The Pittsburgh Press (February 2, 1946)
Simms: Greek election
By William Philip Simms
WASHINGTON – Behind Soviet Vice Commissar Andrei Vishinsky’s charges of British interference in Greece is a situation which may lead to further serious outbreaks in that country sabotaging the national elections scheduled for March 31.
Commissar Vishinsky, ace prosecutor who sent so many Russians to their doom during the strange purge trials of some years ago, is now seeking to convict the British of “fascist machinations in Greece. But this time he will have to prove his case before a jury – the UNO’s Security Council. And to most of that jury it’s no secret why the British are in Greece.
The British are in Greece to assist the constitutional government to maintain order until the Stalin-Roosevelt-Churchill Yalta pledge of “free and unfettered election” can be carried out eight weeks hence.
Under that pledge, Russia, Britain and the United States were to see to it that the elections in the liberated areas of Europe were honestly held. Thus far, Russia has reneged on her share of this undertaking, but the others – plus France – are going ahead with their preparations.
U.S. sending 600 observers
The United States is sending approximately 600 observers. They will be headed by Henry F. Grady, former assistant secretary of state. Britain will provide a staff of equal size. France will send 40 teams totaling perhaps not quite so many.
Britain’s avowed position as stated by both the present Labor government and the preceding one headed by Prime Minister Churchill is this: Whether the Greek people form themselves into a monarchy or a republic, or elect a government of the right or left, it is for them to decide. That is also the American and French stand.
But the British, being on the spot, at the invitation of the government at Athens, and sharing that government’s responsibility, go one step further. They say that until the Greek people settle things for themselves, they intend “to see that law and order are maintained.”
But the leftists in Greece are strong. As elsewhere, they are said to be considerably in the minority, but are powerfully organized and have the open backing of the Soviet Union. They made a determined effort to seize the power for themselves in December 1944, shortly after the Nazis were thrown out. And civil war raged for weeks. British troops, who had entered on the heels of the retreating Germans, were caught in between and suffered casualties.
Bitterly opposed to any supervision
“But,” the British Prime Minister told Commons, “sometimes it is necessary to use force to prevent greater bloodshed. And the main burden falls on us. Pending a general election, under fair conditions, the authority of the constitutional Greek government must be accepted and enforced throughout the country.”
Commissar Vishinsky, shrewd and able, is now “trying” Britain before the UNO. His clients are the Communists in Greece. They are bitterly opposed to any outside supervision of the coming elections. They call it “intervention” by “reactionaries” and “Fascists.” They mean the French and the Americans no less than the British. They are calling on the British to “quit Greece and leave us alone, free to manage our own affairs in our own way.” As in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Iran and elsewhere.
It would be little short of a miracle therefore, under these circumstances, if the Greek elections prove to be exactly “free and unfettered.”