The truth about the generals
Sir: It is refreshing to read an article in the SPECTATOR at last reflecting something of the realities of the present situation in Greece and avoiding the grosser pro- paganda spread through Europe by the New Left (28 June).
But I am not entirely convinced by some of Colonel C. M. Woodhouse's as- sumptions. When he dismisses the existence of a 'communist conspiracy' be- fore April 1967, he is presumably refer- ing strictly to an imminent plot by the KKE. He can scarcely be denying that com- munists and their fellow-travellers in EDA and elsewhere had been plotting over de- cades to take over Greece and had at least twice been only narrowly foiled, the last occasion being 1946-9. In 1966-7 many Greeks feared that these persons, not just the confessed party members of KKE, would make a further attempt during the dis- orders predicted on election day fixed for 28 May 1967.
Nor I think is Colonel Woodhouse's account of the generals' meeting the day before the coup d'etat quite accurate, for a contingency plan known to the King and the defence general staff was already in existence at that time to put the country under martial law and to postpone elec- tions, that is to rule without parliament; it was this plan or part of it which was, so to speak, 'stolen' by the colonels.
I do not think Colonel Woodhouse is quite fair to some of the ex-colonels who certainly played an active role in the anti- communist war of the late 1940s and one of whom certainly risked his neck as a runner if no more for the monarchist Six Colonels during the occupation.
It is natural and proper for Colonel Woodhouse to wish to exonerate his war- time comrades from charges of conspiracy against the present government and I dare say he is right. But that 'conspirators' of varying political hues have been the scourge of the Greek armed forces for a century is a fact of history which Mr Papa- dopoulos, the Prime Minister, has more reason to know than any. I would guess that the young officers who risked every- thing for the present revolution and have got very little out of it except perhaps a little promotion are the likeliest source of trouble.
But I doubt a counter-coup. It is more likely that the ex-colonels will do as they have promised—to return to parliament- arianism under the constitution of 1968, and will themselves (along with some of the younger officers) stand as a party at the elections. As Colonel Woodhouse knows, it would not be the first time in Greek history that military dictators have re- turned the country to parliamentary govern- ment without bloodshed or counter-revo- lution.
Kenneth Young Amberfield, Chart Sutton, Maidstone, Kent
Sir: A misleading error has appeared in the otherwise excellent article by C. M. Woodhouse on the Greek generals (28 June).
The second paragraph on page 848 be- gins: 'The alleged conspiracy of the ex- colonels is therefore just as mythical as the communist conspiracy which the ex- colonels claimed to have forestalled in April 1967.' What the author presumably wrote—or meant to write—was that it is the conspiracy of the ex-generals which is mythical; the conspiracy of the ex-colonels is only too real.
P. A. Mackridge St John's College, Oxford
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