MORE REPRESSION
A WEEK ago Sir John Harding told the Cypriots that, owing to the intensification of the EOKA campaign, the Govern- ment had no option but to impose sterner penalties on terrorists and their associates : that the death penalty would be extended even to the crime of consorting with armed persons. Returning to this country on Monday, Sir John had a very different story to tell. The terrorists, he said, are losing ground in Cyprus; they are getting weaker: basically, the situation there is improving. This type of double-talk has a long and ugly history. Thus, in Ireland, did Lloyd George threaten reprisals and executions when resistance increased, While at the same time boasting for British consumption that the authorities 'had murder by the throat.' The fact is that the situation in Cyprus is worse now than it has been at th4 time since the EOKA campaign began. Almost as many British citizens have been killed there since the Suez invasion as have been killed in Egypt.
A few months ago Sir John boasted that terrorism would be stamped out by the end of the year; it appears stronger now than ever. He claimed, too, that new leaders were coming forward from the ranks of the 'better educated' Cypriots to negotiate; where are they now?
In the circumstances little reliance should be placed on Sir John's views about the new constitutional proposals for Cyprus Which are currently being examined. The real question is Whether his recent actions have destroyed what at best was Only a slender chance of conciliation. When will the British authorities learn, in their dealing with subject races, that to execute members of a patriot movement merely strengthens the movement; and that such repression, though it may succeed temporarily in stamping out armed resistance, creates antagon- isms which make any permanent settlement impossible? Sir John should take the opportunity while he is here to study Sir Alec Kirkbride's A Crackle of Thorns, describing Sir Alec's experience as Commissioner in Galilee in 1937. 'The hanging Of Arabs for the illegal possession of arms,' Sir Alec says, 'was equally ineffective . . . the more martyrs who were killed the more Arabs there were ready to take their places.' In Palestine, in Ireland, and now in Cyprus the same rule holds good. The new penalties, if they are enforced, will serve no other purpose than to ensure that the new constitution is stillborn.
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