SEEKING ARMS

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30369, 19 February 1964, Page 17

SEEKING ARMS

Defence By Cyprus

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter— Copyright) NICOSIA, February 18

Cyprus sought arms from other countries after Britain refused a request last December 31 to supply arms to the security forces, a Cyprus Government spokesman said last night.

Commenting on a House of Commons statement by the Commonwealth Relations Secretary (Mr Sandys) that Britain had protested against arms imports, the spokesman said it was “completely lawful’’ for Cyprus to be supplied with arms, as there was a threat to its territorial integrity.

The island was reported generally quiet last night with the exception of a tense situation in K-tima—-the main administrative centre for western Cyprus—and the mining town of Polis, where tension has been running high for the last week. In Polis, 700 Turkish Cypriots were reported by a British spokesman to be surrounded in a school by Greek Cypriots dug in about 100 yards away, but a Cyprus Government spokesman described the reports as “entirely unfounded and malicious.” He said the situation was ‘‘normal’’ in Polis.

In London last night, the British Prime Minister (Sir Alec Douglas-Home) said in a 8.8. C. television interview th._t British troops had released 700 Turks trapped in the Polis school. A truce had been arranged in that part of Cyprus, he said. Greek Warning

Meanwhile. in Athens. Greece warned that her armed, forces had been instructed to shoot down any foreign planes intruding into her air space, authoritative sources said. They said the move arose from repeated violations by unidentified foreign aircraft. In Ankara, the Turkish Foreign Minister, Mr Feridun Erkin, said Turkish-Cypriots were “attacked mercilessly by bands of Eoka men” in Limassol last week “with the open support of the so-called police force acting under the orders of the Greek Cypriot authorities.”