by Nikitas » Tue Jan 19, 2010 1:28 pm
Re the searches by Johnnies and their polite incompetence, I do not deny Bir's experience, but I must assert my own.
When our houses were searched all toy pistols were broken. The law at that time forbade the possession of even toy handguns and on returning to Limassol from Beirut all children on the ship had to surrender their toy pistols to a ginger haired army captain who broke them to bits on Limassol pier.
As for politeness, we experienced none of that. Searches were sweeping and involved the turning over of beds, emptying of sideboards and in some cases the digging up of floors. This happened to our house in Famagusta, 28th of October street, where they dug up the backyard. It seems that there were different standards applied to the two communities, which also explains why GCs were executed for the possession of arms but no TCs were sentenced for such offences.
Everyone suffers after effects from such experiences. My reaction was to learn how to make guns so no schmuck would ever disarm me. It certainly helped my career prospects!