The Gisborne Herald. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED "THE TIMES” GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, DEC. 6, 1944. TURMOIL IN GREECE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21580, 6 December 1944, Page 2

The Gisborne Herald. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED "THE TIMES” GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, DEC. 6, 1944. TURMOIL IN GREECE

One of the most distressing developments of the war has been the intensification of party strife in, Greece, culminating in the necessity forced upon Britisli troops to take stern measures to maintain law and order. The British had been eagerly j looking forward to the day when they; would return to Greece as liberators of a gallant people and apply themselves to the task of assisting in national reconstruction. The re turn has been saddened by ample evidence of the extent to which the country has suffered under the German occupation. The most speedy measures taken to send food supply ships to the principal Greek ports have not been sufficient to put an early eel 10 all the privations and it is no doubt in this atmosphere of hunger and want that the new outbreak of factional bitterness has arisen. The course of politics never runs smoothly in any country when the national larder lacks the necessities of life. To a less drastic degree unrest has occurred in both Belgium and Holland.

The continued existence of iv.med guerrilla bands has contributed to the problem in Greece. The wisdom of General de Gaulle in quickly gathering the various French resistance movements: into the regular army is now clearly revealed. No dernoc vatic Government. can function proper.'./ while wandering guerrillas choose at any given interval to take the law into their own hands. The British troops in Greece are not concerned with the country's politics; they will show no preference, far the Right or the Left; but they are in duty bound to subdue any strife which is symtomatic of civil war and which, if not checked, might indeed lead to civil war on a grievous scale. At the moment a heavy burden- of responsibility rests on the shoulders of General Scobie, the Allied commander.

A DE GAULLE NEEDED

The general could hardly have put the position more succinctly when he said: "I reiterate that, with the vast majority of Greeks, I stand firmlybehind the constitutional Government and shall aid it to the limit of my resources until a Greek Stale can be established with lawful forces behind it and free elections can be held.' The Greek Prime Minister, M. Papanclreou, has made out a fairly convincing case for his course of action, but there remains more than a suspicion that in his attitude to those whom he calls the intransigent elements—the members of the E.A.M. Left Wing—he has not shown all the qualities of diplomacy required in v these times of peculiar difficulty. If the Greeks had a General de Gaulle of their own—a man who knew when to be tolerant and when to take a firm 'stand—the story of Greece’s progress towards peace and internal security might have been developed more hopefully. Much of Greece's trouble has its origin in German .plotting, it is overal year since a broadcast by the Ail ed Supreme Commander, Mediterranean, General Sir Henry Maitland WiLon, to the Greeks to cease fraticidal strife served as the first public indication that virtual- civil war was going on. The two strongest Greek guerrilla organisations were at each other’s throats in Epirus, where General Zervas’ men were said to be withstanding simultaneous attacks by Gormans and a powerful Greek gucr.illa force led by Colonel Serafis. This was an initial triumph for German propaganda which, by spreading the false tale that Zervas had concluded an armistice with the Germans, induced Serafis to attack his bands. An Allied mission, acting under the orders of Middle East headquarters, succeeded in setting up a joint Greek G.H.Q. which, it eyas hoped, would co-ordinate guerrilla activities throughout the country and enable the best use to be made of their efforts within the framework of Allied strategy. The attempt failed because of strong sectional rivalries and disharmonies. Thereupon the Germans set to work with diabolical skill to work on and exploit those differences.

NAZI INNUENDO

Although the Greeks were yearning for a period of peace and political stability in which-to heal the injuries suffered by their country in the war, the guerrilla leaders fell an easy prey to the machinations of the Nazi invaders. The British Government was forced to take: particular notice of the insidious propaganda that had been carried on for some time to the effect that it was seeking to impose the King on the Greek people, with the innuendo that the peace terms would be more or less favourable to Greece according •to whether the King returned there or notv It was difficult at the time to imagine anything more harmful to British influence and prestige in Greece or to the King himself. The. Greeks felt that their gallant fight against -the Italians and their spirited resistance to the Germans, in spite of starvation and terrorism, were not the doing of any one person or any regime, but were the outcome of a patriotic fervour which sprang from the core of the national soul. Therefore any suggestion by interested ■ propagandists that..the=-Allies might ignore this truth and.make;.what the Greeks considered their rightful claims the subject of political " 'bargaining aroused their bitter indignation.

Subsequent British actions dispelled many. of .the Greek doubts, but it is against this uneasy background that the present situation has developed. The Germans played their cards with characteristic shrewdness. Whether or not they still hoped they couid win the war, they were determined to make things as difficult as possible for the Allies and up to a point they succeeded. Unemployment and hunger have done the rest. No country which has been through such travail as Greece can reasonably be expected to attain political stability with the same ease as a well-fed nation. But Britain, and with her all the Allies and the Dominions,, will stand by Greece until she has recovered her economic equilibrium and inherent soundness in all affairs of State. New Zealanders who fought in Greece and Crete will have a special intensity of feeling for that unhappy land and will fervently welcome the day when real and lasting peace comes to it,