ENOSIS
SIR,—I wonder whether Sir Compton Mac- kenzie has any personal and up-to-date know- ledge of Cyprus and the Cypriot attitude toward Enosis ? There might be something to be said for his appeal if we could be sure that the whole of the Greek-speaking Cypriots really desired union with Greece. But do they ?
The two main factions who noisily clamour for Enosis are the Greek Orthodox Church in Cyprus and the strong, well-organised Com- munist party. School teachers are evidently being influenced by one or the other group, with the result that the only unfriendliness have come across in this lovely island, with its hospitable charming people, has been in the older school children. - The Church bases the universality of the desire for Enosis on the results of a ballot it holds from time time. But (I am told by Cypriots and thus cannot personally vouch for it) this ballot is not a secret ono, and such is the pressure the Church can put on its members that they dare not vote other than as desired. They would not only risk excom- munication, but pressure would be brought on their employers so that they would lose their jobs, and their children would be driven out of the schools. These fears are no doubt exaggerated, but they are very real.
The more educated Cypriots also realise that were Cyprus no longer part of the British Empire, their young men would no longer be able to take up employment in England, Aus- tralia and Africa, as so many do at present. Also many have learnt that the people of Rhodes are beginning to realise that -condi- tions in that island were more prosperous under pre-war Italian rule, and even regret. the change.
So, before we listen to talk of the universal wish for Enosis, let the Church hold a ballot which is a really secure one. The peasants, of course, would still vote as their priests advised them. But to the 100,000 Turkish minority vote against, Enosis there might well be added a surprising number of Greek- Cypriot votes.
Until recently, the question of Enosis has caused little reaction in Greece itself. Such feeling as there now is has been deliberately worked up by the machinations of Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus. The editor of an Athens paper recently had the courage to say what many Greeks and Cypriots arc no doubt thinking: that it would be more seemly if the archbishop were to attend to his religious duties rather than meddle in politics.
As a philhellene, I would suggest that Britain should show her friendliness and admiration for Greece by ceding to her, not Cyprus, but the Elgin Marbles.—Yours faith-
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