Shadows in the Greek Conflict
DALLIN, DAVID J.
Shadows in the Greek Conflict The Role of British-Russian Rivalries By David J. Dallin THE Soviet Government and ita American agent* have bitterly attacked American Isolationism, i fie picture...
...Churchill returned to London, while Anthony Eden went directly to Greece to announce the state of affairs to the Greek Government and to the British military leadership in Athens...
...This has proved untenable since the Moscow conference...
...The strongest power on the European continent is always interested in American isolationism...
...HoWEVER, what Stalin abandoned in his role of a government leader might possibly be won through the Comintern...
...But the immediate battle was won by Churchill at the October parley...
...msny coalitions have been broken on the politically volcanic aoil of the Balkans 1 A common British-Russian frontier in the South and Eastern Balkans is fraught with an enormous danger, as events of the last month have shown...
...This was the second phase...
...and Dimitrov and Manuilsky do not move without instructions from Stalin and Molotov...
...Those American "liberals," who do not see this connection of events and personalities are hopeless...
...to *•• America's reaction to Communist uprisings in Europe...
...Greece would be compensated (after the Polish pattern) with the Italian , isles of the Aegean as well as with the British Cyprus with its Greek population...
...It is clear that a decision of such importance was not made by the local Communist leaders without advice and instruction from the highest Communist authorities...
...The "patriotic" ELAS was and is prepared to renounce Greece's claim to Salonika...
...Dimitrov and Manuilsky, the Comintern leaders, are still in Moscow, though their names rarely appear in the press...
...Neutral Turkey has practically become a part of the British sphere today, while Moscow's ambitions point at the Dardanelles as an outlet to the Mediterranean...
...Another Russo-British frontier was appealing at the eastern end of the Balkans—at the Bulgarian-Turkish frontier...
...Second, it would round out a Soviet-dominated Balkan Union beginning at Italian Trieste and stretching to the Turkish border...
...Churchill knows, of course, that the ELAS uprising , is a Soviet move in violation of the Moscow agreement and he reacted accordingly...
...The Greek civil war is being conducted by a desperate hungry, tortured people...
...The dissolution of the ELAS wss accepted, the Communist press in Britain and America confirming the reports and adding that the (Communist) EAM would take part in the future elections...
...The Greek Communist leaders would have been expelled from the party immediately if their decisions were not in accord with Moscow...
...So while the Red Army (with the selected elements of the Bulgarian Army) approached the Greek frontier from the North, the British forces were occupying Greece...
...This was the Soviet view...
...The intrigue was conducted in Greece through the Communist-ELAS...
...The agreement was concluded...
...The real meaning of the event* is a British-Soviet war on the Greek soil...
...With other Communist parties, they had been instructed to make concessions, and not to seek armed solutions so long as Russia is waging a war in coalition with the capitalist powers...
...F,irst, it would satisfy the old Russian longing for a port in the Mediterranean...
...Therefore, it is opposed to the army...
...Black Sea interests" were considered (meaning the interests of Russia) as well as "Mediterranean interests" (meaning those of Britain...
...Germany's defeat is approaching, and the first lessons in postwar isolationism are being taught today...
...Shadows in the Greek Conflict The Role of British-Russian Rivalries By David J. Dallin THE Soviet Government and ita American agent* have bitterly attacked American Isolationism, i fie picture will change, however, when the defeat ef Germany becomes a fact, for then the Soviet Government will become interested in America's leaving Europe, and the American Communists will support the "no entanglement in European affairs...
...Suddenly the situation changed...
...This was Hitler's interest in 1937-41...
...Many military conflicts have originated in this comer of the old World...
...But the Communists stimulated the fighting to gain political advantage...
...Perhaps a British defeat in Greece is necessary—as the defest of Frsnce in J840 was necessary—to convince America that isolationism is ah evil...
...The meaning of the Moscow agreement was this: the Bulgarian-Greek border became a Russian-British border...
...Moreover, they understood th* further alma of Stalin: to "sound th* ground by th* bayonet" (in Karl Radek's words, used by htm to explain the Soviet offensive against Poland in July 1920...
...to find out whether Britain's government coalition would disintegrate...
...During the German rule the Bulgars occupied the Greek areas of Macedonia including the great port of Salonika on the Aegean-Mediterranean...
...For America, it means a relapse into isolationism...
...to tost th* revolutionary moods in Europe...
...Stalin may be content with the results...
...Those who prsise the fighting Communists in Greece as a "democratic movement" are blind—or worse...
...But the prospect of Russia's becoming a Mediterranean power, and the spectre of a future great Russian Navy, is so terrifying that Churchill had to make important sacrifices...
...and to gauge the support of the multitude of confused fellow-travelers...
...TrlE ra»W»HMs iiiiv> a bad reputation in European politics...
...This is most encoursging for him...
...On the other hand, Greece, the Mediterranean nation, was included in the British orbit...
...In order to salvage little Greece for his Empire's lifeline, he sacrificed the rest of the Balkans...
...The Communist-led organisation took up arms, and the civil war was started...
...Churchill was supported by the Labor Party ministers, who knew of th* British-Soviet negotiations, and understood the Communist maneuver in Greece as one of the many steps to th* creation of a great Soviet Empire in Southeastern Europe...
...Peace and order could have been maintained and the economy resurrected...
...One of the most difficult aspects of the Greek problem was the Macedonian dispute...
...Until the end of November there was no ground for special alarm...
...Disarming the ELAS has become the issue...
...A minority in the population, ELAS is the only important anti-democratic force in Greece...
...Now that Bulgaria has come under the Soviet aegis, the idea naturally arises in the Kremlin: why not support the Bulgarian claim to northern Greece...
...Small Macedonia is coveted .by three Balkan states: Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Greece...
...At first the six Communist members of the Government were inclined to accept the disarming as inevitable...
...A compromise was considered for Yugoslavia which does not fall in either geographical sphere...
...The role of Russia and the United States in the Greek tragedy are significant clues to their future policies...
...it could run Greece only by ipeans of terror...
...Th* test was necessary, Greece is only the beginning...
...America is isolating herself snd he gains a free hand...
...The Moscow conference ended in an agreement, the main points of which have been stated by Churchill in his public declarations...
...So far as Russia was concerned, the other nations bordering the Black Sea, Rumania and Bulgaria, were recognized as part of the Soviet sphere...
...The upshot was rather a small success for Churchill...
...In view of the other gains Stalin did not insist on northern Greece...
...this will be Stalin's, beginning in 1946...
...Winston Churchill went to Moscow in October, after a preliminary conference with Roosevelt in September...
Vol. 27 • December 1944 • No. 52
