The Cyprus problem last week was beginning to resemble the famous Schleswig-Holstein question, which agitated Europe for nearly 100 years and caused at least four wars. Of this knotty diplomatic tangle, Britain's Lord Palmerston said, "Only three men have ever understood it. One was Prince Albert, who is dead; the second was a German professor who went mad. I am the third, and I have forgotten all about it." Forceful Tampering. Diplomats at the U.N. would be equally happy to forget all about the Cyprus problem, which last week was returned to the Security Council after U Thant's failure to provide a solution through backstage jockeying. The Greek Cypriots, led by their President, Archbishop Makarios, stubbornly insist that any draft resolution contain a reminder that all U.N. members must refrain under the Charter from tampering by force with the territorial integrity and independence of other members—a device by which Makarios hopes to bar Turkey from interfering with his own island war against the Turkish Cypriot minority.
In the Security Council debate, Britain's Sir Patrick Dean testily said that his government was tired of carrying the "main responsibility" for keeping the peace on Cyprus, and hinted that British troops would be pulled out unless an agreed solution were reached. On the legalistic point, Sir Patrick conceded that the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee did indeed give its signers (Britain, Turkey and Greece) the right of intervention in Cyprus, but only for a specifically limited purpose, and that this could not be interpreted as a violation of the Charter. He reminded the Makarios government that it had a "duty" of its own: "To maintain security within its own country and to observe the constitution under which it was created."
Nervous People. The nonpermanent members of the Council busied them selves all week trying to get a proposal on paper that might satisfy everyone. In the preamble, where the difficult legal issue is focused, they came up with some vague verbiage that merely reminds all member states that the Charter obliges them to respect the territorial integrity and independence of other members. Even this was too much for the Turks, who want no weakening of their rights under the Treaty of Guarantee. So the delegates went back to work on another compromise version for consideration by the Council.