I WROTE LAST WEEK that a miracle would have been
needed to bring about 'a speedy, final and complete agreement' on Cyprus. There was a `speedy' agreement all right, but it was only, as the important phrase put it, 'the agreed founda- tion for the final settlement.' And although many people gave the impression that everything had been settled, there is still, as Peter Benenson points out on another page, a lot to be done before com- plete agreement is reached. I hope the Govern- ment was right to rush things. There were obvious advantages in getting an agreement before the Prime Minister left for Moscow and while rela- tions between the Greeks and Turks were so good. But it might have been better even at the expense of delay to do some serious and detailed negotiat- ing with Archbishop Makarios instead of leaving most things to be settled later, when there may be much less good will about than there was last week. As its own contribution to the preservation of a friendly atmosphere the Government has been wise to suppress the pamphlet The Back- ground to Cyprus which was issued by the Con- servative Research Department last Monday. The pamphlet contains criticism of Archbishop Makarios and the Greek Government, and was in fact right on the old party line. Unfortunately, until too late, nobody in the Department noticed that the party line had changed.
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