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The British Prime Minister (Churchill) to President Roosevelt 57
855. About Greece. The present situation is that our representatives on the spot, Macmillan and Leeper have strongly recommended appointment of Archbishop as Regent. This is obnoxious to Papandreou Government though they might be persuaded to advocate a Regency of three, namely the Archbishop, General Plastiras and Dragoumis. There is suspicion that the Archbishop is ambitious of obtaining chief political power and that supported by EAM he will use it ruthlessly against existing Ministers. Whether this be true or not I cannot say. The facts are changing from hour to hour. I do not feel at all sure that in the setting up of a one-man Regency we might not be imposing a dictatorship in Greece.
There is also to be considered the fact that the King refuses, I think inflexibly, to appoint a Regency certainly not a one-man Regency of the Archbishop whom he distrusts and fears. According to the Greek Constitution the Crown Prince is Regent in the absence of the King. The King also states that all of his Ministers under Papandreou advise him against such a step and that aware of Constitutional Monarchy we cannot be responsible.58
The War Cabinet decided to await for 3 or 4 days the course of military operations. Our reinforcements are arriving rapidly and British General Staff Intelligence say that there are no more than 12,000 ELAS in Athens and Piraeus. The Greek King’s estimate is 15 to 22,000. Anyhow we shall by the middle of next week be far superior in numbers. I am not prepared, as at present informed, to give way to unconstitutional violence in such circumstances.
Our immediate task is to secure control of Athens and Piraeus. According to latest reports ELAS may agree to depart. This will [Page 160] give us a firm basis from which to negotiate the best settlement possible between the warring Greek factions. It will certainly have to provide for disarming of guerilla forces. Disarmament of Greek Mountain Brigades who took Rimini and Sacred Squadron who have fought so well at the side of the British and American troops would seriously weaken our forces and in any case we could not abandon them to massacre. They may however be removed elsewhere as part of a general settlement.
I am sure you would not wish us to cast down our painful and thankless task at this time. We embarked upon it with your full consent (see my message of August 18th [17th] and your reply of August 27th [26th]59). We desire nothing from Greece but to do our duty by the common cause. In the midst of our task of bringing food and relief and maintaining the rudiments of order for a Government which has no armed forces we have become involved in a furious though not as yet very bloody struggle. I have felt it much that you were unable to give a word of explanation for our action but I understand your difficulties.
Meanwhile the Cabinet is united and Socialist Ministers approve Mr. Bevin’s declarations at the Labour Conference which on this matter endorsed official platform by a majority of 2,455,000 votes to 137,000. I could at any time obtain, I believe, a 10 to 1 majority in the House of Commons. I am sure you will do whatever you can. I will keep you constantly informed.
- Copy of telegram sent to the Department by the British Ambassador on December 17.↩
- The latter portion of this sentence apparently garbled in transmission. The sentence as printed in Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, p. 303, reads as follows: “The King also states that all of his Ministers under Papandreou advise him against such a step, and that, as a constitutional monarch, he cannot be responsible for it.”↩
- These discrepancies between the dates attributed by Mr. Churchill to the telegrams referred to and their dates as found in the files of the Department of State and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library may be assumed to be due to the time difference between Washington and London.↩