Cyprus Conversation Piece

Mr. Charles Foley,. the Editor of the Times of Cyprus, has decided not to proceed with his appeal against his conviction on a charge of infringing the Emergency Regulations. Here is his account of a conversation which took place in the Chief Justice's Chambers two months ago between Chief Justice Hallinan, Mr. Justice Shaw and himself. The "I' is Mr. Foley.

The Chief Justice drew my attention to a headline in the Times of Cyprus: 'Seychelles man to be Chief Justice' and complained that it was inaccurate and derogatory. He did not com- plain of the text, which was a Government hand- out. 1 said I saw no harm in the headline : what was the trouble?

The Chief Justice made a number of objec- tions. Firstly, he said that 'Seychelles man' meant a native of the Seychelles, viz, a coloured man. I replied that did not follow in the least, but if it did,, I should not regard it as derogatory.

Next, he said that it suggested he came from a small, remote island, presumably another derogatory suggestion. I pointed out that Napoleon also came from a small, remote island, but abstained from mentioning that the Chief Justice, Shaw and myself came from yet another one. Moreover, my information was that the Seychelles was a whole group of islands, like the Caribbean.

CIHEF JusTice: A group of very small islands. Anyway, it's more than twenty years since Mr. Bourke was there.

C.F.: It's simply a picturesque touch. I might call him an Everest Man if he'd taken part in an Everest expedition twenty years ago; that wouldn't mean he'd spent his life there alongside the Abominable Snowman, Culla/ JUSTICE: Most people just look at the headlines and read no further; that's how they get the wrong impression. Why couldn't you just have written 'New Chief Justice is ap- pointed'? C.F.: If the sub-editor had written that, most people might well have read no further. The technique of modern papers is to write headlines which persuade them to read on to the end, if possible. In that respect this was a good head- line, CHIER JUSTICE: So that you refuse to apologise for this inaccurate and derogatory headline?

C.F.: I'm afraid you are begging the ques- tion; in my opinion it was neither.

After some more of this sort of thing, the Chief Justice said there was a further objection which he must state : not everyone in the island, he had heard, approved of the exile of the Arch- bishop. The man in the street might come to the conclusion, on reading the headline, that Mr. Bourke had something to do with keeping Makarios there!

I felt this was straining the thing a bit, and went so far as to suggest 1 might know more of the man in the street's acumen than the Chief Justice.

Finally, he felt it only fair to warn me that Bourke would be presiding over my appeal; I said that could not affect an issue of fact.

He went on to say that if it had not been for the pending appeal he would have had the other two Supreme Court judges present in the room, but he had not wished to prejudice them against me. 1 began to wonder what sort of pro- ceedings these were : cosy chat or star chamber?

As it went on I was glad to assure the Chief Justice that it was never my intention to diminish the prestige or dignity of the judicature; on the contrary ! But after all, he had one opinion, I had another, Mr. Bourke might have a third. Why not wait until he arrived and ask him?

Here, for the first time, Mr. Justice Shaw spoke : `Mr. Bourke is a personal friend of mine, so I can give you his opinion now.'

I said at once this put a different complexion on the thing, but how, could he be sure what Mr. Bourke would think.

SHAW : Well, I know he thinks the same way as I do, and as I don't like the headline I don't think he would either.

Deferring to Shaw with the utmost respect, I asked the Chief Justice to make any reasonable suggestion.

After a pause of minutes, he replied that he didn't want to dictate what I put in the paper, but it might be sufficient to put in a piece saying that Bourke was NOT a native of the Seychelles and had taken no part in the administration, This, in more tactful terms, I did next day.