CYPRUS
SIR,—After Lord Stanley of Alderley's evasive reply to my argument about h plebiscite in Cyprus, I feel obliged to ask once more for hospitality in your columns.
1. Lord Stanley insists that he has evidence of threatened excommunication by the Church of Cyprus of non-supporters of enosis, which he would not disclose out of respect for the safety of his informants. But I am afraid this amounts to having no evidence at all. And I insist that there is no evidence to that effect. The Church does not use unholy methods, but the British Government does.' Let me quote an instance. At the time of the plebiscite in 1950 the Government of Cyprus issued warn- ings to all civil servants telling them that if they voted for enosis they would be dismissed from their office. Not to speak of all those repressive laws and measures, even before the present disturbances started.
2. But my point in my previous letter was
that if we suppose and accept it as a fact that Lord Stanley is right, namely that there is the possibility of excommunication on the part of the Church on the one hand and the danger of EOKA on the other precluding the certain determination of the true wishes of the Cypriots, would not a secret referendum be the ideal means of ascertaining these wishes? And I suggested that the plebiscite be conducted by the British Government—being sure that they would hold it in all fairness—in which case there would be no opportunity for excommunk cation and no ground for EOKA to act.
3. Lord Stanley made a new point in asking me when the Archbishop or the Bishop of Kyrenia last mentioned the name of the Almighty in a sermon. My reply is they both always mention the Almighty in their sermons. but they always go on to say that all human beings are born to be free and equal and that the Almighty has given all the same rights, among which is the right to determine their own future. Anyone who suggests that Christi- anity and the ideals of liberty and self-deter- mination are incompatible, does not possess and is not aware of the basic principles of this religion.
4. Lord Stanley accuses the Greek Church of
having political ambitions. But, for example, how, can yoU say that Archbishop Makarios has political ambitions when in the case of enosis being achieved he would cease to be the Ethnarch (National Leader) and would become just another Greek Archbishop,
5. Finally, I would, with all due respect, ask
I.ord Stanley to study very carefully the two splendid articles entitled 'Friends Apart,' writ- ten by Mr. Patrick Leigh Fermor, which appeared in the two last issues of the Spectator. —Yours faithfully,
SPYROS A. KYPR1ANOS London Secretary, Ethnarchy of Cyprus London, W9
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