The U.S. & Enosis

Cyprus is not a U.S. base, but it is of strategic importance to the whole pattern of Western defense in the cold war. It is Britain's command post for the Middle East; it guards vital sources of oil supply; it lies along the best line of communication between Europe and Asia; it is in an area where there is no satellite buffer zone on the Soviet Union's border. For those reasons the U.S. State Department has been watching anxiously the dispute between Britain and Cypriot nationalists who want enosis (union) with Greece. Behind the scenes the U.S. has been urging both sides to reach an agreement.

"A Kick in the Teeth." Early last week the State Department moved publicly into the controversy. Appalled by British deportation of the Cypriot leader, Archbishop Myriarthefs Makarios, and by Britain's general adoption of a "tough" policy, the State Department openly urged Britain to resume negotiations with the Cypriots. Announced State Department Press Officer Lincoln White: "The United States Government earnestly hoped that basic agreements might be reached which would enable the people of Cyprus to achieve their legitimate desire of cooperation in the establishment of a government truly representative of the people of the island." Privately, the U.S. attitude could be summed up in a question: What do we do about an ally who frisks nuns and deports an archbishop?

London seethed at the implied rebuke in White's statement, but the next development brought British reaction to the boiling point. Out of Athens came reports that Career Diplomat Cavendish Welles Cannon, U.S. Ambassador to Greece, had followed up the Washington statement with an expression of "sympathetic concern" for Greece, and praise for Greek "dignity and statesmanship" in the affair. British newspapers promptly roared that this was an insult to Great Britain (a "kick in the teeth," said London's Daily Mail); Sir Roger Makins, Britain's Ambassador to the U.S., officially demanded an explanation.

"Our Very Best Friends." As the storm swirled up, the State Department's White hurriedly issued another statement. The new pronouncement appeared to withdraw somewhat from the previous U.S. position. White summed it up: "We are not taking sides." At his press conference President Eisenhower added his soothing voice: "Here is a place where two of our very best friends are engaged in an argument with very great difficulty. Now, we are friendly to both, not only friendly in the sense of traditional friendship with these two peoples, but on top of that, both are vitally necessary to NATO . . . So we are ready to do anything that is reasonable and practicable to help in reaching some solution, but the solution itself is going to have to be reached by the people most greatly concerned."

At week's end the British were some what mollified, but they were less than happy about the continued U.S. pressure for a resumption of negotiations, which in effect meant bringing back and dealing with the exiled archbishop. Just what the State Department was doing about this delicate situation was not apparent to the public eye. But the key point was clear: the U.S. cannot afford further deterioration of the Western position on Cyprus.

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