CYPRIOTS OBEY ORDER

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27875, 25 January 1956, Page 13

CYPRIOTS OBEY ORDER

Sporting Rifles And Guns Handed In

(NJZ. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, January 24. Queues formed outside police stations in Cyprus yesterday as thousands of citizens obeyed a Government order to hand over guns and sporting rifles, the “Daily Telegraph” said. I

The order was issued immediately after it became known that Eoka terrorists had made arms raids on Sunday night. The terrorists knocked on the doors of town and village homes, demanding arms.

The 20,000 licensed shotguns on the island must be handed over by midday today.

The island’s governor, Field-Marshal Sir John Harding, will fly back to Cyprus tomorrow.

He will fake with him a clear directive from the British Government on the limit to which he can go in negotiations with Archbishop Makarios, leader of the union with Greece movement, on the island’s constitutional future.

If the negotiations break down Sir John Harding will have full Cabinet support in the measures he deems necessary to deal with terrorism and to restore order. In Nicosia this morning the first aircraft arrived from Britain with men of the Highland Light Infantry. The airlift, carried out by chartered aircraft, will continue until Thursday. The 600 men of the regiment are being flown to Cyprus primarily to be available in case of trouble in the Middle East, but the troops will go into action immediately as part of Cyprus's anti-terrorist security forces. The airlift is the fourth major transfer of troops to Cyprus by air in the last few months.

The Ist battalion, Gordon Highlanders, the Ist battalion. Royal Norfolks, and 1000 men of the Parachute Brigade were the other three formations flown to Cyprus.