A Spectator's Notebook
Paragraph 28 of the Covering Note to his Report he wrote : There, is no pattern of territorial separation between the two communities, and, apart from other objections, federation of communities which does not also involve federation of ter- ritories seems to me a very difficult constitutional form. . . . I find myself baffled in the attempt to visualise how an effective executive govern- ment for Cyprus is to be thrown up by a system in which political power is to remain permanently divided in equal shares between two opposed communities.. . . A third alternative, that the Governor should be given under the Constitution some sort of arbitral position as between the two communities, I have already excluded by what I have said above.
The difficulties of constructing a workable admin- istration on the basis of what Mr. Macmillan calls partnership,' but which is really 'division,' are self- evident, and I am not surprised that Sir Hugh Foot has avoided the pitfall of giving any details of how the plan would work. It is presumably because Sir Hugh knows, like Lord Radcliffe, that this sort of federal constitution could never be operated that he accepts the rebuffs it has had With such stoicism. His object in unveiling the Plan at this stage was to put before all the parties Concerned something which could be accepted as a basis for discussion. In this he has largely suc- ceeded.
Previous page
