GENERAL PAPAGOS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24491, 27 December 1940, Page 5

GENERAL PAPAGOS

GREEK FIELD CHIEF * TRAINED IN FRANCE BRIEF POLITICAL CAREER During recent- weeks the world has been frankly amazed, first by the resistance put up by the Greek Army to the Italian invasion, and now at the aggressive initiative it has taken with so much spirit in Albania, the vantage point Italy seized last year. When the history of the campaign comes to be written (states the Auckland Star) military historians may, perhaps, endeavour to determine whether it is a triumph for German or for French strategy: The Greek Dictator, General Metaxas, is.Gsrmantrained, while his Commander-in-chief in the field, General Papagos, is a graduate of the French Ecole de Guerre. Since both have certainly played a major part in the prepara-, tion of Greece's defence, perhaps history will award equal honours. ...

General Alexander Papagos is a man we know a great deal less about'than General Metaxas. Tall, dark, spare of figure—a strikingly distinguished looking man with flashing dark eyes—is a cavalryman. He was a captain in the Balkan wars of the early 1900's, and in the last war. in which Greece became. Britain's ally; after the intrigues and machinations of Constantine and his pro-German entoiitage had been defeated, he was a brigadier. Restoration of Monarchy, *;;>"*> But it was not until 1935 that he really emerged into the glare of the international limelight and became a name more and more known beyond the confines of his native lahd. : ".•■■' That year the Greek services,/, if not the Greek people, had made up their minds that a king should sit once more on the throne of Constantine and occupy the modest palace, guarded by picturesque ballet-skirted Evzones, that shelters behind a screen of dusty trees almost in the shadow of the AcroDolis in Athens. General Papagos, in October, 1935, commanded the Ist Greek Army Corps. With the chiefs of the air force and of the naval staff he waited on the morning of October 10 outside the Prime Minister's office for M. Tsaldaris's arrival. As the statesman stepped from his car General Papagos stopped him and. on behalf of the armed forces, demanded his immediate resignation. At a subsequent Cabinet meeting, the Prime Minister, having been informed by' the Service Ministers that they could not oppose the demand, resigned. General Kondylis formed a new Government and General Papagos became Minister of War. He then went to London, as one of the commission to invite King George to accept the throne. The history of Greek politics during subsequent months is obscure. The true story has yet to be told or the events that led to General Metaxas's 'seizure of power.

Then, dramatically, the political fortunes of General Papagos took a sudden change. A service agitation demanded that the armed forces should be considered as a factor in solving the political stalemate that had arisen in the Greek Parliament through tue inability of the two main parties t*» .agree to co-operate. Metaxas Becomes Dictator They did eventually agree to do so, but too late. General Metaxas had forestalled them with his coup, and democratic government had passed from the scene in Athens. In this confused period General Papagos seems to have' been associated with a Service demand that the King should assume dictatorial powers. Whether this was an'attempt' to forestall Metaxas and whether Papagos was outmanoeuvred is something we shall not know until some future time. What we do know is that Papagos suddenly disappeared from the Ministry of War and that Metaxas became Prime Minister on April 14, 1.936, and • Prime Minister for life in the following August. » What adds to the confusion of this interlude is that, whereas Metaxas was a Germanophile, Papagos was an Anglophile. An Anglophile also,. King George has always been supposed to be, but his lot in 1936 was thrown in with the Germanophile Metaxas. Papagos emerged as Greek Chief of Staff in 1938. If he had any differences with Metaxas they had been composed. The truth is, perhaps, that Papagos is a military rather than 8 political figure, although he did play so prominent a political role for a few brief months. With limited funds he pushed on the • preparation of Greece's defences, not-. ably the Metaxas Line, and he was a great advocate of the guerilla warfare that has succeeded so brilliantly against the Italians in the Pindus Mountains, Perhaps it is the combination of two strategies—of Metaxas's German training and the theories of war learned by Papagos in France—that has proved so effective against ihe Italians in Albania- ■'<• >'-'; '• ■ '■■ V ' '.. : , . . ' ' -