Evening star., 1947-09-29
By John G.. Hssry

KYRENIA. Cyprus By MaiD The words
pledging self-determination for all peoples
which Franklin Roosevelt and winston Church,
i'll wrote into the Atlantic Charter in the sum-
mer Of 1o4l are living words in this little east
ern Mediterranean island.
A British crown colony since shortly after
World War I, Cyprus today has . population
approaching 10000 people. OF this number
nearly 350.Oo0 are Of direct Greek descent and
consider themselves properly Greeks. Slightly
more than a thousand are British, about evenly
divided between colonial service employees and
retired English families. Most of the remainder
constitute . rather large Turkish minority.
1t Is by the Greeks that the plain promise Of
self determination in 1941 is now being used
as an instrument in the paramount political
issue OF the island. To them, the implementa-
ton of such a promise could mean only one
thing-union with Greece rather than con-
tinuance as a colony in the British Common
wealth. Even among the British here there is
general admission that free and open pleb-
iscite would show an overwhelming majority
Of the islanders voting for such union.
The Movement Began Long Ago.
The movement itself, 1t should be pointed
out, did not spring from the promise of the
Atlantic Charter. Actually. it had It's modern
beginning some 10 years ago when the Turks
ceded administrative control of the island to
the British. 1t reached one cimactic point in
1881 when riotous demonstration by Greek
Cypriots in Nicosia. the capital resulted in the
burning OF one of the colonial government
buildings and subsequent repeal Of certain
privileges Of government participation previ.
ously exercised by the Cypriots
The issue then languished through another
decade and the Cypriots themselves gave dis
tinguished service to the allied cause in the
last war. Approximately 0000 of them .volun-
tarily joined the armed forces Of the British
Empire and served principally in Greece and
on Crete Those who remained participated in
such defense measures as could be devised
when 1t appeared Cyprus might be the next vic.
tim Of Nazi attack, and when many Of the Brit
ish civilian residents were evacuated their most
valuable possessions were stored away by the
CypriotS in the villages and the hills. Without
question these valuables would still be safe If
there had been German occupation.
Despite the widespread Cypriot support for
the Enoss movement-union with Greece-it is
not simple and uncomplicated question in the
island politics.
During and Immediately after the war the
trades union movement which had been vir-
tually stamped out after the 1881 riot was per-
mtted to grow anew. To large extent this
movement had a left wing complexion and
there developed the Akel Party tCommunist,.
This in turn resulted in right and left wing
internal split but for purposes Of popular ap-
peal both wings found 1t essential to support
the Enosis movement.
Coming Election Of Archbishop.
Overlapping both political factions and to q
degree holding = balance of power was the
Orthodox Church. always actively political on
this island. In october there will begin the
rather involved procedure of electing q new