The Nome nugget., 1947-08-27
Wednesday, August 27, 1947
War In Greece Declared International
(By w. H. CraWfurd Price)

(Mr Price veteran foreign correspondent and author of numerous books has just returned to England from two-month visit to Greece The following is portion of
 letter to his Allan Crawfurd Denver advertising man)
 TT IS ENTIRELY MISLEADING to describe the re- cent fighting in Greece civil war; Fighting there certainly was-and for that matter, still is; but the pie ture of downrodden democratic elements forced to take up defend themselves from political oppression is completely Opposition to the constitution al government is limited to the south to bands of br gands who proftng by the disturbed state of the country The left wing description of these rebels al democratic army" is ridiculous. The strength of the bands rarely exceeds 25O men.
 In the north however, the situation IS much more se rious There the is international The guerrllas of the Greek Communist party operating under the or der of Moscow, and are aided reinforced and supplied from SlaV Communist sources in YugOSlaVa and Bull gara.
 These bands fight in mountains where few thousand brigands can defy army, and they usually operate from bases the Sav frontiers. When the chase be- too ho they take refuge in alien territory where they reformed and re-equipped They number in all some 12, 900 to 15 900 men.
 The immediate object of the third international is to| establish a Sav Communist republic (includng Salon. ika) within the USSR similar republic, also under Moscow is planned for stabul and the Straits This, of course just the old Pan-Slav idea which has domin ated Russian policy (Czarist and Bolshevik alke) for century; have myself followed it's activities mainly through Bulgarian channels for the past forty years Its realization would inevitably lead to the se ting up of Communist police state in Greece and in
 
 basin.
 The Greek Communists have made common cause with this policy, which s indeed their only hope of att tanng power As early July 12, 1943 they agreed to the establishment of Balkan US.S.R and Russian con- trol of the Straits to the creation of separate Mace donian republic under the control of Russia and to the union of all Macedonia and'Thrace within the lap of Mother Slavia" To this end they officially cooperaed with the Bulgarian, Yugoslav and Albanian bandits AL though their bands had been armed and financed by the British military intelligence they further agreed Sept l, 1944) not to impede the German withdrawal from Greece and to fight all groups who did In exchange the Germans handed to them their heavy weapons and material. They therefore possess large sup ply of British, German and Italian
 This organization the Greek government is fighting with insufficient and il-equpped forces. They have O00 troops mobzed, and of these 30,000 over due for release They require at least 16OOOO trained The available; the need is for training and equipment which it is hoped the Americans will supply
 In Greece today there only Communists and anti Communists. The Communists represent small and diminishing minority drawn mainly from the larger in dustria ceners They led by desperate men with powerful backing The peasants, who form the bulk of the electorate small holders in their right and boo