CYPRUS: The Haggling & the Hopes

To the 15 NATO ambassadors in Paris one day last week went a brusque message: "Emergency." Within the hour, the ambassadors gathered around a big green conference table in the Palais de Chaillot. NATO Secretary-General Paul-Henri Spaak put it to them bluntly. "At stake," said he, "is the very reputation of NATO itself."

For weeks, in private chats, in special sessions, owlish, bustling Paul-Henri Spaak has been sounding out three squabbling NATO partners—Britain, Greece and Turkey—begging them to settle their agonizing, paralyzing quarrel over Cyprus, which has all but broken up NATO's...