Evening star., 1946-04-20
rise Of Greek X-ists
To Power Likened 10
K|an After Civil War
By Leigh White
Foreign Correspondent Of The stor and
the Chicago Dolly News

By Leigh White
Foreign Correspondent Of The stor and
the Chicago Dolly News
KALAMATA, Greece, April 20-
Here in this southernmost port OF
the Greek mainland, in the heart OF
the silk and olive producing country
it is possible to understand why a
rich collaborationist like Theodore
Tourcovassilis has been reelected
deputy.
1t is also possible to understand
why bandit like Evanghelos Man.
aganas, who also collaborated with
the Germans, is regarded by so many
people as a sort of Robin Hood, or
at least-as one man put it-a "nec-
essary evil
The reason is to be found in what
happened in this part of the Pele-
ponnesus during "laocracy," the
short-lived Communist reign of ter
ror following the liberation.
If the United States had been in
vaded, occupied and ravaged by the
Germans and if Communist party
organizers from the north had set
up in their wake, in the State of
Georgia, a revolutionary dictator
ship called "mobocracy," meanwhile
humping off 10000 or $4,000 persons
who had opposed their seizure of
power, the citizens of Georgia might
have reacted much as the citizens
Of the Peleponnesus reacted.
"X" Organization.
AS a matter of fact they did, i'm
mediately following our own Civil
War, when a similar phenomenon
occurred in the South.
And just as a certain type of
Southerner flocked to join the Ku
Klux Klan in the reconstruction
era, so the same type of Pelopon-
nesians focked to join the *" or
ganization in the present era ir
Greece.
During the last year of the occu-
patton the communicated members
of the E. A. M. (national liberation
'front.' spent far more time fighting
rival guerrilla organizations thar
they did fighting the Germans. Al.
together, they are believed to have
murdered from 5000 to 1000 Greeks
many times the number of Ger
mans killed by Partisans during tht
entire occupation Of the Pelopon.
nesus.
Otherwise known as "Old Greece,
the Peleponnesus is proud, back
ward and picturesque. It's people
traditionally royalists, are so in
tolerant of 'outside interference
that it is probably safe to say that
they would prefer to be msgovernec
by local sons than to be well gov.
erned by outsiders.
Lesser of Two Evils.
| But most of them feel that it wa
not question of being we'll or badl.
governed following the liberation
They think it was rather a question
of being governed by the old gan,
Of royalist politicals, or being en-
slaved by "Slav agents" acting un
! der orders from Moscow.
Not unnaturally, the bulk of tn
people, in the recent election chos
what they considered. rightly o
wrongly, to be the lesser of the tw'
evils.
Tourcovassilis (the name mean
Turkish king') is an erratic royals
who was eXlled to the islands befor
the war because of his opposition t
the Greek dictator John Metaxas
Out of pique, apparently, he becam
governor of the National Bank
under German occupation.
He even went so far as to writ
a letter to Hitler suggesting that
he became Prime Minister, Greco
could be made to play an importan
role in the crusade against Dol
SheviSm."
He ended up in Jail, however, TO
leading a secret celebration of Gree
Independence Day-in collaboration
with the EAM-in March, 1914
Since he was still languishing il
prison at the time of the liberation
he was pardoned for his earlier of
| fenSeS.
Shoots Communists on Sight.
! Manganas, the 26-year- -old X-is
bandit, is a former member of tn
German-sponsored security battal
ions. Whether he joined the Secur
ity Battalions before or after bein
shot, dubbed and thrown into al
abandoned we'll by his Communis
opponents, I have not been able t,
ascertain.
But, either way, the reatment h
received is enough to explain VIII
he considers it sacred duty t
shoot all Communists on sight.
/ The British-led gendaSmerie ha
done much to discourage the depre
dations of Manganas ard his fol
lowers, recently having shot severs
of them and jailed 30 or: 40 other!
1t is fact, however, that despit
$4,000 reward for his 'apprehen
sion, dead or alive, Manganas
still active in the southern noun
tains.
One of the local X-ist leader
has offered to arrange a meetin
for me with Manganas, but I de
cided to turn his invitation dow
The man I refer to is a local lawye
named Tachis Perotis, whose broth
er was murdered by Communist
and who managed to escape bein
executed himself after receivin
three bullet wounds.
His brother was the local veneres
specialist in prewar days. Unde
the Germans he chose to becom
the prefect of Messenia PROVING,
lCnnyrioht