PEACE TALKS IN GREECE

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24483, 5 February 1945, Page 7

PEACE TALKS IN GREECE

' - a government and \ EAM I t. I promise OF FREE f elections (Rec. 6.30 pjn.) / * ATOENS, F6b. 4. I The peace conference between the c Greek Government and EAM delegates f opened in a seaside villa 20 miles from { Athens ori Friday night. . 1 1 The Government delegates are Messrs John Sofianopoulos {Foreign Minister), Rallis (Minister of. the j Interior), and Macropoulous (Minister . of Agriculture). The EAM delegates are Messrs Siantos (Secretary-General , of the CommCmist Party and a member of the ELAS central committee), Partsalides (general secretary of_ the EAM central committee), and Tsm- ( mokos (leader of the Union of Popu- i lar Republicans). ...... Mr Sofianopoulos announced that i the Government would hold a free ■ plebiscite to decide the form of the | constitution and also free elections, with Allied observers attending to make sure the people’s will was genuinely expressed The gendarmerie and police would remain in being until reorganised on the basis of recornmendations frotn the visiting British police mission. Police‘.officers and men guilty Of criminal actions or of collaboration with the enemy would be removed. Bearing arms against the Government would not in itself be regarded ns an indictable offence, said Mr Sofianopoulos, This,concession was granted as an “act of grace” to assist the country's speedy pacification, Thus, no penalties would be enforced on members of ELAS unless they were individually guilty of acts either contrary to the rules of war or indictable under the criminal code. Mr Sofianopoulos emphasised that these provisions were conditional on the release of hostages and the disarmament of all irregular forces. Before the* conference Mr Sofianopoulos had announced that he was received by Mr Roosevelt, Mr Churchill, and Mr Stalin. Afterwards he hoped to visit the capitals of the United Nations. Mr Sofianopoulos said: ‘''While cultivating an identity of interests with Britain we have not lost sight Of the powerful Soviet Union, whose interests in the Northern Balkans are evident.” A Greek military court sentenced to death the first two members of ELAS brought to trial on charges of murder and violence during the Insurrection, says the Athens correspondent of the Associated Press. An additional charge of “taking up arms against the Greeks and their allies” was added by the tribunal after sentence was passed. ‘ The court later sentenced to death I three more ELAS supporters alleged to be members of the EAM security ' organisation known as OPLAS, says ■ Reuter’s Athens correspondent. They 1 were charged with high treason and murder. Counsel for one of the con--1 demned men said the Germans execu--1 ted his father for underground sabo- |, tage and forcibly removed his brother : to Germany.