Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1944-12-04
Armed Strikers
Given II Hours
To Quit Athens
Martial Low Reiens;
Utilities Cut Off,;
II Dead, l40 Hurt
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press
ATHENS, Dec. 4.-Gen. Catso-
tas, acting military governor OF
Athens, today gave armed for
nations of the leftist Fam "a
hours notice to quit the area as
a consequence of yesterdays vio-
lent clashes.
IWenty-one persons were killed
and 140 injured in the Sunday
clashes with police. A general strike
ordered by the Fam had the Greek
capital in a tense grip today. Mar
tial law was proclaimed and the
capital was without gas, electricity
or communications.
British-supported Premier George
Papandreou charged the Fam with
deliberately fomenting civil war.
Numerous incidents developed into
night-long shooting last night The
ELIAS, the armed formations of the
Fam, seized two government police
barracks at Piraeus, the port of
| Athens
Strikers Parade in Piraeus.
The streets of Piraeus were filled
with striking dock workers armed
with slaves, knives, sticks and few
firearms. They were parading and
shouting slogans.
| Apparently unorganized forma-
! tions had taken up positions in air.
raid trenches with machine guns
and had posted themselves in other
points of vantage.
| A Semiprivate war between the
ELIAS and Royalist bands ragged in
the Thesseum district of the capital.
/ ELIAS besiegers this morning
worked their way over the top of
Philoppos Hill back of the Thes-
scum, which is near the Acropolis.
From this position they were firing
down into the Thessum quarter,
which faced attack from three sides.
The sound of rife and machine gun
fire could be heard almost con-
tinuouslv.
/ Column Disarmed.
;! British troops surrounded and
disarmed a column of 300 ELIAS
marching on Athens from the
Thebes district last night without
, shot being fired, headquarters Of
| Maj. Gen. R. M. Scobie, British
, commander in Greece, announced
Another band of 1900 was dis
armed by British patrol north OF
Athens and the officers and men
put in confinement, the oficial
$ Greek news service reported.
The first courts-martial were pui
into operation today under newly
a proclaimed martial law.
{ Gen. Catsotas ordered the ELIAS
who seized the Piraeus barracks ia
withdraw from the buildings OF
. take the consequences.
| British troops in trucks were sta
toned at several strategic points in
| PiraeuS.
Briton Shot in Hip.
The first British casualty was q
Royal Navy enlisted man who was
shot in the hip while riding from
barracks to naval headquarters in
Piraeus. The truck driver said he
had no idea where the shot came
: from. but that house to-houss
l fighting had been going on since
before dawn.
! Gen. Catsotas' order to the ELIAS
to quit the Athens area of Attica
Province and the immediate sur
roundings said any of the EAMs
militia attempting to enter the
1 Athens city zone would be treated
) as enemies after midnight Wednes-
) day.
/ ELIAS outside the specified boun-
Diary were ordered not to move.
From 4 pm. today any move by the
J, Fam military forces by day or night
will be considered a hostile act and
will be followed by sharp official
measures, it was understood.
Meanwhile, Premier Papandreou,
whose efforts to bring about dis
armament of the Fam precipitated
the crisis, and several members of
his cabinet conferred in the heavily
guarded hotel Grande Bretagne.
Seventh Cabinet Member Quits.
The only remaining lsft-wine
representative in the cabinet. UNDER
secretary of War Ptolemy Sariyan-
mis-, resigned. Six members resigned
Saturday.
After yesterday mornings shoot
ing. British armored cars and tanks
patroled the streets while Greek
air force and Raj warplanes circled
low over the city.
British Sherman tanks and fully
armed paratroopers repeatedly at
tempted to disperse the crowds
peaceably, but were largely UNI
successful.
Demonstrators paraded past the
British Embassy with signs reading,
British Soldiers: Let Us Choose
4 Our Own Government"