Correspondence between Seydoux and Schaeffer on the future of the Enkomi excavations and exchanges with Archbishop MakariosClaude Frédéric-Armand Schaeffer and Roger Seydoux

HS

Printed: DIRECTOR GENERAL | FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Printed: OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS

no. 370

Dear Sir and friend,

Miss SARRUT has passed on to me the message that you sent her regarding a possible correspondence with the Archebishop MAKARIOS.

I am convinced, as you are, that something must be done on the Island, and that the sooner the better. We are moreover going to appoint very shortly a Consul in Cyprus. We are also thinking of cultural questions, and I was particularly interested in the suggestion that you made to me.

Must you, from now on, write to the Archbishop? To tell the truth, I am very embarrassed to answer you, and my colleagues in the Political Directorate are no less so.

If you knew him personally, I would see only advantages in it. If your relations can be established for the moment only through friends, even very close ones, of the Archebishop, I wonder whether a letter coming from a man having your responsibilities and your authority would not be regarded as an official step which the Department does not seem to wish to take before a representative of the Ministry is effectively installed in Cyprus.

I apologise for inviting you, in short, to remain in an attitude of expectancy, but the opinions that have been given to me and the reflections I have been led to make incline me to think that by pressing too hard we might perhaps harm our cause.

Please believe, dear Sir and friend, in my best sentiments.

Seydoux

Mr SCHAEFFER | Roger SEYDOUX. Member of the Institut Professor at the Collège de France ----