A Notch Tighter

Thousands of leaflets floated down on the tents of Turkish refugees north of Nicosia last week. They were from a Piper Cub of Archbishop Makarios' small Greek Cypriot air force, and they demanded: "Why all this armed conflict, which destroys our country and leads to disaster? Why all this bloodshed and tears? Don't you realize this crisis could lead to total war?"

It was some question for Makarios to ask. In five out of seven nights last week, shiploads of fresh arms and men had arrived at the port of Limassol for dispatch to nine Greek Cypriot camps, and government roadblocks were multiplying across the island, hindering U.N. observation of clandestine imports. One recent cargo arrived on a Russian ship that moved in at night, unloaded, then vanished before dawn.

Ban & Blockade. Newsmen could no longer freely report such events, for now the island was under the restriction of a military secrets act. Neither could the United Nations' official peacekeepers feel free to speak their minds: uncertain of their status under the new law, U.N. briefing officers canceled their morning sessions for reporters.

Meanwhile, the Greeks on Cyprus had barred a shipload of Red Crescent (Red Cross) food and medicine intended for the beleaguered Turkish Cypriots, banned the local sale of gasoline, kerosene and spare parts to Turks on the island, and put pressure on the Turkish community in Paphos* by threatening to cut off its water supply.

All the while, earnest people in Geneva were doing their quiet best to mediate the tangled controversy. Huddling with Finland's Sakari Tuomioja was U.S. Special Representative Dean Acheson, who carried with him not only the prestige of a former Secretary of State but that of a skilled international lawyer as well. He seemed to have a series of plans to propose to the angry Greeks and Turks; one variation called for the union of Cyprus with Greece, but establishment of two semi-autonomous Turkish enclaves on the island, a NATO base (with Turkish contingents) to keep the peace, and cession of the small Greek island of Kastelorrizon to Turkey. Don't bother, cried Makarios, rejecting the whole idea and scornfully denouncing Acheson and Tuomioja as "self-appointed mediators." He wanted union, all right, but not with any rights for Turks on the island.

The Extremists. Flying over to Athens, Makarios conferred with Prime Minister George Papandreou, and came home claiming complete Greek government support for his program. Shortly after he returned, the Turks, always ready to use naval maneuvers as a tool of diplomacy, ordered their fleet to sea from Iskenderun. prepared to land on Cyprus, if necessary.

On the island itself, the Greek Cypriots had become so strong that some of their extremists were ready to start a Mediterranean fight right now. Proclaimed Nicosia's Greek daily Eleftheria: "If there is to be a world war over Cyprus, let it be soon." These were just the words of one overheated Cypriot editor, but they were precisely the kind of emotional fireworks that could touch off trouble.

-Where, according to myth, Aphrodite emerged from the Mediterranean's foam.

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