Evening star., 1947-09-07
Athens Communist
Prepares for Jaunt
To Islands Of Exile
By George Weller
foreign Correspondent Of The sior and
the Ch;eooo Dolly News

| the ChieaSo Dolly News
ATHENS, Sept. 6-Young Ma
noilis Glezos is getting ready today
for a Journey to the Aegean Islands
of exile.
GIezos is a minor Communist
newspaperman. His temporary party
job is to take official responsibility
for what is published in RizoSpastts,
the Greek version of the Daily
Worker. The holder of this job al
ways ends by being arrested and de-
ported to the islands.
The government has suspended
freedom of the press to the extent
of curbing comment on guerrilla &C
tivities In the North. The public
prosecutor has announced a new ac-
ton against the Red daily for pub
fishing the Communist Gen. Markos'
proclamation of an independent
state, first made public at the
French Communist Party's congress
in Strassburg.
1 Paper Still Comes Out.
1t is expected that Glezos, like
three of his predecessors. will be
found guilty and sent to the island
of Ikaria, where there are some
1900 to $4,000 Communists and
sympathizers. But the Communist
daily, unlike the strangled opposi-
ton in the Slav states, continues to
appear.
Glezos has little reason to fear
his coming self-sacrifice When this
correspondent left Greece last
autumn, these island camps were
hell holes and schools where liberals
were turned into Communists. To-
day they are still schools Of inten-
sive Marxism, but living conditions
are like those at pleasant summer
camp.
Prisoners" are free to roam wher-
ever they will, over the 2o-mile long
islands whose natives live hand
somely on remittances from Amer
lea. Their mail is uncensored and
Communists run a secret boatline to
Peleponesus.
Better Paid Than Refugees.
They get 5000 drachmas $50 cents)
daily living allowance from the
government, as against only $50 d2
cents for refugees from villages
burned in the civil war; Their move
ments, except for the elite top Com
munists, are unimpeded by the ITO
constabulary who strive to keep
order.
This elegant style of concentration
camp is Greece's reation to criticism
abroad of indiscriminate methods OF
roundup employed by Minister OF
National Security Gen. Napoleon
Zeras, now dropped from the cabi.
net at the insistence of American
Ambassador Lincoln MacVeagh and
Special Envoy 10y Henderson.
Glezos was selected for the TRIP
to the islands because he has the
converts ardor and already was 9
Grade B national hero. With sew.
eral other nationalists in then
teens, he snatched the Nal flag
from the Acropolis by night, after
Hitler's invasion in 1941.
Raided by Rightists.
In the postwar period some be-
fuddled rightist patriots raided hi
house, thinking him g. Communist
Their violence threw him into the
arms of the Communists, who nat
urally welcomed him as an idea
comrade. While awaiting his COM
Portable martydrom, Glezos works
as q plain city reporter.
The royalist government has
tardily realized that these islano
camps not only make martyrs out Of
Communists, but make Communist
of liberals interned there.
Now, however, it is up against
difficulties in getting rid Of de-
portees. Incredibly enough, the
Communists do not actually want
the camps closed, quite yet. They
already have liberty there.
Party Leader Mitsos Partsalides
for example, has been writing edi-
torials from exile that have caused
Glezos' predecessors to join theil
Communist boss in Ikaria. But II
the camps are closed, the Com
munists lost almost the last OF theil
fading political points.
| Confused Liberals Warned.
| Hitherto special magistrates sent
| to the island have simply requested
those who wished release to come
forward and disavow Communism
and pledge patriotism.
But the Communists, eager tt
keep the camps going for a while
warned confused liberals Of the dirt
consequences If they became
traitors" by pledging their anegi'
ance to the Greek "monarcho-fasc'
list state" Thus the magistrate
found themselves without customers
Today before returning to Ikari'
with food and winter clothing, tn
chief magistrate Of the merc.
tribunal made known that the re
naming 5000 or 10000 would b.
tested for release whether the Com
munist underground government
really running the islands want
mercy given or not.
II Issue of Freedom
II Some observers here think tina
| King Paul, by suspending the &C
! of the constitution permitting pub
| locations of army movements, mill
tary undertakings and comment o.
the military program, is playin
| into the Communists hands.
II The Reds are already raising tn
issue of freedom" with the com
| plicity of Slav states virtual
| proved-though more meager thal
| generally representative Com
| munists are eager to rig their weak
ening program with issues OF civ
liberties.
Plastic Talk Scheduled