LONDON.

T is an open secret in
Athens, although efforts
are being made te hush
it up, that the Democratic
Army, against which the

for months
initiative in

ing all-out attacks
past, now holds the
most areas.

Here is the first
ture to reach this
the progress of the fighting.

The nerve-center of free
Greece today, as in the time of
the German occupation, is the
Mount Agrafa area, in the heart
of the Greek mainland, over
8 miles from the _ nearest
point of the Albanian border.

And the guerillas are the
direct political descendants of
those who fought against the
Germans. They are based on the
‘trade union movement and the
progressive parties. As in the
days of the anti-Nazi struggle,
they include Communists, So-
cialists, Liberals and many
individuals of no party.

_ ‘Foreign intervention’ cannot
explain the guerilla activity in
the Peloponnese—the peninsula
connected to the Greek main-
land only by the narrow isth-
mus of Corinth — or in Crete,
divided from the mainland by
60 miles of Mediterranean Sea.

If the guerillas were recruited
and supplied from abroad, sure-
ly the first step of any sane
government would have been
to close the northern borders
by massing troops there and
thus starving and_ strangling
the revolt.

But the facts are, of course,
very different, and the govern-
ment’s strategy has been the
very reverse — attacking, from
the south to the north.

It knows that its plans can-
not succeed against a _ revolt
arising from the suffering,
anger and longing of the Greek
people.

All the indications are that,
in fact this strategy is inspired
by the larger plans of Anglo-
American imperialism, to compli-
cate the Balkans situation by
driving the guerillas northwards
with overwhelming forces and
forcing them into neighboring
countries. :

overall pic-
country of

T present the forces in the

liberated areas are only very
generally coordinated. But al-
ready there are plans as the
berated areas grow, for bigger
Gperations under a single com-
mander-in-chief. :

Last April, the first big gov--
ernment offensive, by the First
Army Corps, was _ launched
against an area with a peri-
meter of about 200 miles, its
objective being the occupation.
of the Nevroupolis plateau in
the area of Mount Agrafa.

But the First Army was in-
adequate on the _ south-east
sector of the front, and its
rear was insecurely covered.
Nor was the western sector
properly covered.

To saturate the area, the
government required far more
than the 7,000 to 12,000 infantry
Shock troops at its disposal.
Consequently the guerillas  es-
caped encirclement. They moved
south-west and north, leaving a
considerable force in the area.
itself.

The offensive failed because
the army was embarrassed by
batteries of artillery too heavy
for mountain warfare; because
its aircraft was useless except
for bombing defenceless villages;
and because of the harassing of
the guerillas, the low morale of
the government troops and the
bad weather.

The second offensive, which
started in May and is. still
going on, is not an _ encircle-
ment operation, but a- slow

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1947

government has been Jaunch-~

by GEORGE TATE

drive to the north by a strong
force.

In mid-June, operations. were
extended to the sea, with the
government troops driving north
in the Mount Olympus area.

There have been considerable
losses on both sides, but the

guerillas in their strategy of
active defence rapidly return
to areas which have been

claimed as ‘cleared.’
Government troops are now
holding defensive positions in
the towns of Florina, Kastoria,
Vervia, Grevena and Katerini.

e
5 kee operations which are now
being carried on by _ the

quislings, fascists and monarch-
ists against the Greek people
who shed their blood with the
Allies in the war against Hitler
are only possible because. of
British and American aid.

Heavy artillery, which encum-
bered the earlier campaign, is
reported to have been used on
British advice.

The recent statement by Gen-
eral Markos, the commander of
the Greek Democratic Army,
tells of the supplies of arms
and equipment which are being
landed in the country. >

It also gives a number of
specific instances, with full de-
tails of time and place, in
which British and American of-
ficers and British troops have
taken part in military opera-
tions against the guerillas in
recent months. ;

6

PEAKING in the House of

Commons on August 20, 1945,
Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin
expressed the wish that “the
prisons were emptied” in Greece.

At that time there were
16,826 prisoners in the Greek
jails, according to official fig-
ures.

On June 15, 1947, according
to officiak figures, there were
16,633 men and women in prison
—a fall of 193 since Bevin
called for the emptying of the
prisons! But in addition there
were on June 30, 5,038 exiles
on the islands (as against an
average 1,000 during the Metax-
as dictatorship). :

Since the Greek government’s
mass arrests of July 8 onward,
it is estimated that a further
15,000 have been arrested, most
of them exiled without trial,
making a total of about 36,000
at the present time. :

In the year from July, 1946,
to July, 1947, under the Extra-
ordinary Measures’ Act, 340
Democrats were executed fol-
lowing sentence by courts-mar-

' Kartsiotis and Ypsilantes,

IL

acti

vities of guerillas

jain the ula conn
ention’ cannot & hern penins
sgoreign intervention gnnese—the southert, Das of Corinth.
° such as eae mainland only by the na
to the GT

tial,
During the same period, scores
of notorious collaborators with

among them 12 women.

the Germans,’ sentenced to

death, were still. not executed.
®@

NEW and popular’ sport

“4 with the Greek authorities is
the public display of the heads

of guerillas.
The head of a_ 17-year-old
schoolgirl, Helen Galanos, was

displayed outside Naoussa police
station, according to the Athens
Press on May 2.

The heads of two. guerillas,
were
displayed publicly at Trikkala
(Athens Press, May 27); and
the heads of five boys, between
15 and 20 years old, were ex-
hibited outside a police station
in Sparta.

Meanwhile, in mass arrests
last. July, Paparigas, elected
secretary of the Greek Traav
Union Congress, and a number
of union leaders. have been
rounded up and exiled without
trial.

Out of 9,000 internees on the
islands of Icaria, 3,000 are re-

Duplessis grabs for

by FRANK ARNOLD

—MONTREAL

RUMORED move by Prem-

ier Maurice Duplessis’ to
‘grab off’ Newfoundland’s Lab-
rador for the province of Que-
bec, set off earlier this month
by the issuance of an official
government map which fails to
show any boundary line _ be-
tween Quebec and Newfound-
land, is tied in with the Union

' Nationale’s recent concession of

fabulously rich Ungava to the
large Hollinger North Shore
Trust, I have learned from
authoritative sources,

Minister of Lands and Forests
Borque, in a statement which
went with the maps, tried to
cover up with a technical ex-
cuse. He claimed that the
‘height-of-land line’ laid out in
a Privy Council decision in 1927

ported to be active’ trade

unionists,

This is the Greek ‘democracy’
to perpetuate which, since the
Greek people themselv2s want
ro part of it, the American
Feople are committed to the
expenditure of millions of dol-
lars and, as certain influential
quarters are suggesting, may
also be committed to sending
troops. It is the destructive
consequence of the destructive
Truman Doctrine. .

EN the British all-party

parliamentary delegation vis-
ited Greece and found out the
conditions that prevailed, they
proposed a solution which all
Greek progressives were ready
to accept.

They recommended the forma-
tion of an all-party coalition, a
general- amnesty, the abolition
of the Extraordinary Measures
and Security Committees and
the return of all exiles, the re-

establishment of the elected
trade union committees and,
“subject to considerations of

has. been difficult to establish
and was therefore left off.

Informed circles, however,
feel that Premier Duplessis is
after big game. Recalling that
he conceded the immense iron
ore deposits of Ungava to a
group of Canadian-American fin-
anciers for a song; they are
now speculating that the rich,
adjacent Labrador deposits may
be luring Quebec’s premier.

e
GAVA represents one half
of the mineral wealth of

Quebec. It is equal in territory

to all the mines now operating

in Ontario and Quebec.
Fortune, the influential organ

of U.S. business, estimates that
Ungava and the contiguous area
of Labrador contains one billion
tons of high grade iron ore. At

: eyeing the

strategy and high policy,” the
withdrawal of British troops.

Norman Dodds, M.P., Leslie
Solley, M.P., and Stanley Tiff-
any, M.P., on their return from
Greece in May, 1946, said:

“We consider, as a result of
our investigations, that the pol-
itical situation in Greece may
be characterized as one iu
which the last vestiges of dem-
ocracy are being destroyed...
Greece is rapidly becoming a
Fascist state.

“Under a facade of democ-
racy, there exists a _ unilateral
civil war, the war of the Right
against all democratic elements
who dare to disagree with the
government.”

These recommendations have
been completely ignored by the
Labor government.

Until that solution is adopted, |
there will be no _ peace in
Greece—except the peace of the
grave. It is the task of all who
care about democracy, and un-
derstand the possibility of a
new world war, to work for
that solution.

Labrador

$7 to $8 per gross ton that is
worth $7% billions. Duplessis
leased Ungava two years ago
for the fantastically low sum of
$$100,000 per year, plus a 7%
percent fee on the_ profits.

M. A. Hanna Company, the
American trust which controls
Hollinger, is closely linked with
U.S. Steel and Bethlehem Steel
in the giant American cartel.

Liberal Party spokesmen, at
the time the Ungava deal was
staged, claimed it was an out-
right ‘steal.’ They accused Du-
plessis of selling out Quebec’s
heritage.

In the light of the Ungava
transaction informed circles are
inclined to the opinion that
Premier Duplessis is now fondly
Labrador deposits
with more ‘concessions’ in mind.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 11