Mason & Dixon Line in Cyprus

[JBFRAME at aol.com]

In a message dated 01/26/2000 5:20:43 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
Tsianides at cytanet.com.cy writes:

<< The  British Army, in the early morning of 30 May 1956
 ,erected iron rods and barber wire, between the Greek Cypriot and
 Turkish Cypriot neighbourhoods of the capital Nicosia and the town was
 partitioned. The name given by the British to the line was MASON AND
 DIXON LINE.
 And the justification for the name ? According to THEM it " was the line
 in the U.S.A that divided North from South to prevent ...hostilities "
 >>

A good example of the military mind's misunderstanding of history.  The 
boundary between Maryland & Pennsylvania was originally intended to be just a 
survey line.  I have not yet read Pynchon's _Mason & Dixon_, so I cannot 
reference the novel at this time.
The survey was made before the US independence from Britain, something we 
have in common with the Cypriots.  Eventually, the line became the 
northernmost limit of the states that allowed slavery.  When the Civil War 
began in 1860, the state of Maryland did not join the Rebellion and remained 
in the Union.  Thus, the line was never actually a division of overtly 
hostile entities.

jbf