CHURCHILL AND EDEN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 156, 30 December 1944, Page 7

CHURCHILL AND EDEN

EASY JOURNEY BY AIR LONDON, December 29. Mr. Churchill and Mr. Eden have arrived in, England from their conferences in Athens, the Prime Minister being accompanied by his medical adviser. They landed in an R.A.F transport plane at an airfield near London, after what Mr. Churchill described as an easy journey, and soon afterwards they attended a Cabinet meeting in London. While in Greece they had their headquarters on board the cruiser Ajax (sister-ship to the Achilles and Leander). Relief, at the safe return of the Prime Minister and Mr. Eden from the arduous and somewhat hazardous visit to Greece is undoubtedly the feeling uppermost in British hearts. That five days were devoted by Mr. Churchill, at a critical moment of the fighting in western Europe, to trying, to help to solve the Greek tragedy was evidence of his appreciation of its importance. All that can be reported at present is that a beginning has been made, negotiations started, and all sides are agreed that a regency under Archbishop Damaskinos is the best hope of a solution. Perhaps more could hardly have been hoped for in the trying circumstances under which the negotiations were conducted. It is safe to assume that no time will be lost in recommending to the King of the Hel- | lenes the appointment of the regent. Meanwhile the Archbishop has already taken up the difficult task of reconciliation. A message from Washington says that the United States Secretary of State (Mr. Stettinius) expects to meet Mr. Eden soon to get a first-hand account of the Greek situation. London is given as the probable meeting place. "The Times," in a leading article, describes the ELAS terms as- not in essence intransigent. They amount to a demand for a Government based on a national liberation front; secondly, an energetic purge; and, thirdly, a speedy popular vote. "None of these items can be challenged in principle. They j are. broadly the programme on which i every resistance movement in Europe will rightly insist," "The Times" says.