Office of the Historian

234. Memorandum for the Record, by the Secretary of State1

Bermuda, March 23, 1957.

The President let Mr. Macmillan read the cable from George Allen (from Athens to Department 32042) with reference to Cyprus and Makarios. The President urged him to let Makarios go. Macmillan said that they had received a long and contentious communication from Makarios.3 He was, however, personally disposed to put the most charitable interpretation on it and to let him free. He was cabling the Cabinet to take no contrary action pending his return. The President urged that the UK stature would be enhanced if they dealt with the matter in a broad and liberal way. The President said that Macmillan was on the whole quite pleased with the contents of the Allen cable.4

  1. Source: Department of State, Conference Files: Lot 62 D 181, CF 868. Secret. A notation on the source text indicates that the memorandum was read to Rountree.↩
  2. Dated March 22. (Ibid., Central Files, 747C.00/3–2257)↩
  3. The text of Makarios’ statement of March 22 is printed in Documents (R.I.I.A.) for 1957, pp. 412–413.↩

  4. A memorandum of a March 23 dinner conversation among the President, Dulles, Macmillan, and Lloyd on Cyprus reads:

    “Mr. Macmillan brought up the question of Cyprus, indicating his strong hope that the US could in some public way express its support of the initiative of Lord Ismay, the former NATO Secretary General. Neither the President nor I made any response to this request, hearing it in silence, and Mr. Macmillan did not press the point.” (Eisenhower Library, Whitman File)

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