South from Cyprus

The British have been taking a hard, careful look at their defenses in the Middle East. Three months ago able Defense Minister Duncan Sandys, 49, went off on a personal fact-finding tour to determine what should be done. After the failure of last fall's invasion of Egypt, he concluded, Britain no longer has a specific individual role to play in the lands bordering the eastern Mediterranean (Friend Iraq would be defended by the Baghdad Pact as a whole). "The emphasis has shifted south of the Suez Canal to the Arabian peninsula area," declared Sandys. The oil-rich Persian Gulf sheikdoms, including Kuwait, remain Britain's special concern and might have to be defended by Britain alone, especially against local disturbances. This meant that Cyprus, lying on the wrong end of the lost canal, was no longer the strategic spot for Britain's Middle East command headquarters. A new base must be found south of Suez.

Something of Value. Aden, on the tip of the Arabian peninsula, was one possibility, but Sandys found the climate unbearable (120DEG in the shade during his visit), and facilities generally limited. Kenya, on the other hand, offered attractive possibilities. The climate in the highlands is salubrious, and there is plenty of room and rugged country for troop training as well as fairly good communications and storage facilities. Mombasa, an Indian Ocean seaport the royal navy wants to develop now that it is losing Trincomalee in Ceylon, has direct communications with the Persian Gulf, without permission of Nasser. Finally, now that the Mau Mau are quelled, the Kenya natives are friendlier than the population in Cyprus. Accordingly, Sandys returned last month convinced that Britain's main Middle East base should be moved south from Cyprus to Kenya, and Cyprus kept only as a bomber base in event of war with Russia.

Freedom to Choose. With Britain's strategic requirement thus reduced from "Cyprus as a base" to "a base on Cyprus," the way was cleared for a new political initiative there. Last week Governor Sir John Harding arrived in London for talks about the island's future. By week's end Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and his cabinet were reported to have worked out a plan by which Cypriots would get the offer of a program leading up to the island's independence. The British were now willing to negotiate with the once banished Archbishop Makarios. The Cypriots would have to agree not to unite with Greece or Turkey. Theoretically they would be free to stay inside the British Commonwealth but would not have to. Defense facilities on the island would be in NATO's name, but British in fact.

The British hope to call a conference of Greek, Turkish and Cypriot representatives this summer, if possible wind up their three-year dispute with Greek Cypriots before the U.N. Assembly meets again in September.

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