HC Deb 22 May 1958 vol 588 cc1467-8
Mr. Benn

With your permission, Mr. Speaker, I rise to present a Petition signed by 7,970 citizens of London and elsewhere relating to Cyprus.

The Petitioners in their Prayer draw attention to the United Nations Resolution on this subject, passed last year, calling for a peaceful, democratic and just solution in accordance with the principles and purposes of the Charter, and hoping that negotiations would be resumed and continued to this end. The Petitioners draw the attention of the House to the fact that no negotiations with the people of Cyprus have taken place since that Resolution, and that in the absence of such negotiations the danger of violence grows daily more serious. The Petition concludes with the Prayer: Wherefore your Petitioners most humbly pray that the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will take immediate steps to urge Her Majesty's Government to comply with the terms of the United Nations Resolution by inviting the representatives of the people of Cyprus to enter into talks with them immediately about the future of the Island on the basis of the implementation of self-determination including the questions of democratic elections, minority rights, constitutional proposals, international guarantees and the date and method of self-determination. And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.

To lie upon the Table.