Letters to the Editor Compromise on Cyprus J. A. Phrantzes,
Zenon Romides, Harold Sorel Godfrey and Siddons S. C. Roberts Abolition of Capital Punishment Victor Gollancz Thomas the Rhymer Thomas Archer The Doomed Island Uisteach AIL,. 1,11in MacPhee and others Karl Marx Arthur Gore On Inconvenient Ali es Ian Henderson Cricket Frenzy N. Caster Full Employment and Inflation John Collinson
COMPROMISE ON CYPRUS
SIR,—The Spectator during the last two years has not taken an intransigent attitude over the Cyprus issue and your recent leading article seems indeed to be imbued with a spirit of compromise. I would like, however, if possible to clarify still more the political situation which you yourself state has all the disadvan- tages of clarity.
(a) It is not doubtful but fairly obvious that in Cyprus 'the Greek Orthodox Church and the Right-wing political groups' would be in favour of enosis. Indeed, it would surprise anyone knowing the history of Greece were the Greek Orthodox Church not at the head of a national Greek movement. I would say that a healthy pride in one's country and traditions should be fostered and not condemned. Sentiments like these make a country defend its independence against aggressors, whether they be fascists or communists. Greece has proved this always, fighting on Britain's side, when others failed or faltered.
(b) It is not for me to judge the merits of 'Greek taxation, Greek military con- scription and misgovernment' which the Cypriots would 'suffer' should enosis take place, but simply to point out that no self-respecting human being would allow material considerations to out- weigh his national sentiments. Would the British people have taken into account material considerations had they ever had the misfortune of being placed under what they considered a foreign occupa- tion, however friendly?
(c) The support this movement receives from Athens has not arisen in the last two years. Since 1878 public opinion in Cyprus and Greece has always looked towards enosis and hoped for a British gesture. Might I point out that it is the very intransigence referred to at the end of your article and abandoned, for- tunately, today by the British Govern- ment, which has strengthened this unanimous feeling in Greece.
(d) Greece would be the first to deplore a
deterioration of Greco-Turkish rela- tions, and should a solution be reached, would always have the rights of the Turkish minority in the island at heart. Though the Cyprus issue is politically purely an Anglo-Greek question, Greece does not dispute that Turkey has every right to be interested in her minority. I do not, however, feel that our friends, and allies the Turks have cause to be unduly anxious on this subject.
Last but not least, however, I read with astonishment the words, 'but it might be possible to work out some compromise solu- tion 'which would permit the maintenance of British bases in Cyprus and safeguard the rights of the Turkish minority' The Greek Government and peoples of Greece and Cyprus have never envisaged that Britain might ever abandon Cyprus as a military base. The Greek Government has time and again gone further and offered, should a solu- tion be achieved, any bases Britain might in addition require in any other region of Greece. I wish to stress this point because this has un- fortunately seldom come to the fore in the British press when Cyprus has been discussed. —Yours faithfully, J. A. PHRANTZES Director of the Greek Information Office.
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