Makarios Pledges to Lead Cypriot Freedom Struggle

"I am the man who will lead Cyprus to freedom," Archbishop Makarios exclaimed last night, in answer to the dramatic accusation of a Harvard professor that "it is you, my lord, who has armed those young terrorists."

The overflow crowd in Sanders Theatre reacted with a violent outburst of mingled cheers and catcalls to the finger-pointing accusation of Professor George E. Kirk, a British scholar now associated with the Center for Middle Eastern Studies here.

Archbishop Makarios, the featured speaker at the Harvard Law School Forum, was cheered for his reply.

Makarios defended the Cypriot EOKA movement, asking "How can you call the Hungarian patriots 'freedom fighters' and the Cypriot patriots 'terrorists'?"

The spiritual and temporal leader of the Greek Cypriots renewed his plea for national self-determination. He decried the repeated refusal of the United Kingdom to permit a plebescite in Cyprus, and called on the United States to supply "moral leadership" in finding a solution to the dispute.

U.N. Can Help

The Archbishop declared that the United Nations can play a helpful role in the current struggle by recommending an immediate end to British rule, and self government during an interim period if the Cypriots are still denied immediate self-determination.

Makarios termed Cyprus "the only area still deprived of fundamental human rights by the British." He added that the wishes of the Turkish minority on the island should not be allowed to frustrate the will of the large Greek majority, and called for a settlement which would protect the rights of all.

Kirk Cites Breakdown

Professor Kirk cited "the breakdown of self-determination when attempted in plural societies, such as Palestine and Kashmir. But Makarios replied that, "according to that principle, where there is no homogeneous population, colonial rule must prevail."

Dr. A. J. Meyer, associate director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, forecast the decline of the Cypriote economy during the next five to seven years and called for a NATO trusteeship until Cyprus could be made solvent. Carlyle Morgan of the Christian Science Monitor also stressed the role NATO might play in the period before Cyprus could be allowed self-determination.