Half Speed Ahead

Prime Minister Harold Macmillan touched all the bases--Greece, Turkey, Cyprus*--in his spur-of-the-moment trip to the Mediterranean. Back at 10 Downing Street last week, he swiftly announced that he was going ahead with a "modified" plan for Cyprus.

The modifications were all designed to temper Greek objections to any plan that might draw Turkey into governing the island, or lead to an eventual partitioning of the island between Turk and Greek Cypriots. In revising his plan, Macmillan 1) deferred his proposal for dual citizenship for Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots; 2) established separate municipal councils and houses of representatives for Greek and Turkish Cypriots, but hoped that in the future some all-in-one legislature would be formed; 3) decided that delegates from Greece and Turkey would be invited to serve as "advisers" to the British Governor instead of, as originally planned, members of his executive council. Macmillan also promised that "if violence ceases," the exiled Greek Cypriot leader, Archbishop Makarios, would be permitted to return.

Britain's changes were received with satisfaction in Turkey, whose major interest in Cyprus is to make sure that the island never falls into Greek hands. But . in Athens, the gloom was heavy. To Premier Constantine Karamanlis, as to most Greeks. Macmillan's modified plan seemed the beginning of partition. Fearing a renewal of bombings and murder, Cyprus Governor Sir Hugh Foot sent a personal message to Archbishop Makarios in Athens: "If this chance is not at once seized, I can foresee nothing but continuing misery for Cyprus." At week's end Makarios flatly rejected the Macmillan plan. In their shuttered houses on their pleasant island, Cypriots--both Greek and Turkish--braced themselves for a renewal of bloodletting.

* Where he inspected his old World War I regiment, the Grenadier Guards, "the finest regiment in the brigade." The other regiments in the Brigade of Foot Guards: Coldstream, Scots, Irish and Welsh.

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