Reported:
MORE BLOODSHED IN _____: Following the killing of a _____ woman in _____ yesterday, the _____ rulers of the _____ have embarked upon a fury of vandalism and terrorism against the _____ residents of _____, resulting in the deaths of six men by beating and a 12-year-old girl, _____, who is said to have died of heart failure or nervous collapse when _____ soldiers burst into her family’s house by breaking down the door. A total of 250 people have been killed. Hundreds of people have been arrested and subjected to terrible abuse. Eventually about 50 people aged from 15 to 50 years old were held, to be paraded before 18-year-old _______, the daughter of the murdered _____ woman who was with her mother at the time of the attack, but was herself uninjured. Yesterday, a 17-year-old ______, _____ _____, succumbed to injuries sustained in an attack by _____ soldiers.
No.
MORE BLOODSHED IN CYPRUS: Following the killing of a British woman in Cyprus yesterday, the British rulers of the island have embarked upon a fury of vandalism and terrorism against the Greek residents of Famagusta, resulting in the deaths of six men by beating and a 12-year-old girl, Ioanna Zachariadi, who is said to have died of heart failure or nervous collapse when British soldiers burst into her family’s house by breaking down the door. A total of 250 people have been killed. Hundreds of people have been arrested and subjected to terrible abuse. Eventually about 50 people aged from 15 to 50 years old were held, to be paraded before 18-year-old Margaret Cutcliffe, the daughter of the murdered British woman who was with her mother at the time of the attack, but was herself uninjured. Yesterday, a 17-year-old Greek Cypriot, Andreas Louka, succumbed to injuries sustained in an attack by British soldiers.
October 4, 1958
According to declassified documents, EOKA was on the brink of defeat in March 1957 but staged a spectacular recovery by summer the following year, partly due to the repressive measures against the population that made it harder to recruit informers, which in turn produced no usable intelligence.
It was at that point, July 1958, Britain began its biggest push until then against EOKA with Operation Matchbox – one intelligence report of which is only marked for declassification after 120 years. The operation involved collective punishment with mass arrests, detentions, roadblocks, searches censorship, curfews and general heavy handedness, or what Bell described as “harassment of the Greek population” with a “staggering lack of humanity”.
EOKA pushed back with a wave of reprisals against the British with 45 killings in October 1958 including a sergeant’s wife, Catherine Cutliffe, who was shot dead in broad daylight near Famagusta on October 3.
The backlash brought more sledgehammer tactics against the Cypriots and in a number of cases British army discipline completely broke down as enraged soldiers took out their anger on the population.
Governor Foot had warned against the operation and of its consequences, which had come to pass.
“I admired the Governor, a humane and decent man with the right instincts; but his motto of ‘firmness with courtesy’ fell on deaf ears,” Bell says. Foot was surrounded by hardliners keener on the firmness than the courtesy. “I stopped making excuses for the methods being used and recognised armed repression when I saw it. It was an assault upon the people.”
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