263. Editorial Note
On September 13, 5 days before the opening of the Twelfth General Assembly, Greece noted, in an explanatory memorandum, that no progress had been made on the Cyprus issue since February 26, 1957, the date of the last Assembly resolution on the subject.
On September 13, in a discussion among Ambassador Caccia, Rountree, and Harold Beeley of the British Embassy, Secretary Dulles acknowledged that it would be helpful to avoid the language of the Greek item for inscription and added that he would consider the matter to see what the United States might do under the circumstances. (Memorandum of conversation by Rountree, September 13, 1957; Department of State, Central Files, 747C.00/9–1357)
On September 17 at 10:25 a.m., Eisenhower telephoned Dulles. According to the transcript of the conversation, the following exchange regarding Cyprus occurred:
“The Sec. said the Greek-Turkey thing is in a mess. The Pres. said the Greeks are demanding unless we take their side, they will be tough. The Sec. said we probably won’t favor putting it on the UN Agenda because if it comes up, it will be a shambles, but we need more definite commitments from the British. They dragged the Turks in and got them excited so the issue is considered to be Greek-Turkish and not Greek-British. The Pres. said Cyprus never belonged to Greece.” (Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, White House Telephone Conversations)
On September 18, at 10:15 a.m. Dulles called Lloyd. According to the transcript of the conversation: [Page 507]
“The Secretary said we had to give an answer on Cyprus. He said the Norwegians were prepared to consolidate this Greek proposal into an innocuous single item and wondered if this was OK with Selwyn Lloyd. The Norwegians had checked with us to be sure that we were all lined up together.
“Selwyn Lloyd apparently inquired about lunch and they agreed the Secretary would come to Mr. Lloyd’s suite at 1:30 today.” (Ibid., Telephone Conversations—General)
In Delga 13, September 18, the United States Delegation at the United Nations informed the Department of State:
“This morning we informed Norwegians and UK we could support move by former to revise title to read: The Cyprus question’. Just before general committee meeting Lodge informed Averoff (Greece) who said he was ‘disappointed but not surprised’. We also informed other members General Committee we could support this move. After item changed by vote 11–0–4 (UK, USSR, Czech, France), Lloyd (UK) expressed satisfaction to Lodge at ease with which this accomplished.” (Department of State, Central Files, 320.5747C/9–1857)
On September 20, the General Assembly decided to place the Cyprus issue on its agenda and referred it to the First Committee.