Book Review: Middle East: Cyprus: A Place of Arms

AuthorW M. Dobell
Published date01 March 1967
DOI10.1177/002070206702200164
Date01 March 1967
Subject MatterBook Review
BooK
REvIEws
157
on
the
whole
the
Third
Reich
failed
badly
in
this
area,
partly
through
local
misjudgment,
muddle
and
chicanery
(both German
and Arab),
partly
because
of
inadequate
understanding
and
support
in
Berlin,
and
partly
through
sheer bad
luck.
(The
Allies
enjoyed
almost
unbroken
good
fortune
here,
and
of
course
the general
military
and
geo-political
situation
told
increasingly
in
their
favour.)
Even
the
few
outstanding
individuals
on
the
German
side
were
far
below
the
level
of
such
World
War
I
notables as
Wassmuss
in
Iran
or
Lettow-Vorbeck
in
Africa.
But
the
whole
sorry
episode
needed
documentation
from the
German
view-
point
for
general
study,
and
the
record
is
now
reasonably
complete
for
ordinary
purposes.
If
the
work has
a
serious
shortcoming,
it
is
perhaps
its
self-imposed
limitation
to
the
Arab
lands, and
hence
to
the
years
1939-1943.
Even
within
the
Arab
world,
the
emphasis
on
Iraq
is
far
too
heavy
but
the
treatment
of
Iran
and
Turkey
is
quite
inadequate.
Both
of
these
lands
long
remained
the
Eastern
tip
of
a
possible
German
pincers-movement
on
the
entire
area,
while
Turkey
throughout
the
whole
War,
was
one
of
the
main
points
of
contact
between Allied
and
Axis
agents
for
all
sorts
of
purposes,
many
of
them
closely
related
to
the
moves
of both
sides
vis-a-vss
the
Arabs.
Again,
Iran
as
a
major
supply-route
to
Russia
teemed
with
Axis
agents,
some of
whom
were infiltrated
and
directed
from
Arab
countries. The
present
writer
can
testify,
from
four
years'
experience,
that
neither
the
Axis
nor the
Allied
policy-makers
treated
the
Arab
lands
as
something
separate
from
the
whole
Near
and
Middle
East
situation: historians
can
now
hardly
impose
a
new
frame
of
reference
on
the
picture
if
they
are
to
see
it
for
what
it
was
in
both
intention
and
fact.
University
of
Toronto
G.
M.
WICKENS
CYPRus:
A
PLAcE
OF
ARMS.
By
Robert Stephens.
1966.
(New York:
Frederick
A.
Praeger.
Toronto:
Burns
&
MacEachern.
232pp.
$7.25)
It
would
not
be
difficult
to
mistake
the
purpose
of
this
book.
The
author
is
one of
Britain's
better
diplomatic
correspondents;
the
title
suggests a
tale
of
very precarious
peace.
What
more
natural
than
that
such
a
writer
should
choose
to
recount
the
problems
of
the
United
Nations
Force
in
Cyprus
9
Such
is
not
his
theme,
or
at
any
rate
it
is
only
a
tiny
part
of
it.
Stephen's
Cyprus
is
not
A
Place
of
Arms"
of
three
years,
but
of
three
thousand years
or more.
We
are
told
of
its first
record
of
written
history
in
1500
B.C.
and
of
its
first
Greek
colonization
in
1400
B.C.
From
then
on
the
pace is
hot
but
not
heavy
for
Stephens
disclaims
any
pretense
of
presenting
a
short
digest
of
the
entire
span
of
Cypriot
history.
The
Ptolemy,
Lusignan
and
Venetian
periods
are
dismissed
almost
as
soon
as they
are
introduced,
whereas
the
Greek,
Turkish
and
British
influences receive
relatively
favoured
treatment.
He
concen-
trates
selectively
and
by
intent
on
three
elements
whose
confluence
and
interaction set
the
stage
for
the
present
Cyprus
problem:
the
rise
of
Greek
nationalism
and
the
Hellenic
idea,
the
collapse
of
the
Ottoman

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