A Cherub from Finland

The Canadian and British troops on Cyprus last week were issued U.N. shoulder patches and light blue berets and helmets. Thus the U.N. formally assumed responsibility for keeping the peace, and India's Lieut. General Prem Singh Gyani, a veteran of U.N. operations in the Gaza Strip and Yemen, took over the military command. En route to Cyprus to serve as the U.N. political mediator is Sakari Tuomioja, 52, a blond, heavy-set Finn with a cherubic face, who was nominated by Secretary-General U Thant and accepted by all the interested parties. Most recently

Finland's Ambassador to Sweden, Tuomioja (pronounced Twoo-mee-o-ya) has previously done U.N. jobs as an administrator and trouble-shooter in Laos, one of the few places in the world that can match the complexity of Cypriot politics.

After holding Finnish Cabinet posts ranging from Premier to Foreign Minister, Economist Tuomioja became the Conservative candidate for President in 1956, but lost to Urho Kekkonen. Though antiCommunist, he is married to the daughter of Hella Wuolijoki, a Finnish Communist playwright best known to the U.S. as the author of The Farmer's Daughter, which was made into a 1947 movie and is currently a U.S. television series.

Known to his friends as "Poju" [boy], a reference to his youthful appearance, Tuomioja is respected for his even temper, intelligence and ability to listen. He will need all these gifts and more. The Turkish Cypriots and their mother country insist that Cyprus be partitioned or changed into a cantonal federation to give each national group its own domain. Greece refuses even to discuss partition, and will demand first of all a new constitution free of the hampering minority rights for Turkish Cypriots embedded in the 1960 document. Mediator Tuomioja hopes to complete his mission in the specified three-month period, but a Canadian soldier was more realistic when he said, "We'll be lucky to get home for Christmas."

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