THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Thursday, December 14, 1944. THE GREEK CRISIS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25718, 14 December 1944, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Thursday, December 14, 1944. THE GREEK CRISIS

There has been no relaxation of the tension in Greece, and no weakening of the British intention, as expressed through General Scobie, to restore, by the continued use of force if necessary, conditions which will permit the Greek people to decide their future form of government by the orderly processes of election. It is a travesty of the facts to assert, as was apparently done by the GreekAmerican delegation' which presented itself at the British Embassy in Washington, that . Britain is attempting by force of arms to establish in Greece a Government opposed to the will of the Greek people. That mischievous allegation has already been sufficiently rebutted in the House of Commons, most effectively by Mr Eden when he declared that “ while it is the British purpose to enable the Greek people to express their own political will, we must insist that it be done by the ballot box and not by the bomb.” It must be sufficiently obvious to all but the most biased in judgment that British intervention in this tragic development is not partisan. General Scobie, in an interview on December 6, gave it as his opinion that elements of the extreme Right were as bad as those of the extreme Left. “ They have tried,” he said bluntly, “to British soldiers as a cover to pay off old scores. I will not tolerate it, nor will I be drawn into Greek politics. I believe this civil war is being ordered by a mere handful of extremists.” The situation has been further examined, in realistic detail, by a British correspondent in Athens, who writes that what is-going on there is more than an attempt by a minority party to seize power. “It is a basic principle,” he adds, “that in a country seeking by democratic means to determine its form of government the existence of private partisan forces is not admissible. The E.L.A.S. is just such an army, and its presence completely negatives any attempt at self-determination pn the part of the great majority of the Greek people.” It is the ; conclusion of this correspondent that the firing on the demonstrators in Athens by the police probably did no more than accelerate by a few hours “ the inevitable outbreak of violence.” Developments, he points out, proved the E.L.A.S. not merely to be well armed, but also prepared to launch operations on a scale which must have required “ at least some days’ planning.” Finally, he asks whether the United Nations are to permit “ the rise to power of armed minorities in every country freed by force of Allied arms.” The question involves not the issue of the Greek crisis alone, but the whole attitude of the Allies towards the cause for which they have been, and are still, stubbornly fighting—whether partisan dictatorships, relying on force, are to continue or whether they are to give way to the will of the people. The British Government, which has the misfortune to be the Government directly involved in the Greek imbroglio, has at no time been equivocal concerning its approach to political reconstruction in any of the occupied countries. It has insisted that the people shall themselves decide how they ape to .be governed, and in the Greek case it has the right to expect the co-operation of all parties in reaching a solution by constitutional means. The organisations of the Left in that unhappy country are suspect by their own acts. If they were convinced, the Greek Prime Minister has asked, that they had a majority with'them, what need was there to organise revolt? Why did 1 they not accept demobilisation and tfyen proceed to free elections? Those questions are not to be answered in terms of vague and illogical charges of British interference.