Search for Compromise

The Cyprus problem last week was beginning to resemble the famous Schleswig-Holstein question, which agitated Europe for nearly 100 years and caused at least four wars. Of this knotty diplomatic tangle, Britain's Lord Palmerston said, "Only three men have ever understood it. One was Prince Albert, who is dead; the second was a German professor who went mad. I am the third, and I have forgotten all about it." Forceful Tampering. Diplomats at the U.N. would be equally happy to forget all about the Cyprus problem, which last week was returned to the Security Council after U Thant's failure to provide a solution through backstage jockeying. The Greek Cypriots, led by their President, Archbishop Makarios, stubbornly insist that any draft resolution contain a reminder that all U.N. members must refrain under the Charter from tampering by force with the territorial integrity and independence of other members--a device by which Makarios hopes to bar Turkey from interfering with his own island war against the Turkish Cypriot minority.

In the Security Council debate, Britain's Sir Patrick Dean testily said that his government was tired of carrying the "main responsibility" for keeping the peace on Cyprus, and hinted that British troops would be pulled out unless an agreed solution were reached. On the legalistic point, Sir Patrick conceded that the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee did indeed give its signers (Britain, Turkey and Greece) the right of intervention in Cyprus, but only for a specifically limited purpose, and that this could not be interpreted as a violation of the Charter. He reminded the Makarios government that it had a "duty" of its own: "To maintain security within its own country and to observe the constitution under which it was created."

Nervous People. The nonpermanent members of the Council busied them selves all week trying to get a proposal on paper that might satisfy everyone. In the preamble, where the difficult legal issue is focused, they came up with some vague verbiage that merely reminds all member states that the Charter obliges them to respect the territorial integrity and independence of other members. Even this was too much for the Turks, who want no weakening of their rights under the Treaty of Guarantee. So the delegates went back to work on another compromise version for consideration by the Council.

On Cyprus itself, the partisans managed for the most part to keep their itchy gun fingers in check last week. Hundreds of Communist sympathizers poured out to Nicosia Airport to cheer a Soviet plane that swooped in for a test landing; it was preparing the way for the civil air agreement that is being negotiated between Cyprus and its new Russian ally. Inevitably, it raised the question of Soviet penetration in Cyprus should the current stalemate break down. Apart from this, Archbishop Makarios made people nervous by announcing his intention to create a force of special volunteer police, 5,000 strong --as he put it, "not only for the island's security and return to normal, but also for facing certain other unpleasant situations." Guesses as to what these last might be ranged from repelling an invasion by Turkey to attacking the 7,000-man British garrison to trying to wipe out some of the isolated Turkish Cypriot positions, such as the schoolhouse in Polis where 700 men, women and children are surrounded by Greek Cypriot partisans. A British diplomat said, "Frankly, we don't know what's behind it," but added with feeling that anything that made Greek Cypriot irregulars into a disciplined force and kept them in barracks was "probably a good thing."

Only the Turkish Cypriots thought they knew the truth. Said their spokesman, Dr. Fazil Kuchuk: "Using his so-called 5,000 'legal' forces, Makarios will exercise pressure on the Turks to deprive them of their arms. In short, the plan of Makarios is either to destroy or to enslave the Turks of Cyprus."

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