted by the secretary of the Tobacco Workers’ Union, Percy Belcher, who claimed that there was no evidence to support any link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer.Footnote 171 Then, in February 1952, another Greek-language newspaper summarized a story in the Sunday Pictorial that most British doctors now believed that cigarette smoking increased the risk of developing lung cancer, especially if one smoked more than 25 cigarettes a day, while smoking a pipe was not considered a danger.Footnote 172
Two years later, an article appeared on the front page of the English-language Cyprus Mail titled “Smoking and Cancer: They’re connected says Medical Committee and warns youth.” Immediately below the title appeared a subtitle, “Tobacco Companies Assert No Proof.” The article started by saying that the British government agreed with the Medical Committee’s report, which was the preliminary report of the committee announced by Marquand in 1951, that there was a relationship between lung cancer and cigarette smoking. The Medical Committee, consisting of 20 people, warned that excessive smoking of cigarettes was linked to lung cancer and that youth should be warned about this. Iain MacLeod, the Health Minister, while smoking three cigarettes during his 45-minute press conference, accepted the committee’s view, but added that since nonsmokers also contracted lung cancer, there were also other causes and that no substance in cigarette tobacco had yet been found to cause cancer. Sir Harold Himsworth, secretary of the Medical Research Council, stated that smoking five or more cigarettes a day increases the chances of contracting lung cancer, for which there was no cure. Major UK tobacco companies contradicted the findings, saying that “there is no proof that smoking is a cause of lung cancer” and would provide £250,000 to research the issue. The article ended by stating that since 1919, the prevalence of lung cancer had significantly increased.Footnote 173
Articles on smoking were scarce from 1955. Most articles discussing the dangers of smoking also discussed the lack of evidence or denials from cigarette companies in the same or adjacent articles, while the Cypriot newspapers published articles on ideas to alleviate harm from smoking. In 1956, an article claimed that a new vitamin, “BB,” would remove nicotine from the body and therefore make it safe to smoke cigarettes.Footnote 174 In July 1958, an article claimed that French scientists had developed a filter that could reduce the cancerous elements in a cigarette by 70 percent.Footnote 175 Articles in January 1957 and April 1959 claimed that cigarette smoking in moderation was good for calming one’s nerves and regulating one’s brain function, and that lung cancer only impacted a small number of heavy smokers.Footnote 176 In February 1957, articles discussed the global increase in smoking, while in March, an article revealed the high smoking rates in the UK among 11-14-year-old boys.Footnote 177 None of these articles discussed the incidence of smoking in Cyprus. It seemed, as with the cartoon in the Cyprus Mining Corporation Welfare News on 10 April 1959, that Cypriots would smoke their last cigarette only when they died, since there was no discussion about controlling the habit (see Figure 9).
Figure 9. “H’M! Looks Like it’s my Last Cigarette.”
Source: Cyprus Mining Corporation Welfare News, 10 April 1959.
Conclusion
During the last four decades of British colonial rule of Cyprus, the “big” tobacco companies slowly increased their stake in and penetration of the cigarette industry, across cultivation and purchase of the leaf, to importation and finally cigarette manufacturing in the island. Correspondingly, the prevalence of smoking among Cypriots increased during this period. This occurred while the world was growing more aware of the dangers of smoking after the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer had been made in 1950. While in the UK during the 1950s, there were reports and debates on, and finally government acknowledgement of, the dangers of cigarette smoking, in Cyprus, there were no debates or government action. Instead, the colonial government encouraged the industry and cigarette smokers, happily collecting the various taxes associated with the industry.
By the 1950s, two “big” multinational cigarette companies were increasingly coming to dominate the cigarette industry in Cyprus. Although they did not establish their paramountcy until the 1960s, in the first decade of the Cypriot Republic, that road to paramountcy was paved in the 1950s. In an interesting and different case to Egypt of prosumption, both BAT-Ardath and Carreras started importing substantial volumes of cigarettes to Cyprus in the 1920s through local agents and held a large share of the market with popular brands such as State Express brands and Carven “A.” In 1951, BAT became the first international player to establish a factory, the Ardath Tobacco Factory, in Nicosia, thus significantly increasing its stake in the Cypriot market by entering a new production phase. By 1958, Carreras, which had merged with Rothmans, increased its footprint through a cooperation with a local cigarette manufacturer, Taki Patiki, increasing its importation of cigarettes and laying the foundations for the Taki Patiki Factory to manufacture Carreras cigarettes from 1961, a year into Cypriot independence. Rothmans would join this arrangement by the end of the 1960s. Meanwhile, not to be outdone, BAT-Ardath merged with Dianellos & Vergopoulos in 1963, creating a powerful rival to the Carreras-Rothmans and Taki Patiki partnership. Thus, an unusual duopoly was formed in Cyprus between these two “big” multinational cigarette manufacturers and local partners in the 1960s, for which the groundwork had been laid in the 1950s, with the origins dating back to the 1920s. Thus, in the case of the cigarette industry, prosumption as glocalization occurred in Cyprus, but differently from its closest market in Egypt.
It was evident by the 1930s that cigarette smoking was prevalent in Cyprus, and this only increased in the last decades of British rule. From the early 1920s, cigarettes were cheap and plentiful, since there was a large local manufacturing industry and significant importation of foreign cigarettes, especially from BAT and Carreras. A significant impetus was during World War II, when the government ensured that those serving in the armed forces were furnished with cigarettes, and the “standard cigarette” was issued at a low cost. The industry continued to flourish after the war, despite the known dangers of cigarette smoking by the 1950s. Although developments in medical science were reported in the newspapers, they never led to any public discussion or any government action to warn against cigarette smoking. Smoking cigarettes was ingrained into the Cypriot culture, especially masculine culture, from a young age, as sons followed fathers into the habit. This explains the continued high incidence of smoking among Cypriots even today, especially among teenagers and young adults.Footnote 178 This is made clear by the fact that there was no Cypriot anticancer society until 1971, over a decade after independence, which was late by comparison to other commonwealth states, and no antismoking society until 1980, when the first antismoking legislation was passed.
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