Letters to the Editor
Cyprus Derek Chadleigh
Progresshe Reacti(marks
Dr. Donald Ale/. Johnson, MP
Premium Bonds Dr. E. Benson Perkins lnigo Jones . Alan Hodge Divorce and After Rev, Victor H. Beaton L. J. Blcnn-Cooper Who Wrote Shakespeare? R. A. L.-Hartman
Passehenduele . General Sir Douglas Baird Nationalism in Rmsia I. E. M. Arden
Mansfield Park Mary Moorman, Margaret W. Oram Rome and the .Saracens Michael Swan A Penny for the Guy Gerald Hamilton Standards for Consumers M. Carey CYPRUS
SIR,—Comment on the Cyprus question published in recent editions of your journal will no doubt have been of some interest to your readers, but I would like to have the opportunity of correaing some mis-
representations contained in these comments. - Your correspondent states that the Greek Cypriots have maintained their boycott of official contact with the Administration and he adds that no Greek is allowed in the highest reaches of the Administration. It seems that he has overlooked the fact that in the Cyprus Government there are three Greek Cypriot Heads of Departments, twelve Deputy or Assistant Directors of Departments and that in the cadre of 4dministrative Officers Class I and 2 of an estab- lishment of twenty-eight, fourteen are Greek Cypriots. I feel I need hardly remind you that one of the highest of Government posts, that of Commissioner in London, is held by- a Greek Cypriot. The Commissioner of the town of Larnaca in Cyprus is also a Greek Cypriot. I do not •think that it is generally realised in this country that the great majority of the civil servants in Cyprus are Greek Cypriots and that they also occupy a large number of the senior positions in the Police Force.
Your correspondent also states that the British tax- payer is faced with paying the bill for 25,000 British troops in Cyprus and infers that these troops are there solely in the interests of internal security. In fact, by far the greater number of the British forces in Cyprus are stationed there for the needs of Middle East security as a whole and are manning the bases which have been constructed for that purpose.
1 would also like to point out that, while your correspondent complains of the annoyance of the routine checks and searches conducted by that portion of the security forces concerned with internal security, he also admits the fact that the EOKA leader is still at large and that inflammatory leaflets threatening a resumption of hostilities are being 'churned out.' Under such circumstances, it is surely the duty of the security forces to take all necessary precautions to maintain law and order.—Yours
Public Relations .Officer Government of Cyprus, London Office, 15 Victoria Street, SW I [It is a pity that Mr. Chudleigh does not go into more detail about the three Heads of Departments who are Greek Cypriots. The only senior Greek Cypriots in the present Administration are the Official Referee in Bankruptcy and the Government Printer; the third, the Attorney-General, has been kept in London for over a year while his place has been filled by an Englishman. It is not denied that many of the lower ranks of the civil servjce are Greek; the failure of the Administration to give them posts of respon- sibility was the whole point of the article.
To suggest that the majority of the 25,000 troops stationed in Cyprus are 'there for the needs of the Middle East' runs counter to every qualified military opinion. The Cyprus correspondent of the Daily Telegrnph, writing of the Oman operation, said that it was only with difficulty that one brigade was de- tached from security duties to serve asa mobile reserve for the Middle East.
As for the checks imposed, it is not their existence which was criticised, but their inefficiency. It would be far better to employ a few Officers who spoke Greek instead of dozens of ieeps manned by soldiers and air- men. who have not the least idea whether the answers to their questions are true or false.—Editor. Spectator.]
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