December 6, 1955
MACMILLAN’S PROPOSALS: London, 5 – The House of Commons today began a debate on the Cyprus issue. The first speaker, Foreign Secretary Harold Macmillan, said, among other things: «The problem of Cyprus does not lie within the framework of ordinary colonial issues, given that the Cypriot people were already civilized when the British were still in a primitive state. The matter under debate is not so much whether the principle of self-determination should be recognized, but how it should be implemented.(…)» The main points of Macmillan’s speech can be summarized as follows: (a) an attempt to involve Turkey in the Cyprus dispute; (b) an insistence on talks with the ethnarch, Archbishop Makarios, even though previous talks proved fruitless; (c) that «criminal» forces are using terrorist methods to win over extremist followers. He hopes that the archbishop will be concerned at the unholy alliance with the communists and that he will rise to the occasion; (d) that Great Britain cannot abandon its «responsibilities» to the Greek and Turkish peoples; (e) an appeal to all concerned to cooperate with Britain toward an autonomous regime in Cyprus and to postpone self-determination to a later date.
