Once a Greek

The Mediterranean island of Cyprus has not belonged to Greece for 2,300 years, but four-fifths of the population of the British Crown Colony of Cyprus speak Greek or belong to the Greek Orthodox Church. Cyprus and Greece have not even been under the same rule since 1191, when they were both part of the Byzantine Empire, but the most electric word among Cypriots today is enosis (union with Greece). Just how widespread the urge for enosis is among Cypriots is a matter of dispute. The British insist that the agitation is largely the doing of one man, bearded Archbishop Myriarthefs Makarios, who calls himself the ethnarch, i.e., governor of Cyprus.

Whatever its merits and strength, enosis has stirred bad blood among three NATO allies, Britain, Turkey and Greece. This week the three nations got together in London to see if good faith could be substituted for bad blood.

The British have ruled Cyprus since 1878. Disraeli got it from the Turks in return for helping them fight off the Russians. Even at that early day, Disraeli's great opponent Gladstone urged that Cyprus be given to Greece. Britain formally offered it to Greece during World War I, as an inducement to get Greece into the war, but the Greeks refused. Now, having withdrawn from Suez, Britain has made Cyprus her eastern Mediterranean bastion. The British will never leave, said Britain's Colonial Secretary a year ago. (Never is a word British diplomats are never supposed to use.)

For its part, Turkey, which ruled Cyprus for 307 years, was not one to stand "idly by while the island, 40 miles from its own coast, was handed to a country 13 times more distant. The Turks were fearful of what might happen to the Turkish minority (about 100,000) if Cyprus came under Greek rule. Last week Turkey's Prime Minister Adnan Menderes promised them protection, and Minister of State Fatin Rustu Zorlu declared, "If there is to be any change . . . sovereignty over the island should revert to Turkey."

Despite all the heated words, all three powers seemed to be reaching the stage where what united them was more important than what divided them. The making of a likely compromise lies in Greece's abandoning its demand for an immediate plebiscite in Cyprus in return for a British promise of gradual self-government for Cypriots.

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