GREEK LIBERALS FACE INSIDIOUS CP THREAT

...Papandreou hopes to set as a brake on any tendency to coast too far away from Greek stability and security...

...WHY DID Plastiras's National Progressives get a vote nearly as large as that of the well-entrenched Populists of Constantin Tsaldaris...

...It is just possible that, in desperation, they will go to great extremes and maintain a whole series of strike actions which must inevitably challenge the very authority of the government...

...He was wrong The king's caretaker government under John Theotokis helped make the election orderly and quiet...

...Plastiras won't be able to swing...

...The French Chamber of Deputies, in particular, merits commendation for its brave stand hi the face of Communist intimidation unprecedented even in turbulent France...

...Will a Plastiras government tie inmune to Communist machinations...

...The tendency oC thinking of a small nation as "a bridge between Cast ami Wast"—the thesis which was so disastrous to Czechoslovak!*- In likely to come into the for*ground...

...e « WE HAVE NO WAY OF KNOWING whether the French Communists —and perhaps also the Cominform parties in other Western European countries—will go as far as they did in 1947 and force a real political showdown...

...By embarking on a campaign of sabotage of Europe's efforts to maintain her defense against aggression, the World Federation of Trade Unions has shown itself to be the subverted agent of Soviet nationalism...

...Plastiras prides himself on the role he played during the December 1044 civil war, when Communist-lnstigat ;d rebellion was crushed with the help of British troops, But an old general may understand what It means to defeat rebels on a battlefield, without being able to comprehend the more subtle and dangerous tactics of infiltration...

...IN AMERICA many of the trade unions directly involved in the manufacturing, leading and transporting of arms supplies have come out with determined statements la support of MAP...

...Of 700,000 people made homeless by civil wj^^OQjPW have been moved back to their villages...

...As has been repeatedly pointed out by conservatives and liberals alike, you cannot fight an idea with arms alone...

...Then, too, the country's feelings about its Communist neighbors, including Yugoslavia, are not likely to change substantially until the latter returns at least some of the 28,000 children who ware kidnaped by the guerrillas during the past two years...

...We say, "in desperation," because the French Communists realty do not possess the strength they commanded two or three years ago to gain a decisive political victory, but are compelled to risk their political necks on orders of the Cominform...

...have got to press forward with their strike-and-sabotage campaign...

...and so they voted for a father image,, for the symbol of a protector...

...But Greece, which lies en the periphery of Soviet aggression, cannot afford to adopt a conciliatory attitude toward Communism...

...Then, Sophocles Venizelos of the Liberal party—from which Plastiras seceded—is participating in the planned coalition...

...But a government that sees clearly the issues of internal economic reform noed not always he equally clear-eyed when it comes to tackling its place an the international scene...

...He has charged that the Communist rebellion from 1946 to 1949 had been provoked by • the Athens governments—which is like saying that not the murderer but his victim is guilty...

...But, Plastiras, of, course, will not run the country by himself...

...But they adopted a new policy last November, designed to exploit disgruntled Greek ex-soldiers, the country's inflation, and the general dissatisfaction caused by economic instability...

...Greece wiU once more bear watching very closely...

...Particularly after General Alexander Papagos brushed off the blandishments of politicians, Plastiras filled the bill—white mustache and all...

...We in the UAW-CIO express our complete solidarity with the free labor movements of Europe—and with those in France and Italy in particular—which have resolved to defeat the attempt of the WTWI to sell them and their nations out to a Communist imperialism which is democratic labor's deadliest enemy...

...What kind of a Premier will the 72-year-old warrior-politician make...

...Speaking for the UAW, many of whose members are engaged in making the planes, tanks, trucks and other military equipment which the Atlantic Pact nations have requested for their defense, Reuther declared: "The attempt of communism to thwart the desire of democratic nations to pool both their economic and military resources for purposes of defense will be beaten back...

...diplomats have been urging the Bidault Government to loosen some of the apron strings by which it has tied Bao Dai to itself...

...At last, too, the ancient pro-and-con regarding the Greek royal family has ceased to be a controversy...

...it suggests a worldliness and vision not revealed in Plastiras's life of intrigue...

...We must keep in mind that the ComPlastiras ticket., Their party aid not oppose Plastiras, although it heaped abuse on nearly all other prominent candidates...

...The country can certainly do wifii more efficient government, and anything accomplished along that line will be most welcome to the Greek people...

...but as the Communist plan unfolds within the near future, it will become very clear to many French workers who were too hard-pressed, or too blind to see, that communism uses the issue of economic security to promote the greatest possible insecurity in all aspects of human existence...

...Perhaps this is the answer: Many Greeks are tired of party wranglng, war-born insecurity, and the whole baffling issue of individual responsibility...

...It how looks as if the elections of March 5 will bring into power a threeparty coalition...

...France is due to receive the greater part of Western Europe'*, initial quota, chiefly because she is- the land power upon whom devolves primary responsibility for resisting armed aggression from the East...

...11 French leaders can grant Bao Dai the fuller independence his people deserve, they will at one blow raze a pillar of the Cominform campaign of sabotage in the West, and destroy the underpinning of the Soviet-Ho Chi Minh movement in Indo-China itself...

...A secondary aim of the French Communist party, but one which is foremost in Soviet plans concerning Asia, is to halt shipment of arms to the Bao Dai anti-Communist regime in Viet Nam...

...Delivery of MAP supplies offers a- serious threat to Russia's position in Europe...

...It is well to note that U.S...

...fly this means they were demonstrating-—in a<manner which should impress even O. John Rogge—their fundamental cdmempt for all democratic processes and lor the very elements of courtesy and dignity which should obtain in any legislative body...

...PLASTIRAS HIMSELF had force* that the elections would be unfair unless there was a i njltfteji government (with Cenamualste) to supervise them...

...THE SECONDARY AIM of the French Communists (but Russia's first concern in Asia)—stoppage of the arms flow to Bao Dai's Viet Nam regime—unfortunately appears sound to many Frenchmen...

...Before any government can undertake far-reaching reforms, it must seek to heal.the open wounds which Greece suffered as the result, of Comrhunistinstigated warfare...

...hundreds of thousands of them are still unable to care for themselves...

...Parliament without the votes supplied by Ventaek* and Papandreou...

...Unless Greece maintains its immunization from communism, It may well lose in the political maneuvering to come what it gained on the battlefields of a three-year civil war...

...at all costs, therefore—at the price even of weakening their party's position—Thorez, Duclos & Co...

...A Plastiras government may move in the direction of tax reform, modern* ized and decentralized civil service...

...The third group which coalesced with Plastiras is the Democratic Socialist party of George Pap andreou...

...independence for Viet Nam might turn out to be worth countless army divisions...

...The Communist rebels retreated into Albania and Bulgaria last August, because they had other Cominform fish to fry particularly In Yugoslavia...

...However, Plastiras as Premier will be heir to Plastiras the election candf date...

...Bao Dai is generally considered to be a puppet, and the French people are worried lest they become identified with an "imperialist" adventure...

...Last Sunday, three left-wing and center parties recommended that King Paul appoint General Nicholas Plastiras as Premier...

...THE TROUBLE IN GREECE is far from over...

...Half-hearted efforts have been made to link this campaign with genuine wage demands made by many French workers since the Government last month removed wage controls and reintroduced collective bargaining...

...battle and coups d'etat...

...Walter Reuther for the UAW, Harry Lundeberg for the Seafarers union, Joseph Ryan for the Longshoremen, George Harrison for the railway brotherhoods, and A. E. Lyon lor the International Transport Workers Federation, have all declared in unmistakable terms the intention of free trade unions to make, process and deliver MAP supplies regardless of any Communist threat...

...The Communists did not back any one party, ulthough their sympathies weie certainly with the Democratic Front of John Sophianopoulos...

...Now that the Greek people have voted themselves a change in government, will their nation continue to stand firm...

...Or will U fall into the trap of appeasement...

...instead the Communist "Free Greece" radio, believed to be located in Rumania, spent the three days before the election plugging individual candidates...

...His runningmate, Emmanuel Tsouderos, is likely to do quite a bit of policy-making...

...But that implies a degree of diplomatic and intellectual sophistication not justified by the general's career and background...

...With the gusrrula war no longer » military dram est the nation, Ammtiem aid can now be used to batter down Inflation...

...A Plastiras government, or any other Greek cabinet today, must develop a sophisticated understandnig of Communist agitation and economic warfare...

...Communism in Greece has quit its frontal'attacks, and has gone back to the tried-and true Trojan horse method...

...The French Communists, aware of this, and intent therefore upon weakening their own country before Soviet imperialism, have for some weeks been conducting a well-organized campaign of direct action and sabotage designed to thwart MAP...

...He pressed tor a coalition government that would include the Communists—in a country which knows the original Trojan home at first hand...

...Even, Plastiras, ancient foe of royal rule, believes that "the interests of the country arc now well served by the royal family and therefore I remain faithful to the regime...

...mm- tbjjpue of menarehy is relegated to the position it oesupies in Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia...

...The Communist deputies, exceeding the wont tactics our own Dixiecrats have ever attempted, not only filibustered in the Chamber for days on end but provoked actual rioting...

...But Greece must remain vigilant at its border*, and must guard against a fifth column at home which might respond quickly to a new set of Cpmnform orders...

...AN ED1TORIAL— Arms and the Goal SHORTLY AFTER THIS APPEARS the first arms shipments to our Atlantic Pact allies, under, the Military Aid Program, will be on their way to Europe...

...Trying to find a parallel for his probable position, I keep thinking of the late President Eduard Benes of Czechoslovakia...

...That the Plastiras party will have parliamentary delegates who have Communist blessing is a disturbing reality...

...The election was proof that the Communist hullabaloo about "monarcho-fascist terror" had always been a smokescreen designed to fool the timid and the ignorant...

...Nevertheless, the anti-Communist parties supporting the Bldault Government passed a punitive measure providing Ave-to-ten-year prison terms Hot attempted sabotage, impeding of MAP shipments, and injury to military morale...