THE CYPRUS BASES SIR,—Your editorial comment on the Cyprus bases
is particularly pertinent in view of their constitutional status. Our right to these bases forms an integral part of the treaty of guarantee between the United Kingdom, Greece, Turkey and the Republic of Cyprus, which treaty is itself entrenched in the new Republic's Basic Structure agreed on at airich.
This basic structure has twenty-seven articles, all of which, according to the terms of reference of the Joint Commission now sitting in Nicosia, must be incorporated in substance in the draft constitution. Yet—and here is the really significant point—there is no provision anywhere in the basic structure for their modification or amendment. It follows, there- fore, that our right to bases in Cyprus is an unalter- able part of the Republic's Constitution.
It also follows that it is legally impossible for the British Government ever to give up these bases without running the risk of precipitating a constitu- tional crisis in Cyprus, a situation which could well be a permanent obstacle to their evacuation irrespec- tive of strategic considerations.
Two basic questions would seem to arise from all this. First, is it wise in these days of rapid change to give a permanent legal validity to any matter of foreign or defence policy? Secondly, does the British Government fully realise all that is involved in according this dubious privilege to our bases in Cyprus?—Yours faithfully,
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