NEW PLANS FOR CYPRUS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28618, 21 June 1958, Page 13

NEW PLANS FOR CYPRUS

Rejection In Athens And Ankara Feared (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, June 20. Archbishop Makarios, the exiled leader of the Cyprus Union-with-Greece movement, will hand over his reply to the new British plan for Cyprus at the British Embassy in Athens tonight. He said the reply would be made public tomorrow.

Meanwhile a Greek Government spokesman said the plan—outlined by the British Prime Minister, Mr Macmillan, to the House of Commons yesterday —was unacceptable, as it stands, to Greece. Greece’s final reply, which will be made known to Britain by the week-end is expected to be an outright rejection of the proposals.

The Turkish Foreign Minister, Mr Fatin Zorlu, said last night that Turkey could not accept any proposal on Cyprus which does not include the final solution of partition of the island.

It was necessary to have a tripartite conference of the British, Turkish and Greek Prime Ministers on the problem, the Turkish Foreign Minister said. The plan provides for a seven? year period during which Britain would retain sovereignty over the island.

During this period there would be separate political organisation by Greek and Turkish Cypriots, with separate Houses of Representatives for the two communities.

Greek Cypriot quarters in Nicosia said: “We can say nothing before Archbishop Makarios makes a statement on it.

“The matter is completely in his hands.”

The American Associated Press said British soldiers went from door to door in all the main towns of Cyprus last night distributing leaflets asking Greek and Turkish Cypriots to accept the British plan.

The leaflets were printed in the Greek and Turkish national colours, blue and red. The British United Press said Royal Air Force bombers swooped down over Nicosia and other Cyprus towns early this morning in leaflet raids in support of the plan.

The leaflets urged an “end to fear and a return to peace and progress.”

In Canberra, the Australian Minister for External Affairs, Mr Casey, today welcomed the new proposals on Cyprus as an imaginative and valuable advance towards the solution of the island's future.

He said he hoped that Greece and Turkey would seriously consider, and eventually accept, this offer of partnership with the United Kingdom as a step towards bringing about the peaceful progress and development of the island and promoting the welfare of all Cypriots.