Salute for George

From rugged Epirus eastward through the towering Pindus range to the plains of Thessaly, Greek met Greek. The presence of the Nazi clouded the issue, but did not hide the fact that the killing of Greeks by Greeks had to do with the shape of postwar Greece. Underground leftists fell upon rightists and middle-of-the-roaders.* Adventurers mingled with zealots, monarchists tangled with republicans, professional soldiers fought guerrilla bands. The Germans alone profited from the mellay.

Last summer six guerrilla leaders were smuggled out of Greece. When they turned up in Cairo, they unanimously demanded that King George II agree to stay out of liberated Greece until the people have a chance to choose a postwar government. After some thought, the Cabinet in Exile endorsed the demand. But the King demurred: perhaps he recalled his pleasant reception in Washington last year, the warm words of Winston Churchill at Quebec. The guerrilla envoys returned to Greece emptyhanded; soon the world began to hear of brother killing brother in lean and hungry Greece.

Both U.S. and British official observers think that Churchill is out on a limb with his protege King George. But the Prime Minister refused to budge last week. Said he: "Until the Greek people can express their will in conditions of freedom and tranquility, it is the settled policy of the British Government to support the King of the Hellenes, who is at once our loyal ally and the constitutional head of the Greek state."

*Most potent Greek underground is the Leftish EAM (National Liberation Front) with its guerrilla army, the ELAS (People's Liberation Army.) The EDES (National Democratic Army), under "General" Napoleon Zervas, occupies a middle ground. The EKKA (National and Social Liberation), headed by a mystery man called Colonel Psarros, is at present inactive but potentially rightish. As with most undergrounds, definitions are fluid, subject to change without notice.

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