NEW TALKS ON CYPRUS

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27861, 9 January 1956, Page 9

NEW TALKS ON CYPRUS

Harding To Meet Archbishop

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

<Rec. 11 p.m.) NICOSIA, January 8. The Governor of Cyprus (FieldMarshal Sir John Harding) and Archbishop Makarios, the leader of the island enosis (union with Greece) movement are expected to confer privately early next week to thrash out several vital points of difference, political sources said today.

The talks, which may be spread over a week, were understood to have been brought about after an exchange of Notes between the Governor and the British Cabinet during the last few days. Political sources felt sure that if these talks failed to reach a solution, or at least an understanding, they would be the last meetings between the two sides for some time to come.

The talks between the two men were in a deadlock after a secret meeting on November 21 last, when the Governor was reported to have offered the “theoretical recognition” of the Cypriots’ right to self-determination, but leaving the timing indeterminate, and denendent on the Middle East situation.

General Harding today discussed the Cyprus emergency with the Mufti Mehmed Dana, religious leader of the Turkish community in Cyprus, and with six of the Mufti’s advisers.

The Governor issued his invitations to the talks last night. They were being held at Government House. Political circles in Nicosia believe that Sir John Harding would allay the fears of Turkish Cypriots about his meeting next week with Archbishop Makarios.

They believe he would reassure the Mufti and his colleagues that any meeting he might have with the Arcnbishop would not imply a withdrawal from Britain’s present stand or. Cyprus.