THE CHILDREN OF GREECE StR,—I am flogging a dead horse,
I know, but I really cannot let Mr. Sloan get away with it. The whole of Chapter II (of which I cited Section Et: is entitled " The Evidence " ; that is to say, it deals with all removals, forcible or otherwise. Chapter III, from which I also quoted, is entitled " Forcible or Voluntary Removal of Children " ; that is to say, it takes the-evidence in Chapter II and classifies it into these two categories. I cited such evidence from this section as proved that some children had been forcibly removed ; Mr. Sloan cites other evidence suggesting that some other children had been removed with their parents' consent. For the life of me, I cannot see how the latter invalidates the former, and it is the former that I am arguing about.
Mr. Sloan's efforts to dismiss the evidence that does not suit his book are, I must say, rather crude. Because several mayors (who gave evidence about forcible abduction in their villages in Thrace) had subsequently fled their homes instead of waiting to have their throats cut by Mr. Sloan's protégés, their evidence is not reliable ; because adults were in certain cases abducted at the same time as children, no offence has been committed. "There is no reference to sending the children abroad," continues Mr. Sloan—only Belgrade Radio which on April 12th announced that 7,000 Greek children had arrived, and another broadcast from the " Greek News Agency's " own principal source of information, the Greek rebel radio, which on March 14th proudly announced that 4,400 Greek children had been transferred from 59 villages in Greece to the " northern countries." And what is so very " tall " about the evidence that twenty guerrillas—no doubt Suitably armed—forcibly removed 180 children of various ages up to 18 in a village?
This correspondence must be rather tedious for your readers, who have had no chance to see the whole Report for themselves ; but I think the matter can be summed up in a nutshell. The U.N. Committee gathered a great deal of evidence in this matter. It sifted it very carefully, and reached certain definite conclusions. No amount of squiggling on the part of Mr. Sloan and his fellow " democrats " can possibly alter this verdict, namely that Greek children have been forcibly removed from their homes to other countries. Mr. Sloan would have us believe that a United Nations Committee, made up of experienced diplomats and soldiers representing nine countries, has reached a verdict that is not in accordance with the facts. Is he not carrying things a little too far?—Yours very
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