March 16, 1954
BRITISH ‘NO’ TO CYPRUS: London, 15 – Great Britain, through its representative, Foreign Secretary Mr Anthony Eden, today categorically rejected Greece’s request to hold bilateral talks regarding the Cyprus situation. «Great Britain,» said Mr Eden, «is in no way able to agree to a discussion of the regime in Cyprus. The British government has told its Greek counterpart that it is not willing to agree to a discussion of this issue.» REACTION OF MAKARIOS: In view of these statements by Mr Eden, Archbishop and Ethnarch Makarios of Cyprus said that he had never doubted that this would, unfortunately, be the British stance and that the Greek government had no other option now but to have recourse to the United Nations. GREEK CATHOLICS: Catholic Archbishop of Greece Marios Makryonitis has assured the Cypriot ethnarch that Greek Catholics, along with the Greek Catholic Church, were standing by their Cypriot brothers and that they fully supported their just struggle to unite Cyprus with Greece.
