December 15, 1955
‘WAR AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF CYPRUS’: The Greek government has issued a demarche through its embassy in London to the British government over the murder in Cyprus of Greek citizen Maria Economidou by British soldiers and injury to her daughter. The prime minister, Mr Constantine Karamanlis, said he was awaiting explanations from the British government. Greece also lodged a protest with the United Nations to the effect that «Great Britain is waging a war against the people of Cyprus.» The document was handed to UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold by the Greek representative. Meanwhile, in Cyprus yesterday, the British arrested 135 prominent Communists, including the leader of the AKEL party Ezekias Papaioannou. The publisher of the communist newspaper New Democrat, Diomidis Galanos, was also arrested, copies of the newspaper seized and its further publication banned. The arrests were followed by strikes, bomb blasts and demonstrations. A British officer was killed in Nicosia. The Greek foreign minister, Mr Spyros Theotokis, had talks with his British counterpart Mr Harold MacMillan at the British Embassy in Paris.
