N THE bleak mountainous territory of Western Mace- donia, a new and bright page is being written today in the history of battle for liberty. Once more the. Resistance, the Vanguard of the Greek people Who fought the Germans un- Ceasingly for four long years, has taken to the hills and to arms—to fight the new enslaver, the British for whose continued °Ccupation the United States will the cost. é The men of the Resistance Ve already built a regular army with its headquarters near Grevena. They have developed well organized supplies and com- Munications, and command the “omplete loyalty and support of the people in liberated territory. €y claim that they control today an area bigger than any Controlled by the ReSistance dur- & the Nazi occupation when €ven the British paid tribute to tem for their courage and con- "ibution to fascist defeat. And they would rule all of reece today, but for the British. x A single example is enough. 2 Northern Greece, the Royal- ‘st Greek Frontier Division bas- ad on Kozani, was virtually cut Some weeks ago. : panne Republican Army, as_ to- eA Resistance calls itself, Culd have wiped it out but for fact that behind the wretch- ss 15th Frontier Division stood a strong British Fourth Divi- ©n, based on Verria, 25 miles G Feature Section Imetell tle TRIBUNE In fact all over Greece, the British have been stationed at such spots as to be able to but- tress and back up the Royalists. But, such has become thescale of guerilla activity, the Britiish under strong political pressure from large sections of the labor movement at home, and their Royalist allies are becoming pan- icky. Even as long ago as last November, when the Greek com- mander-in-chief, General’ Spilio- topoulos, accompanied by the British Military Mission head, Major-General Rawlings, left for London, it was widely rumored here that he was going to plead the Royalist case. > What he had to report to Lon- don was that if Britain did not send more troops, the govern- ment forces would be swamped by the guerillas. Not long afterwards War Min- ister M. Dragoumis announced that “ the Greek Army will be reinforced and the Allies will supply extra equipment and arms for this purpose.” Important to note was the use of the word ‘Allies’. This, with Dragoumis’ approving quotation of a USS. high-ranking officer that the “frontiers of the U.S. are on the frontiers of Greece,” SEE... Women Who Lead ROG ie. Wate ee 10 Soviet ‘Expansion’ POGOe ero! Be | FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 1947 showed clearly enough that Greece, a British satellite was soon to become an Anglo-Ameri- can satellite, her ministers tied by invisible strings to London and Washington. : besgephaeeocs the economic sit- uation is rapidly deteriorating. Despite a 10 million pound Joan from Britain and a 47- million dollar loan from the United States, the Greek govern- ment -is facing a rapidly de- veloping financial crisis. John Coppock, economic ad- viser of UNRRA, writing in the New Economics, revealed that two-fifths of the Greek govern- ment‘s revenue came from UNRRA supplies. So also a member of the Bri- tish Economic Mission, Sir John Nixon, resigned his post be- cause of his dissatisfaction with Greek economic policy, partic- ularly in relation to the high profiteering in indutry, the widespreag blackmarket in dol- larg and the great danger of inflation. - ; Prices are soaring, the official index itself showing a forty-one percent rise and the real rise is much more, The black market is virtually the only market and in Athens and every big city one can see thousands looking starved and half-clothed, while rich luxury foods and clothes are available in abundance in the stores, but, of course, only at exorbitant prices. The extent of the discontent among the people is evident from the fact that even the civil service has been threaten- ing to strike. Industrial workers are seething with unrest and no amount of intimidation has been able to break their militant spirit. f The union elections that placed the workers’ leaders in office have been declared illegal by the Royalist government, which has put its own stooges in posts keld by men now languishing in jails or island prison camps. N the midst of this crisis, the most striking fact is the growing emergence of men who were German supporters in 1941-44 as key men in govern- ment office. The new minister of health is A. Kakkaras, a former support- er of the Nazi-sponsored Greek police, the Security Battalions. The most vocal government spokesman is Stylianos Gona- tas, ganize these Battalions, The former minister of public order under Metaxas, K. Mani- adakis, known for his brutality and fascist views, ang often called the Greek Himmler, was invited back to Greece by a group of Populist M.P.’s who of- fered to support his candidacy for the ministership of public order. t In contrast, the men of the Resistance, who fought the Ger- mans heart and soul, are being bitterly persecuted. By Septem- ber 30, 3,723 Greeks (almost everyone of whom had_ been prominent in the Resistance) had been deported to the penal islands—and what this means can be seen from the fact that dur- ing Metaxas’ fascist regime there were not more than 1,000 de portees on the islands at any one time. 2 It is this that has leq to a rapid growth of the new Resis- tance movement—this disgust at the government’s incapacity to do anything for the people, at its complete subservience to the British, at its virulent persecu- tion of the best sons of Greece, the former men of the Resis- tance. Not only British arms, but British officials are the real rulers of Greece—and nothing who directly helped to or- . _important is done today without prior consultations with the Brit- ish ambassador. This was recognised even by the very moderate British Ali- Parties Parliamentary Delegation that visited Greece last August. It reported sharply against continuation of the present Brit- ish policy of bolstering up fas- cism and strongly advocated a new All-Parties' Coalition, the end of the emergency measures and Right terror, and new elec- tions. ; : The British government, how- ever, has carefully refrained from publishing the report. ae IN the hills, the battle con- tinues ang the democratic areas are steadily expanding Their strength grows daily not only in Western Macedania, but also further south in the Mount Olympus areas and in the Pe loponnese where guerilla attacks are also reported. Down in the towns the people’s discontent is rising. Strikes are numerous, despite ruthless re pression. And the only thing that pre- vents a total flare-up al} over Greece is the presence of the British army—and the many war- ships of the Mediterranean fleet — that are in Greek ports or near- by. But this cannot last for ever. However many troops and arme the British pour into Greece, supported by American funds and supplies, the flag of resis- tance has been unfurled, the people are moving into action. For, in the words of a young Republican, a former fighter in the ELAS against the Germans: “Four years the Germans tried to crush us, with their tanks ang bombers, their massacres and concentration camps, But they failed. Do you think these Brit- ish can do it? “Never! Not four, but forty years we can and will fight till our Greece is free.”