CYPRUS SIR,—When are the British authorities going to learn some
sense? Today's BBC news broad- cast announced in shocked tones the partici- pation of teenaged boys and girls in EOKA activities.
What will be the result?—a thrill of pride and admiration among Greeks and Cypriots throughout the world for so determined an opposition to colonial oppression. Anyone who has met in later years Irishwomen knows with what animation and satisfaction they describe the part they played as young girls in the Rebellion.
This statement of fact does not imply that one approves of such activities. The terms 'approve' and 'disapprove' are as inappropriate as applied to them as they are to, say, earth- quakes. Given certain stresses and strains in structure, they just have to be accepted as inevitable.
In political stresses and strains, however; one would have thought that by now statesmen should be able to avoid by anticipation such situations or at least their worst consequences.
In Cyprus the British authorities have had an abundance of time to provide the Cypriots with a constitution that was not an insult, with the result that by now the islanders could have had some form of political integration with Greece in accordance with the expressed wishes of great British statesmen and been a happy NATO base—instead of being one of convenience to a government steeped in the `gun-boat' traditions of over two generations ago.
Instead of which the British authorities seem to be endowed with an unerring instinct for inciting national animosity and 'stirring the waters' for Communist fishermen.
The revelation of the participation of teen- agers in EOKA activities is the measure of the depth of the 'bankruptcy of British policy in Cyprus' (to quote your late Cyprus corrc-
spondent's fitting epitaph) and its latest con- tribution to the Crown Jewels—and to humanity's 'crown of thorns.' — Yours faithfully,
R. BRENNAR 'THOMPSON
Athens Representative (Australian) Committee for Cypriot Self-Determination 19 Kolonaki Square, Athens
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