From Flushing Meadows to Greece
The General Assembly of the United Nations has been ploughing itself deeper and deeper into the mud. The United States proposal for a standing committee of the General Assembly to deal with questions of peace and security between .sessions has made no progress. Mr. Creech Jones's firm rejection of the American pro- posal that the British should enforce any policy sponsored by the United Nations was certain in any case, but even if it had not been the American attempt to rush through a plan of partition before definite arrangements have been made for interim government would, no doubt have hardened the British resolution. But this dcPs not settle the Palestine question. In fact the record of work not done has been rendered even more dismal by an acrimonious dis- cussion arising out of Mr. Byrnes's book Speaking Frankly. In all this there is only one flicker of light. The General Assembly has passed the American resolution for providing mediation between Greece and her northern neighbours and forming a special com- mittee to perform the joint task of conciliation between the parties and supervision of the frontier. The value of this move is reduced by the fact that the new committee will be boycotted ,by the Slav group. At the same time the likelihood grows that it will have plenty of work to do as November 15th, the date on which the Greek Government's amnesty to the rebels runs out, approaches. Surrenders have been few, Communist defiance of the Government has been growing, and 23 members of the terrorist organisation Opla have been executed in the past week. The Communist newspaper Rizopastis has been suppressed once and for all after it had published a proclamation of the rebel " General " Marcos openly calling upon all Greeks to join in an armed rising. Clearly the Sofoulis Govern- ment, which is led by Liberals and has suffered great provocation, had no option, but the struggle will be the sharper for these events.
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