Evening star., 1953-05-07
Continued From First Page0

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the concentration shifting to ad-
vice in the fields of tactics. STRAIT
egy, logisticS and administra-
tion. Further reductions in
American military personnel are
expected this summer.
Few efforts in the military field
have paid such dividends as our
aid program has paid in Greece.
It has bought free country with
a healthy appreciation of what
weakness can mean. 1t has Gre
ated a well-ofhcered peacetime
fighting force of $1,000, backed
by a reserve of 450,000 men less
than 35 years old. IS per cent of
these trained under United States
supervision. It has stiffened
NATO'S Southern European force
by nine badly-needed divisions.
BY this time next year, present
deficiencies in anti-aircraft and
anti-tank artillery should be
made good and Ghe job of mod
ernization pretty well completed.
Greece's ground fighting forces
are supported by a small navy
whose main function would be
to supply the army by sea. The
air force is being reorganized.
BY the end of this year it will
be composed of about 500 trained
pilots and equipped with jet
fighters.
AS usual, there is some dis
agreement between the Greeks
and our military people on the
question of how much equip
ment the Greek Army can abb
sorb and handle satisfactorily.
The Greeks would like to be
much stronger than they are.
They talk confidently about
plans for further mechanization.
AS things stand now, a Greek
division is made up of about 12.-
900 men, with fewer units and
much less support than an Amer
lean division.
Greece No Weakling.
When it comes to capabilities.
the Greeks are judged to be we'll
able to take care of themselves
in a squable with any of the
Communist satellites. An all-out
attack with Russian backing
would be something else again.
But present thinking is that the
main weight of any Russian mill
tary effort would be made in
Central Europe.
One recent political develop
ment has greatly strengthened
the Greek military picture. A
few weeks ago, diplomatic circles
in Athens hummed with satisfac-
ton over the signing of the new
treaty of friendship and mutual
support between Greece, Turkey
and YugoSlavia.
The signing may not have i'm
mediately created an entirely
new climate of feeling among the
three traditional enemies. On
the popular level, traditions die
slowly. The word for Greek"
in Turkish still means thief, "
and probably will for some time
to come. But the treaty signing
did mark an important foreWard
step. 1t had. however. one i'm
mediate military significance for
Greece: Today, instead of dis
posing it's troops to defend $40
miles of frontier, the Greeks can
concentrate on protecting only
the 315-mile border with AL
bania and Bulgaria. It adds up
to hefty increase in the
strength that could be mustered
to repel a possible Communist
attack.
The signing of the joint treaty
represented the fruit Of months
of quiet and effective diplomatic
spadeWork by some of the abler
American representatives in Eu-
rope. So far as Greece and
Yugoslavia we're concerned, they
started with a state of complete
hostility at the end of the Greek
civil war. It took lot of patient
prodding by our ambassadors,
George V. Allen then in Belgrade.
and John E. Peurifoy in. Athens,
before the common border and
the embassies were reopened.
Helps Tie Tito to West.
The final agreement fitted in
we'll with NATO objectives and is
believed to mark the beginning Of
much closer ties between Yugo-
slavia and the West. In the mat
ter Of common defense. the
Yugoslavs would have preferred
more definite comments from
Greece and Turkey, but these
were impossible considering the
previous commitments of the
other two countries to NATO.
Another happy feature of the
political scene here-and Incl
dentally another triumph for
American diplomacy in Greece
is the strength of the present
government.
In the immediate postwar
years, Greece suffered from the
common European complaint of
political instability and frag-
mentation. There were at least
a dozen rival parties. Twenty
four separate governments came
to grief in rapid succession, and
no real progress was possible.
Electrical reform, setting up
a system of simple regional rep
resentation was adopted with
strong United States backing last
October. The elections in the
following month swept into power
Greece's stern old military hero.
Marshal Alexander Papagos.
When the ballots were counted,
his Greek Rally Party held 239
seats out of 800, political power
unknown in Greece for the last
quarter century. 1t meant the
government has a chance of do
ing a real job within the next
four years.
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