Evening star., 1940-10-20
Greece on the Spot

StSS\S Ou tuO SPOl
Unless all signs fall the Balkan
storm center is settling over Greece
Alarming rumors fly thick as autumn
leaves, while their ominouS import
Is enhanced by known facts. The
most interesting bit of information
Is an Associated Press report from
Cairo asserting, according to Greek
diplomatic circles, that Germany
and Italy had confronted the Greek
government with five-point de-
mand Of a most sweeping character.
Specifically, Greece was hidden to
sever diplomatic relations with Brit
ain. to cede territory to both Italy
and Bulgaria. to grant Italy the
right to build a highway across
Greece from Albania to the Greek
port of Salonika, to grant the Axis
Powers the use of certain Greek air
bases, and finally that King George
abdicate, while Premier MetaXaS
should resign in favor of an avowed-
ly pro-Axis government.
No demands could be more sweep
Ing. If accepted, Greece would be
as much a puppet of the Axis as
Rumania has recently become. The
report has been denied unOfflClally
from Athens. the Greek capital;
in view of all the evidence, it would
seem that Greece must be under in
tense Axis pressure and that some
thing big impendS.
For one thing. there can be no
longer a reasonable doubt that Bull
garia is definitely lining up with the
Axis. Bulgaria would hardly take SO
momentous a step unless she had
been assured that she would recover
from Greece the frontage on the
Mediterranean which she lost after
the Great War as part of the penalty
for having fought on the losing side.
This loss has been felt more bitterly
by Bulgaria than even the previous
loss of Dobrudja to Rumania, and
has chronically poisoned Greco-Bul-
garian relations. Greece based its
refusal to restore this narrow strip
of seacoast mainly on the fact that
it was GreeceS only land-llnk with
Turkey and thus strategically vital,
since military cooperation between
the two countries was thereby as
sured Ever since Greece and Turkey
buried the hatchet decade ago,
they have been closely associated in
maintaining peace and the status
quo in the Balkans. That. however,
was when the Balkans were left to
themselves. 1t is doubtful whether
Turkey would come to Greece's as
sistance now except with Russian
backing, which is by no means as
sured.
Greece is certainly in a bad spot.
If she should yield to Axis pressure,
Britain would undoubtedly seize the
numerous Greek islands and might
even occupy the southern peninsula
of Peloponnesus. On the other hand,
If Greece resistS the Axis Powers,
plus Bulgaria, it is more than doubt
full whether even the aid of the Brit
ish fleet and an expeditionary force
could long stave of military occu-
patton of the mainland by AXIS
armies. In either event, Greece
would be devastated.
iy,o q
alton is that the Greek people are
much more united than they were IN
the last war. Then, Greece was
sharply divided between the sup
,porters of King Constantine, who
was ro-German, and the followers
of Eleutherios Venizelos, who were
ardently pro-Ally. Today, no Such
partisanship exists. Premier Me-
taxas. though he has governed
Greece with a strong hand since he
set up a virtual dictatorship four
wears ago, seems to have proved by
his stalwart foreign policy the falSlty
of rumors that he was pro-German.
Certainly, no Greek can be pro-
Italian, since Hellas has long lived
under the shadow Of Mussolini's ag-
gressive designs in the Adriatic and
the Eastern Mediterranean, which,
If realized, would doom Greece to
insignihcance and possibly to down.
right extinction as a nation. For
Greece, an Axis victory in the Near
East would, in any event, be a ma
tional disaster. Yet Greece alone
can do little to avert 1t.