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Britain's systems of imperial administration provided ample opportunity for self-seeking individuals to exploit. I argue that the career of Rupert Gunnis (1899–1965) in colonial Cyprus is one such case, in which even local laws were transgressed with impunity. His initial position as Aide-de-Camp to the Governor, Sir Ronald Storrs (1926–1932), established him as an influential member of the small British colonial community, affording him a power that he continued to exert as Inspector of Antiquities and informal adviser to the authoritarian Governor Richmond Palmer (1933–1939). Neither Storrs nor Palmer intervened to curb Gunnis's suspected activity in breach of local laws against the export of antiquities and against homosexual behaviour. The two probable offences were linked through the close relations that he developed with the island's Police force. Gunnis's high social standing in Cyprus and in Britain, achieved through assiduous networking, suffered after his falling-out with Palmer. In revenge, he challenged the Governor's position by participating in the nascent Cypriot movement in favour of a return to constitutional government. Gunnis's escape from Cyprus to avoid arrest brought an end to this unprecedented challenge to a Governor from one who had successfully manipulated the system to his own ends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The short documentary Air Outpost is one of three films commissioned from Strand Films by Imperial Airways in 1936-37 and produced by Paul Rotha. It focused on one overnight stop on the airline’s India service: the airfield and town of Sharjah in the Trucial States (now the United Arab Emirates). British policy in the Gulf carefully controlled access to the Trucial States by Westerners, so the release of a documentary about this region was unprecedented. Rotha’s published and unpublished writings are used to argue that he selected Sharjah for its exotic appeal as a result of his own visit there in 1932 while shooting Contact, also for Imperial Airways. For a film commissioned by an airline for marketing purposes, Air Outpost shows almost nothing of the passenger experience. Rather than this having been Rotha’s deliberate omission, it is argued that it resulted from practical difficulties encountered during filming. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]