SAD CYPRUS
IT is wrong to talk as though anything approaching a civil war was in progress in Cyprus. There is a blessed ineffectu- alness about terrorist activity in Cyprus which has led to only two deaths since April, and the violence and grandilo- quence of the extracts from the Greek press which the Athens radio has been broadcasting are not an accurate measure of what is going on. We could certainly hold Cyprus in spite of Greek Cypriot opposition. We could certainly make a good case for doing so on the familiar ground that the Cypriots are much better off as they are, that we have repeatedly offered them liberal constitutions which they have rejected, and that we have obligations to the Turkish minority as well as to the Greek majority. We could fortify our case, as we habitually do, by pointing out that the movement for unification with Greece has been deliberately and probably fraudulently stimu- lated, and we could drive all these points home by spending more on propaganda in Cyprus, including the building of a television station, to show the people pictures of life in Rhodes.
The moral objection to this policy of 'have and hold' is simply, nd overwhelmingly that it involves imposing a regime which everybody knows to be resented with more or less bitterness by most of the people who live under it; and the political objection, which is equally strong, is that it involves perpetuating a running sore in Anglo-Greek relations. Besides, `have and hold' is a policy which calls for skill as well as courage, and skill has been pathetically absent from British policy towards Cyprus in recent years. 'Never' is a word which has no place in the vocabulary of British colonial administra- tion, but it has been hie essence of the British Government's repeatedly declared attitude towards Cyprus. Even the possi- bility of enosis as an ultimate development should have been left open.
What matters now is that the British Government, which will almost certainly have to do or say something before the week is out, should decide what is its indispensable minimum in Cyprus. Clearly, it is the maintenance of the British base there, and probably this implies some final right of interven- tion, to be firmly kept in the background, in the affairs of the island. It is equally clear that enosis is for the present not a possibility, if only because it would be utterly unacceptable to the Turks. There remains the familiar expedient of offering yet another and more liberal constitution, and not merely offering it but announcing a day for the holding of elections; but such elections would almost certainly be boycotted by the organised elements in Greek opinion in the island. The only potentially constructive course left N an attempt to associate both the Greek and the Turkish governments with the administration. A condominium is always difficult to operate, but the suggeS- tion that a Greek and a Turkish minister should be added to the Legislative Council is worth considering. This might look like a mere gesture, but our policy so far has consisted almost entirely of gestures, and it would be a change to have one which at least showed some sign of good will.
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