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A War of Perception: The Cypriot Government and Its Image During the Revolt

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The Evolution of British Counter-Insurgency during the Cyprus Revolt, 1955–1959

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Abstract

This chapter examines the Cypriot government’s attempts to win the war of image and perception. Throughout the revolt, the government dealt with EOKA accusations of torture and war crimes. The government’s strategy often tended toward repression, as demonstrated by two examples: an unwillingness to host an impartial inquiry and the decision to prosecute Charles Foley, editor of the Times of Cyprus. The government faced unique circumstances in waging the war of words on Cyprus; its overall conduct can furnish modern policymakers with lessons on the importance of press strategy.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    King’s College London Archives (KCL) GB0099 KCLMA Gilbert-Smith, Press Cuttings 1950–1957, RHS Crossman, New Statesman, November 22, 1958.

  2. 2.

    Carruthers, Winning Hearts and Minds: British Governments, the Media, and Colonial Counter-Insurgency, 1944–1960, 46.

  3. 3.

    Holland, Britain and the Revolt in Cyprus: 1954–1959, 50, 150, 178.

  4. 4.

    Jonathan Stubbs, “Making Headlines in a State of Emergency: The Case of the Times of Cyprus, 1955–60,” 9.

  5. 5.

    Carruthers, Winning Hearts and Minds: British Governments, the Media, and Colonial Counter-Insurgency, 1944–1960, 233.

  6. 6.

    TNA FCO 141/4670. EOKA Pamphlet, The Nazi Tories and We.

  7. 7.

    Ibid., EOKA Pamphlet, Commemorating two anniversaries.

  8. 8.

    Bodleian Library, Foot Papers 1/3, Allegations of Brutality in Cyprus.

  9. 9.

    Foley, Island in Revolt, 131.

  10. 10.

    British Library, Press Archives, The Times of Cyprus, June 14, 1957.

  11. 11.

    KCL GB0099 KCLMA Gilbert-Smith, Press Cuttings 1950–1957, Myrna Blumberg, “Look Back in Anger,” The Daily Herald, November 29, 1956.

  12. 12.

    Ibid., Charles Foley, “Captain Crunch of Her Majesty’s Torturers,” The Tribune, November 9, 1962.

  13. 13.

    French, Fighting EOKA: The British Counter-Insurgency Campaign on Cyprus, 293.

  14. 14.

    KCL GB0099 KCLMA Gilbert-Smith, Press Cuttings 1950–1957, “Mrs. Castle Hits Back,” The Sunday Graphic, October 5, 1958.

  15. 15.

    TNA FCO 141/4597, “Statement by HE the Governor,” November 19, 1956.

  16. 16.

    Bodleian Library, Foot Papers 1/3, Foreword to Allegations of Brutality in Cyprus.

  17. 17.

    Ibid., Foot Papers 1/3, Allegations of Brutality in Cyprus.

  18. 18.

    IWMSA 10145, Michael Neale Harbottle, Reel 1. 1988.

  19. 19.

    IWMSA 32202, Rex Cain, Reel 10.

  20. 20.

    IWMSA 16064, Jack Taylor, Reel 2. 1995.

  21. 21.

    IWMSA 8736, John Harding, Reel 46. 1984.

  22. 22.

    IWM 1779, Ian Martin Papers, The Cyprus Troubles 1955–60, 22.

  23. 23.

    Ibid., Passages from his letters, June to August 1958, July 24, 1958.

  24. 24.

    Ibid., Passages from his letters, June to August 1958, July 24, 1958.

  25. 25.

    KCL GB0099 KCLMA Gilbert-Smith, Press Cuttings 1950–1957, Stephen Barber, “Cyprus Soldiers Accused of Brutality,” News Chronicle, November 18, 1958.

  26. 26.

    Ibid., Press Cuttings 1950–1957, “Entirely Unjustified Degree of Force,” The Times, December 12, 1958.

  27. 27.

    Bell, The End of Empire, 136.

  28. 28.

    Ibid., 128.

  29. 29.

    Holland, Britain and the Revolt in Cyprus: 1954–1959, 54–55.

  30. 30.

    IWMSA 33385, John Patterson Carr, Reel 16.

  31. 31.

    IWM 675, A.R. Ashton Papers, 170.

  32. 32.

    IWMSA 29047, Len Townend, Reel 9, 2006.

  33. 33.

    PFR Corson, Call the Middle Watch: An Account of Life at Sea in the Royal Navy 1905 to 1963, (Edinburgh: Pentland Press, 1997), 247.

  34. 34.

    IWMSA 8736, John Harding, Reel 46. 1984.

  35. 35.

    IWM 3440, Papers of C.R. Butt, 91.

  36. 36.

    Ibid., 100.

  37. 37.

    IWMSA 8736, John Harding, Reel 42. 1984.

  38. 38.

    Bodleian Library, The Cyprus Emergency by Brigadier GH Baker CB, CMG, CBE, MC, 43.

  39. 39.

    Bodleian Library, Foot Papers 1/3, Allegations of Brutality in Cyprus.

  40. 40.

    TNA CO 926/1077. General Kenneth Darling, Report on the Cyprus Emergency, 8.

  41. 41.

    Ibid., 117.

  42. 42.

    Ibid., 33.

  43. 43.

    British Library, Press Archives, The Times of Cyprus, June 9, 1957.

  44. 44.

    KCL GB0099 KCLMA Gilbert-Smith, Press Cuttings 1950–1957, “Makarios: Horrible Charges,” Daily Mirror, June 20, 1957.

  45. 45.

    Ibid., Press Cuttings 1950–1957, “Troops in Cyprus,” Manchester Guardian, November 25, 1958.

  46. 46.

    “Final Words: Cronkite’s Vietnam Commentary.” CBS News, Special Report, February 27, 1968.

  47. 47.

    Tom Wicker, “Broadcast News,” The New York Times, January 26, 1997.

  48. 48.

    David Anderson, Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire (New York: W.W. Norton and Co, 2005), 292.

  49. 49.

    Timothy Ang, “Lessons from the British: Counterinsurgency Strategies Applied in Malaya, Kenya, and Cyprus,” Pointer: Journal of the Singapore Armed Forces 39, no. 2 (2015): 51.

  50. 50.

    IWMSA 9173, John Reddaway, Reel 5.

  51. 51.

    French, Fighting EOKA, 33–34.

  52. 52.

    Elpida Vogli, “The Making of Greece Abroad: Continuity and Change in the Modern Diaspora Politics of a ‘Historical’ Irredentist Homeland,” Nationalism and Ethnic Policies 17, no. 1 (2011), 29–33.

  53. 53.

    Senator Kennedy, extension of remarks, 85th Cong., 2nd sess., Congressional Record (March 6, 1958).

  54. 54.

    TNA CO 926/1077. General Kenneth Darling, Report on the Cyprus Emergency, Memorandum from Chief of Defense staff from BDCC (ME).

  55. 55.

    IWM 3440, Papers of C.R. Butt, 110.

  56. 56.

    IWM 4464, Papers of Reverend Howell-Everson, AKOE Card: “The Law is Useless.”

  57. 57.

    Ibid., AKOE Pamphlet.

  58. 58.

    Ibid., ICO Leaflet.

  59. 59.

    French, Fighting EOKA: The British Counter-Insurgency Campaign on Cyprus, 229.

  60. 60.

    Bodleian Library, Foot Papers 1/2, Briefs for Sir Hugh Foot, Brief 14: European Commission on Human Rights.

  61. 61.

    Ibid.

  62. 62.

    Simpson, Human Rights and the End of Empire: Britain and the Genesis of the European Convention, 7.

  63. 63.

    TNA CO 936/490. Greece vs United Kingdom, Application O. 176/56, Report of the European Commission on Human Rights.

  64. 64.

    Ibid.

  65. 65.

    Simpson, Human Rights and the End of Empire: Britain and the Genesis of the European Convention, 1019.

  66. 66.

    Ibid., 1003.

  67. 67.

    French, Fighting EOKA: The British Counter-Insurgency Campaign on Cyprus, 201.

  68. 68.

    TNA CO 936/490. Greece vs United Kingdom, Application O. 176/56, Report of the European Commission on Human Rights.

  69. 69.

    Jonathan Stubbs, “Making Headlines in a State of Emergency: The Case of the Times of Cyprus, 1955–60,” 5.

  70. 70.

    British Library, Press Archives, The Times of Cyprus, May 31, 1955.

  71. 71.

    IWMSA 8736, John Harding, Reel 42. 1984.

  72. 72.

    IWMSA 9173, John Reddaway, Reel 9.

  73. 73.

    Bell, The End of Empire, 131.

  74. 74.

    IWM 19505, AJB Walker Papers, Letter to Mother, 12 September 1958.

  75. 75.

    Van der Bijl, The Cyprus Emergency: The Divided Island 1955–1974, 111.

  76. 76.

    TNA FCO 141/4597: Publications in the Press causing Alarm and Despondency, Cypher from Governor to Colonial Office, 29 October 1956.

  77. 77.

    Ibid.

  78. 78.

    Ibid.

  79. 79.

    Ibid.

  80. 80.

    Foley, Island in Revolt, 112.

  81. 81.

    Dewar, Brush Fire Wars: Minor Campaigns of the British Army Since 1945, 76.

  82. 82.

    British Library, Press Archives, The Times of Cyprus, November 21, 1956.

  83. 83.

    Crouzet, Le Conflit de Chypre, vol. 2, 601.

  84. 84.

    French, Fighting EOKA: The British Counter-Insurgency Campaign on Cyprus, 1955–1959, 177.

  85. 85.

    Foley, Island in Revolt, 125.

  86. 86.

    Ibid., 113–127.

  87. 87.

    Ibid., 129.

  88. 88.

    British Library, Press Archives, The Times of Cyprus, June 14, 1957.

  89. 89.

    Jonathan Stubbs, “Making Headlines in a State of Emergency: The Case of the Times of Cyprus, 1955–60,” 12.

  90. 90.

    British Library, Press Archives, Halkın Sesi, August 9 1958.

  91. 91.

    Ibid., The Times of Cyprus, June 14, 1957.

  92. 92.

    Foley, Island in Revolt, Appendix.

  93. 93.

    British Library, Press Archives, The Times of Cyprus, June 14, 1957.

  94. 94.

    Ibid., The Times of Cyprus, June 15, 1957.

  95. 95.

    Ibid., The Times of Cyprus, October 10, 1955.

  96. 96.

    Ibid., The Times of Cyprus, October 26, 1955.

  97. 97.

    Ibid., The Times of Cyprus, June 24, 1957.

  98. 98.

    Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (New York: Grove Press, 1965), 15.

  99. 99.

    Bell, The End of Empire, 131.

  100. 100.

    French, Fighting EOKA: The British Counter-Insurgency Campaign on Cyprus, 1955–1959, 186.

  101. 101.

    Foley, Island in Revolt, 124.

  102. 102.

    Ibid., 148.

  103. 103.

    TNA CO 926/1077. General Kenneth Darling, Report on the Cyprus Emergency, Preface.

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    1. Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

      Preston Jordan Lim

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    Lim, P.J. (2018). A War of Perception: The Cypriot Government and Its Image During the Revolt. In: The Evolution of British Counter-Insurgency during the Cyprus Revolt, 1955–1959. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91620-0_4

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91620-0_4

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