Truce

It was late at night. In the austere conference room of the British military headquarters in Athens stood four dejected Greeks. Three were dressed in ragged civilian clothes. The fourth wore the dirt-stained uniform of the guerrilla forces (which included a turtleneck sweater). All were haggard and unshaven. They were the delegates of the ELAS Central Committee. No one spoke.

Suddenly the door opened and Lieut. General Ronald MacKenzie Scobie, tall and trimly military, entered briskly and sat down at the head of a long, polished table. Without a word or glance at the Greeks, the British Military Commander began rapidly affixing his signature to documents his chief of staff handed him. When he had finished, he rose abruptly and left the room.

Still silent, the four Greeks sat down at the table and one by one added their signatures. Hollow-cheeked John Zevgos, Communist Minister of Agriculture in the Papandreou cabinet, signed first; then Demetrios Partsalidis, pale, white-headed Secretary-General of the EAM, Major Theodore Macridis, black-bearded operations officer of the ELAS general staff, and Major Athanasios Athenellis.

Thus was signed the truce which formally ended Greece's 42-day civil war. By its terms, ELAS would withdraw from a wide area around Athens and exchange prisoners with British and Greek Government forces. Fighting would end within three days. Meanwhile, General Scobie's forces continued mopping-up operations against ELAS units withdrawing into the hills.

"Barbarous Custom." Signatures on the documents were scarcely dry before a new difference arose. ELAS was holding thousands of Greek civilians as hostages. They would be held, said ELAS leaders, against the release of sympathizers of their movement arrested by the Greek Government in Athens.

Said Regent Archbishop Damaskinos: "I am profoundly shocked." In London, the British Government charged ELAS with practicing a "barbarous custom condemned by international law."

By week's end the bitter question was still undecided. It threatened the unity of the Greek Cabinet, where dissension arose over Premier Nicholas Plastiras' insistence that the hostages must be freed before discussions on permanent peace could begin. The unity of EAM was also threatened. The ELD (Union of Popular Democracy), second most powerful party in the EAM coalition, announced that it was breaking away, would confer independently with British Ambassador Reginald Leeper. Professor Alexander Svolos, white-haired, respected ex-leader of EAM's Provisional Government during its 18-month existence, called for immediate peace. The Salonika branch of the SKE (Socialist Party, another large group), also broke away from EAM.

Archbishop Damaskinos finally offered to call a conference between ELAS and the Government. But he made it clear that this would be the "last effort" to solve the situation by peaceful means.

Meantime Athens heaved a deep sigh of relief. On Sunday the people jammed the churches in thanksgiving, the streets in celebration. Outside British headquarters a crowd of 100,000 yelled for General Scobie, heard him promise to protect Greek liberties. The crowds cheered.

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