Eden Plan For Cyprus May Have To Be Shelved

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28010, 3 July 1956, Page 13

Eden Plan For Cyprus May Have To Be Shelved

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, July 1. Strong opposition from Turkey, lack of support from the Commonwealth Prime Ministers and mounting concern among members of Parliament were forcing the British Prime Minister, Sir Anthony Eden, to abandon his plan for granting self-determination to Cyprus, the diplomatic correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” reported. If the project were abandoned it would put the Cyprus situation back to its position before the recent visit to Britain by the Governor of Cyprus, Sir John Harding. The official view then was that this would not be the time for a move towards self-determination for the colony. Sir Anthony Eden’s project has never been officially announced, but suggested forms of the self-determination formula had been widely commented on without ever having been officially denied, the correspondent said.

Turkish opposition to the scheme was summed up today in the only interview of the Cyprus problem so far granted by the Turkish Prime Minister (Mr Adnan Menderes).

Mr Menderes told a “Daily Telegraph” correspondent: “If Britain surrenders her sovereignty over Cyprus it will be an international disaster.” Mr Menderes said that he had not been called on to accept or reject a specific British plan for self-determin-ation for Cyprus, but he confirmed that there had been conversations with Britain.

Meanwhile the Senior Greek Orthodox Church leader in Cyprus (Bishop Anthimos of Kitium) is to fly to Athens early this week for talks with the Greek Government.

British troops today searched the peninsula on the north-west of Cyprus for a Cyprus-born Greek Army officer believed to have disappeared from Greece recently.