DANGER OF CIVIL WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 136, 6 December 1944, Page 5

DANGER OF CIVIL WAR

PITCHED BATTLES RAGE (By Telegrauh—Press Association—copyright.) Rec-10.40 a.m. LONDON, Dec. 5. While pitched battles are raging in Athens between the Armed forces of i the two main political parties and the danger that the whole of Greece will Ibe plunged into civil war grows, the King of Greece has refused to accept the resignation of the Prime Minister, M. Papandreou, says the British United Press correspondent in Athens. M. ! Sofoulis, leader of the Liberal Party, has refused to participate in the Greek Government and has ordered all the Liberal Ministers to refuse portfolios. «,A™ p i itche<^ battle raging around the Metropolis Hotel between the ELAS and the EDES. Clashes have broken jout throughout the city. EDES troops, using the Metropolis Hotel as their headquarters, opened fire with revolvers against ELAS demonstrators in the street below, and the ELAS counterattacked. Four persons are known to have been killed so far. [The ELAS is the military branch of the EAM, the left-wing National Liberation Front. The EDES is the army of General Zervas, who claims that it is strictly non-political, though it contains many Rightist officers.] The ELAS used mortars in an attack against police barracks in the centre of Athens. Another battle flared up for a police station which- the ELAS attempted to occupy. When the fight began demonstrators were besieging the police headquarters, shouting proRoosevelt slogans and hailing the United States as "our only ally." Huge columns of EAM demonstrators from different sections of Athens converged ion the centre of the city this morning and paraded in Constitution Square, carrying placards demanding a national Government and a democratic front. It was officially stated in Athens that the British authorities would try to avoid bloodshed but were prepared if necessary to take a very firm line. Greek troops would be used only as a last resort. It would be "repugnant in the extreme" to use Greek troops against ELAS units. The statement added that if there were not British troops in Greece the attempt to achieve a forceful solution of the political question would be forced to an issue. FOOD SITUATION SERIOUS. There are no foodstuffs for sale in Athens today. Most families are without stocks, and the food situation is serious. Dense crowds cheered General Scobie as he walked to his headquarters this morning. The Athens correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain reports that Greek civil police fired on an official car carrying the head of the Soviet mission to Greece, Colonel Popoff, who was not hurt. Police mistook the Russian red flag on the mudguard for the EAM flag. The police report that about 100 were killed and possibly 250 wounded in yesterday's fighting in Athens. The EAM announced that four more civilians were killed this afternoon when police fired on demonstrators. Reuters Athens correspondent reports that R.A.F. fighters made recon-, naissance flights yesterday over ELAS concentration areas. British troops today began reoccupying public buildings in Piraeus, which was earlier occupied by ELAS troops. So far the reoccupation has been carried out without incident. The attack against the joint AngloGreek naval headquarters at Piraeus yesterday was carried out by 400 ELAS troops armed with automatic weapons and seven or eight machine-guns. The battle lasted from 7 a.m. till 11 a.m. The ELAS troops withdrew when Bx*itish armoured cars arrived and patrolled the no man's land between the~ opposing forces. One Greek was killed and three British seamen were wounded in the incident. ELAS troops at pistol point simultaneously entered the hospital v/ing of the naval college, which they still occupy.