May 23, 1956
CYPRUS: Nicosia, 21 – In Nicosia today young girls raised the Greek flag in the face of brutal violence perpetrated by the praetorian guards of Cypriot Governor Field Marshal Sir John Harding, while bombs exploded, killing one British soldier and injuring others. The ethnarch of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios, whom the British have exiled to the Seychelles, has gone on a hunger strike in order to protest against the events in Cyprus. «I am not a criminal,» he wrote in a message of protest. «The only crime we are committing is our love of freedom.» Finally, at the heart of the empire, bodyguards are surrounding the ministers of Queen Elizabeth II as well as the prime minister’s residence in Downing Street. Ministries and other public buildings are guarded by soldiers with arms at the ready. A cloud of terror is spreading over the River Thames, as the battle for freedom continues to be waged throughout Cyprus and in the midst of its mountains, where Harding’s soldiers have been fruitlessly searching among the shadows for the elusive strugglers for freedom.
