Greek Cypriot boy of fifteen was last s . " sentenced to
ten years in prison for the 01 possessing a home-made bomb. He wits
r_ informed by his judge that, had he been
Al months older, he would have received ihe
house sentence. Recently. live miles from
louse where I am writing, a similarly tin- Plea .ant child or that age attempted to murder. lie robbed, an old woman who lives alone. ma vas bound over. The older boy who was I b ie him went to a Borstal for two years. Yet "Pinion!eve I am porrect in stating that educated
a.nd in this country almost unanimously, J quite rightly, deplores racial discrimina-
oon the nwhen it is practised in South Africa or , ereunited States.. Last week two Greek youths aavt hanged, the one for killing, the other for olg attempted to kill. That was in Cyprus. has rreal Britain the Parliament of the Realm ecided that it is evil to inflict the death flalty on anyone in the United Kingdom. An (j.;XatsreThely telling argument of the abolitionists sne; been connected with the degradation to thisetY that may result from judicial killing in century. R.,It Was stated in Parliament by the Colonial rep ,vet.
larY that the terrorists in Cyprus do not "s'ent• the Greek-Cypriot population. This ,
of Ivo..tinubtedly true, from at least one point It was true, too, that the French maquis did not `represent' the French people twelve years ago: nor were the other partisan movements in German-occupied Europe truly representative of their countries. Fortunately, perhaps, few people have the fanaticism or the folly or the courage to be terrorists. But is our disgust and anger at the shooting of sixteen-year-old boys for the crime of possess- ing a home-made bomb in, say, the Po valley already utterly forgotten? The fact that it may well be essential for the Western Alliance to hold Cyprus is surely no more relevant than was the fact that the Germans, to avoid defeat, had to hold the Po valley.
The comparison with events in Ireland forty years ago has already been pointed •out. Hysterical directives were often hysterically applied—by my. great-uncle, General Sir John Maxwell, among others—and with results which, in the opinion of many, have proved as tragic for Ireland as for England. That is long ago, and well forgotten. The comparison with Nazi Germany is not long ago, and is perhaps too odious to be contemplated. It is being contemplated by others, now.—Yours faithfully, CONSTANTINE FITZGIBBON Sacomb's Ash, Allen's Green, Sawbridgeworth, Hens
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