POWERS SOUGHT BY PRESIDENT

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25135, 17 March 1947, Page 7

POWERS SOUGHT BY PRESIDENT

President Truman, at Key West, today said he had received from both the Greek Prime Minister (Mr Maximos) and the Leader of the Greek Parliamentary Opposition (Mr Themistocles Sofoulis) assurances that they would, co-operate unreservedly with the United States in achieving stability and internal order in Greece. Mr Truman called upon the Greek rebels , to accept with confidence the amnesty which the Greek Government was extending to all except those guilty of crimes against the common law. The Washington correspondent of the New York “Herald-Tribune” says: “Mr Truman is seeking a blanket authority (1) to spend on Greece and Turkey as he sees fit the 400,000,000 dollars he has requested from Congress; and

(2) to transfer military supplies and personnel to either country virtually without limitation.

“The first draft of the bill prepared by the White House and the. State Department to implement the President’s call for action to stem Communism in the Near East was circulated among Congressional leaders yesterday. Its terms would give Mr Truman such vast discretionary power to apply what is now called ’the Truman-expanded Monroe Doctrine’ to the Mediterranean crisis area, that it seems certain to have a rough passage in Congress. “One Congressman said: ‘lt is a blank cheque that we are being asked to write on the basis of a synthetic mystery. The legislation calls for considerable tailoring, and I have my scissors ready right how.