LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
THE TROUBLE IN GREECE
sm,—I wish to correct a considerable inaccuracy in the letter you were kind enough to publish from me last week. The E.L.A.S. Com- mander to whom I referred is not, in ,fact, taking part in the fighting, and my statement that he was, was based on an ambiguous report which has since been cleared up. There seems good reason for supposing,
• however, that the less extreme, which are also the more numerous elements of E.A.M., would have been more responsive to General Scobie's orders had General Scobie not become identified in their minds with M. Papandreou's Government. It cannol be too strongly emphasised that it is not General Scobie himself, who has throughout faithfully performed difficult and unpleasant duties, who is to blame for this identification, and any criticism of his conduct and especially of his Proclamation can only be a criticism of the British Government, whose instructions he has obeyed.
For the rest, I am fortified by events and by Mr. Bevin. Since I wrote my letter we have apparently departed from the policy of giving unqualified support to M. Papandreou and instead have made ourselves responsible, though in somewhat imprecise terms, for presiding over the restoration of democracy in Greece. This seems to involve some kind of Allied trusteeship of Greek liberty until that restoration can be brought about, and is therefore consistent with the impartiality which should be the main concern of British policy, but it is pertinent to ask why these terms could not have been offered in the first instance instead of at the end of nearly a fortnight of fierce and ineffectual fighting. Since I wrote, also, Mr. Bevin has spoken and has said that he helped " to create Amgot for just such a situation as there was in Greece." Had Amgot existed we would have been spared the dilemma of choosing between mere inaction in the face of chaos and the support of M. Papandreou's Government. Mr. Bevin rightly contends that it was the Left who set up the agitation against Amgot ; it was, of course, the Government which yielded to that
Previous page
