Triumph and Tragedy (The Second World War) (57 page)

Firmness and sobriety are what are needed now, and
not eager embraces, while the real quarrel is unsettled.

Keep us informed before any compromise is settled
in which you or Leeper are concerned.

Rumours were spread by Communists and their like in London that British troops were in sympathy with E.A.M.

There was no truth in them.

On the peace offer the answer was:

General Scobie to

10 Dec. 44

Prime Minister

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We would at once inform you should any peace offer
be made by E.L.A.S., but neither the Ambassador nor I
know of any such approach.

I have clearly before me the main objective you
mention. While any one party is able to back its views
with a private army Greece can never achieve peace
and stability. Fighting may, I hope, be restricted to
Athens-Piraeus, but I am ready to see it through in the
rest of the country if necessary. It is a pity that tear gas
may not be used. It would be of great help in this city
fighting.

Your assurance that large reinforcements are being
sent is most welcome. I have been informed by Allied
Force Headquarters that the 4th Division is being
dispatched early.

Now that the free world has learnt so much more than was then understood about the Communist movement in Greece and elsewhere, many readers will be astonished at the vehement attacks to which His Majesty’s Government, and I in particular at its head, were subjected. The vast majority of the American Press violently condemned our action, which they declared falsified the cause for which they had gone to war. If the editors of all these well-meaning organs will look back at what they wrote then and compare it with what they think now they will, I am sure, be surprised. The State Department, in the charge of Mr.

Stettinius, issued a markedly critical pronouncement, which they in turn were to regret, or at least reverse, in after-years. In England there was much perturbation. The
Times
and the
Manchester Guardian
pronounced their censures upon what they considered our reactionary policy. Stalin however adhered strictly and faithfully to our agreement of October, and during all the long weeks of fighting the Triumph and Tragedy

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Communists in the streets of Athens not one word of reproach came from
Pravda
or
Isvestia.

In the House of Commons there was a great stir. I accepted willingly the challenge flung at us in an amendment moved by Sir Richard Acland, the leader and sole member in Parliament of the Commonwealth Party, supported by Mr.

Shinwell and Mr. Aneurin Bevan. There was a strong current of vague opinion, and even passion, of which these and other similar figures felt themselves the exponents.

Here again any Government which had rested on a less solid foundation than the National Coalition might well have been shaken to pieces. But the War Cabinet stood like a rock against which all the waves and winds might beat in vain.

When we recall what has happened to Poland, to Hungary, and Czechoslovakia in these later years we may be grateful to Fortune for giving us at this critical moment the calm, united strength of determined leaders of all parties. Space does not allow me to quote more than a few extracts from the speech I made on December 8 against the amendment to the Vote of Confidence which we had demanded:
Let me present to the House the charge which is
made against us. It is that we are using His Majesty’s
forces to disarm the friends of democracy in Greece
and in other parts of Europe and to suppress those
popular movements which have valorously assisted in
the defeat of the enemy. Here is a pretty direct issue,
and one on which the House will have to pronounce
before we separate this evening. Certainly His
Majesty’s Government would be unworthy of confidence if His Majesty’s forces were being used by them
to disarm the friends of democracy.

The question however arises, and one may be
permitted to dwell on it for a moment, who are the
friends of democracy, and also how is the word

“democracy” to be interpreted? My idea of it is that the
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plain, humble, common man, just the ordinary man who
keeps a wife and family, who goes off to fight for his
country when it is in trouble, goes to the poll at the
appropriate time, and puts his cross on the ballot-paper
showing the candidate he wishes to be elected to
Parliament — that he is the foundation of democracy.

And it is also essential to this foundation that this man
or woman should do this without fear, and without any
form of intimidation or victimisation. He marks his ballot-paper in strict secrecy, and then elected representatives meet and together decide what Government, or
even, in times of stress, what form of government, they
wish to have in their country. If that is democracy I
salute it. I espouse it. I would work for it…. I stand upon
the foundation of free elections based on universal
suffrage, and that is what we consider the foundation
for democracy. But I feel quite differently about a
swindle democracy, a democracy which calls itself
democracy because it is Left Wing. It takes all sorts to
make democracy, not only Left Wing, or even
Communist. I do not allow a party or a body to call
themselves democrats because they are stretching
farther and farther into the most extreme forms of
revolution. I do not accept a party as necessarily
representing democracy because it becomes more
violent as it becomes less numerous.

One must have some respect for democracy, and
not use the word too lightly. The last thing which
resembles democracy is mob law, with bands of
gangsters, armed with deadly weapons, forcing their
way into great cities, seizing the police stations and key
points of government, endeavouring to introduce a
totalitarian regime with an iron hand, and clamouring,
as they can nowadays if they get the power ——

[Interruption.]

I am sorry to be causing so much distress. I have
plenty of time, and if any outcries are wrung from
honourable Members opposite I can always take a little
longer over what I have to say, though I should regret
to do so. I say that the last thing that represents
democracy is mob law and the attempt to introduce a
totalitarian regime which clamours to shoot everyone
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who is politically inconvenient as part of a purge of
those who are said to have collaborated with the
Germans during the occupation. Do not let us rate
democracy so low, do not let us rate democracy as if it
were merely grabbing power and shooting those who
do not agree with you. That is the antithesis of
democracy.

Democracy is not based on violence or terrorism,
but on reason, on fair play, on freedom, on respecting
the rights of other people. Democracy is no harlot to be
picked up in the street by a man with a tommy gun. I
trust the people, the mass of the people, in almost any
country, but I like to make sure that it is the people and
not a gang of bandits who think that by violence they
can overturn constituted authority, in some cases
ancient Parliaments, Governments, and States….

We march along an onerous and painful path. Poor
old England! (Perhaps I ought to say “Poor old Britain!”)
We have to assume the burden of the most thankless
tasks, and in undertaking them to be scoffed at,
criticised, and opposed from every quarter; but at least
we know where we are making for, know the end of the
road, know what is our objective. It is that these
countries shall be freed from the German armed power,
and under conditions of normal tranquillity shall have a
free universal vote to decide the Government of their
country — except a Fascist régime — and whether that
Government shall be of the Left or of the Right.

There is our aim — and we are told that we seek to
disarm the friends of democracy We are told that
because we do not allow gangs of heavily armed
guerrillas to descend from the mountains and install
themselves, with all the bloody terror and vigour of
which they are capable, in power in great capitals, we
are traitors to democracy. I repulse that claim too. I
shall call upon the House as a matter of confidence in
His Majesty’s Government, and of confidence in the
spirit with which we have marched from one peril to
another till victory is in sight, to reject such pretensions
with the scorn that they deserve….

If I am blamed for this action I will gladly accept my
dismissal at the hands of the House; but if I am not so

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dismissed — make no mistake about it — we shall
persist in this policy of clearing Athens and the Athens
region of all who are rebels against the authority of the
constitutional Government of Greece — of mutineers
against the orders of the Supreme Commander in the
Mediterranean under whom all the guerrillas have
undertaken to serve. I hope I have made the position
clear, both generally as it affects the world and the war
and as it affects the Government.

Only thirty members faced us in the division lobby. Nearly three hundred voted confidence. Here again was a moment in which the House of Commons showed its enduring strength and authority.

I telegraphed the following day:

Prime Minister to Mr.

9 Dec. 44

Leeper (Athens)

Do not be at all disquieted by criticisms made from
various quarters in the House of Commons. No one
knows better than I the difficulties you have had to
contend with. I do not yield to passing clamour, and will
always stand with those who execute their instructions
with courage and precision. In Athens as everywhere
else our maxim is “No peace without victory.”

There is no doubt that the emotional expression of American opinion and the train of thought at that time being followed by the American State Department affected President Roosevelt and his immediate circle. The sentiments I had expressed in the House of Commons have now become commonplaces of American doctrine and policy and command the assent of the United Nations.

But in those days they had an air of novelty which was startling to those who were governed by impressions of the past and did not feel the onset of the new adverse tide in Triumph and Tragedy

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human affairs. In the main the President was with me, and Hopkins sent me a friendly message about the speech.