Letters to the Editor
Cyprus
The German Ambassador The Liberals and Suez Identifying the Prisoner G. L. Stampa
'Murder'
Priestley and Pinfold Ric hard Passports
The Last Trump Cri de Crevecceur Manalive 'Axed' Beckett Country R.BThompson Geoffrey Barradough Mark Bonham Carter G. W. R. Thomson R. G. G. Price Hans Keller Adams, James Brennan L. J. Blom-Cooper Major R. Lane Neve, Beck and Co. Anne-Marie Crevecwitr Christopher Dawson N. S. Holmes Gerard Keenan
CYPRUS
Sta,---The Foreign Secretary has gone off to the UN General Assembly armed with a complete answer to any appeal to that body to help the cause of Cypriot self-determination—the Radcliffe Plan, discussions between Greece, Turkey, QB and Cypriot leaders. It would seem to be qttite fool-proof, but it does not 4,?°1•anyone; for there can never be agreement between Greece and Turkey nor between Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot leaders—and GB stays put to keep the 'Peace.' The Radcliffe Plan has already, been rejected by one party.
The question arises whether the UN is really the Piae e to take this vexed matter, in spite of the fact that Resolution 545 of February, 1952, declares, 'All
The shall have the right of self-determination.' ' he UN should only come in if Britain withdrew and Greece and Turkey decided to fight it out. I am writing to you to advocate, with your help, an approach to the problem that has to the best of my knowledge not yet been taken up. I am not a victim of the Socialist obsession with the UN, and its 'bug'-ridden Charter. I prefer to base the problem hat more concrete and practical and one 'not has the advantage of taking the 'sting out of the word "scuttle." ' Cyprus was duly and according to international leave legally annexed. The inhabitants who did not 'e-tve after the appropriate period' became British subjects. if we are to believe their leaders the majority of them do not wish to remain British subjects. This raises the question—is not the very conception of a compulsory' British subject a contradiction in terms and on that is at variance with the whole trend of British political traditions?
tahllHow, 'Government; then, can any British Government, least of
those British subjects their rights as British subjects namely political freedom? As things stand we have Cypriot like Colonel Nasser who is supporting the .-rPriot case claiming for British subjects what the British Government is denying them. What a tragi- comic situation!
GMy approach, I realise, means declaring both Greeceand Turkey 'off-side' in this matter, because it is one that concerns only British subjects through- out the Commonwealth, and I believe the political foundations of the British Commonwealth with re- gard to Political liberty are built on firmer founda- tions than is the UN, which contains as members such countries as the USSR! Hoping you will be willing to find space for
ventilating this point of view, which so far as 1 know is quite original and is not contradicted by anything expressed in so heart-rending a book as Bitter
Lemons.—Yours faithfully, R. B. THOMPSON 19 Kolonaki Square, Athens
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