TERMS FOR TRUCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25085, 26 December 1944, Page 5

TERMS FOR TRUCE

THE E.L.A.S. REPLY DISARMING PROPOSALS RIVAL ORGANISATIONS (Heed; 0.35 p.m.) LONDON. Dec. 24 A reply by the E.L.A.S. Central Committee to General Scobic s armistice term's was officially issued today: It insists on the withdrawal far from Athens of the Greek Mountain Brigade and Greek units recently brought in from Egypt. The reply also insists o - the disarmament and confinement of all officers and men of the former Rail is security battalions, assorting that this is a matter requiring fuller verification. The committee states that tlio.agreement roughed at Gaserta cannot "any bloody intervention by British forces against the Greek people," as the clause giving the British forces the right to restore law and order was deleted from the draft agreement on the insistence of the Left Wing representative* Objection to Intervention "It is not acceptable that the Greek people's liberties, for which tlioy shed and arc shedding so much blood, should be offered to them from outside by the intervention of third parties." The .committee agrees to the disarmament of E.L.A.S. forces in Athens and Piraeus simultaneously with the disarmament of the supporters of rival organisations, but insists that the disarmament must 1)0 made only by arrangement with the Greek Government. An agency message says it is considered that the new conditions for peace put forward by the E.L.A.S. are generally unsuitable. The E.L.A.S. demands the transportation of the Greek Mountain Brigade and the Sacred Battalion to the Cvc lades Islands, in addition to the reorganisation of the police and the dissolution of the gendarmerie. Regency No Solution The Prime Minister, M. Papandreou, said yesterday that the establishment of a Regency would in no way facilitate a solution of the present crisis. The only solution, he said, was for the rebels to give ui) their arms to the Government. The time would come for a plebiscite and elections.

"Since I assumed power," lie said, "I have been ready to resign more than once. Were the resignation not likely to prove harmful to the country, 1 would still be ready to resign." M. Papandreou emphasised that there was no intention to introduce harsh means consequent upon the disturbances by the extreme Left. "We hope the Left will become a political party, and not a revolutionary army," he said. Reuters correspondent in Athens says that M. Sofoulis, 85-year-old Greek Liberal leader, lias ranged himself on the side of the Papandreou Government. He condemned the E.A.M. organisation as "a political movement which is arbitrarily trying to subject the Greek people to its will by arms and violence. Peace can he arranged only by the E.L.A.S. laying down their arms."

It is recalled that M. Sofoulis on December 5 stated: "If I supported M. Papandreou 1 should be supporting a dictator."