Peacemakers

It was time for the Greek truce to become a peace. Both the Greek Government and ELAS had promised to be reasonable. But there was trouble about the ELAS peace plenipotentiaries.

Premier General Nicholas Plastiras wanted the peace conditions to be binding. Therefore he flatly refused to deal with any delegates who were not members of the Greek Communist Party, which controls ELAS. Several days were spent in wrangling before the .Government finally accepted ELAS' three delegates: Communist Party Secretary George Siantos, Communist Demetrios Partsalides, Popular Democrat Elias Tsirimokos.

The Government's delegates were Foreign Minister John Sofianopoulos, Interior Minister Pericles Rallis (Republican Party), Agriculture Minister John Makropoulos (Popular Party).

The six peacemakers met in a conference room near Athens. On the hearth a synthetic fire glowed--electric lights under hunks of glass coal. The delegates were aglow too, the talks were cordial. Over a variegated tablecloth the debate went on amiably till after midnight. Later pro-Russian Sofianopoulos swapped yarns with pro-Russian Siantos about old times when they had both been exiled by Dictator John Metaxas.

The next day the talks continued. This time real logs burned in the grate. Above the mantelpiece an engraving of Lord Byron, whose experiences with Greek liberation had been even more distressing than Winston Churchill's, stared down at the peacemakers. The delegates laughed at each other's jokes, smoked each other's cigarets. Communist Secretary Siantos surprised the Government delegates by blandly accepting their chief peace condition, the disarming and disbanding of ELAS. But Secretary Siantos had a condition of his own: an amnesty for all, not merely some, of the ELAS prisoners in the Government's jails. Many of the prisoners in question belonged to OPLA (People's Political Security Organization), the Communist terrorist organization.

The fire on the hearth burned low. The atmosphere in the room grew chilly. The talks were adjourned.

Forthright Foreign Minister Sofianopoulos had already stated his views on an amnesty: "There will be neither proscriptions nor mass prosecutions. But there will be severe punishment by lawful authority of those who . . . committed offenses against the common law." Now Premier Plastiras postponed all pending ELAS trials, suspended five death sentences already imposed.

This week Minister Sofianopoulos announced that the ELAS delegates had put aside their demand for a general amnesty, had accepted the Government's view. The peacemaking talks were resumed.

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