FIVE-POINT PLAN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22289, 26 March 1947, Page 5

FIVE-POINT PLAN

GREEK PROBLEM TSALDARIS’ VIEWS ACCESS FOR NEIGHBOURS NEW YORK, March 24. A sweeping five-point programme designed to solve the Greek problem was proposed by ihe Greek Foreign Minister, M. Tsaldaris, in an interview with the Athens correspondent of the newspaper Cleveland Plain Dealer. M. Tsaldaris recommended: — (1) That Marshal Stalin should make a public declaration that the Russian Communist Party, in the interests of world peace, prefers the victory of Communist philosophy through peaceful democratic means rather than armed revolutions.

(2) A neutral zone should be fixed at the northern frontiers of Greece into which Greek guerrillas could enter freely and safely to surrender arms to a neutral force, such surrender to follow the cessation of Government operations against guerrillas. Guerrillas Right to Leave

(3) Guerrillas who surrender arms should be given the choice of crossing any frontier, emigrating or remaining in Greece under guaranteed protection. (41 New Greek elections should be held under international control within six months of the surrender of arms and following the amnesty to guerrillas and political prisoners. (5) Both Yugoslavia and Bulgaria should be awarded free customs zones in Salonika to give them free access to the Aegean. President Truman’s aid programme has raised Greece’s morale to unprecedented heignts and is opposed only by the forces which would profit from the unrest, declared the United States Ambassador to Greece, Mr. Lincoln McVeagh, addressing the Greek-American organisation which is celebrating the 126th anniversary of modern Greece's independence.

Ten thousand members of the Hellenic organisations paraded up Fifth Avenue to-day before 50,000 spectators in celebration of Greece’s independence day.