Independence day through the colonial eye: A view from the British archive

The confidential report of the Acting United Kingdom Representative in Cyprus, Ian F. Porter, to the British Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations from September 1960s gives a detailed account of the actual events on Independence Day. Discovered in the British archives² and reproduced at the end of this Special Issue, this document is of high historical value for the history and historiography of Cyprus. For a better understanding of the document the account of Independence Day in Cyprus is put into its wider historical setting and located within the context of other independence days within the British Empire.