868.01/416: Telegram
The Ambassador to the Greek Government in Exile (MacVeagh)59 to the Secretary of State
[Received 5:30 p.m.]
Greek Series 128. I am reliably informed that during a long session on December 8 with Mr. Churchill and Mr. Eden the King of Greece steadfastly refused to make a declaration proposed by them to the effect that he will not return to Greece unless and until called for by the Constituent Assembly to the formation of which he agreed in his declaration of July 4.
I saw the President60 on December 3 and advised him regarding this proposal and after he had seen the King he desired me not to associate myself with any effort to force him to a course of action against his will. This I have been careful not to do both before and since. I understand that the President told the King that there was no necessity for him to make any declaration whatever unless he so desired.
Now the King has written a letter to his Prime Minister for release today agreeing that when the time comes for him to decide whether or not to return he will make his decision “in agreement with his Government.”
This appears to represent a compromise suggested by Mr. Tsouderos and according to Mr. Venizelos with whom I talked this morning will be acceptable to those “Republican” members of the Cabinet who have been pressing for such a declaration as the British. It will probably also appeal to the British as better than nothing.
In this connection the British appear to have been influenced in taking the attitude they did chiefly by a change in military plans [Page 158] regarding operations in Greece and by the anti-British and anti-King propaganda being spread there to the benefit of the Communist leadership. They hoped to kill this propaganda and deprive this leadership of many recruits by making clear now that no possibility exists of the King’s being forced on the country. Because of the present and probable future Republican make-up of the Greek Government the solution arrived at may be regarded as amounting to much the same thing in effect as the original proposal.
- Ambassador MacVeagh presented his credentials to the Greek Government on December 2.↩
- President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill were at this time in Cairo; for correspondence relating to this conference, see Foreign Relations, the Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943.↩