151. Telegram From the Embassy in France to the Department of State1
Secto 7. At luncheon meeting with Secretary December 15, Macmillan said that Greek Government had been weak and timid in recent discussions on Cyprus and he hoped Secretary would tell Theotokis that point had been reached where necessary for them to agree on something and not keep discussions going forever. Theotokis should be urged to tell Archbishop to see Harding and move on toward agreement. Secretary said his reports indicated there had been encouraging progress and he hoped UK as well as Greeks would continue to bear in mind essentiality of early agreement.
Secretary saw Greek Foreign Minister Theotokis this morning. Latter said British proposals put in such a way as to be practically unintelligible. Macmillan had stated UK position in satisfactory form in House of Commons debate. Formula should be couched in such a way as to be understandable by public. Principal objections were to double negative in first paragraph, dependence of future action toward self-determination upon views of other countries in area and absence of specific length of time at end of which decision would be made re self-determination.
Secretary said he could not get into middle of question of drafting. That was for Greece and UK to work out. He felt that double negative was awkward but that rest was not too bad. He said present draft represents tremendous advance in substance from which Greek Government could take great satisfaction. It had achieved substance of victory and should not risk losing it by striving for too much perfection in wording. Extremely important get matter settled quickly.
Subsequently Macmillan agreed with Secretary to eliminate double negative.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 747C.00/12–1755. Secret. Repeated to London and Athens. Dulles was in Paris to attend a Ministerial Meeting of the North Atlantic Council on December 15 and 16.↩