868.00/2–747
The Ambassador in Greece (MacVeagh) to the Secretary of State
No. 3607
[Received February 21.]
Sir: As of possible usefulness to the Department, I enclose herewith a summary statement of recent guerrilla activities in Greece compiled by the Intelligence Department of the Greek General Staff as of January 17, 1947,1 a copy of which has been made available, through the Embassy’s Military Attaché, to the American delegation on the United Nations (Security Council) Commission of Inquiry into the sources of trouble along the Greek northern frontiers.
In this document, the Department will note (1) that specially lively guerrilla activity is reported from all Greece’s northern regions beginning with mid-November 1946, when the areas of Evros and Xanthi in Thrace began notably to be involved; (2) that the objective is considered as political; (3) that the bands are said to receive reinforcement from across the border and operate in liaison one with another; (4) that an effort is believed in progress to extend activity southward through central Greece to contact and strengthen the bands [Page 16] in the Peloponnesus, and also to “have it appear to the UN Commission that the main source of bandit activity is in central and northern Greece and not along the frontiers”; and (5) in conclusion, that the KKE (Communist Party of Greece) is accepted as “cooperating fully with the Slav Communist Parties” in an effort to bring about a situation in Greece which will call for Russian military and political intervention.
The statement would appear to be thoroughly objective and I believe can be regarded as trustworthy in regard to the facts, which it details and summarizes in full conformity with the reports this Embassy has been regularly submitting on weekly developments. I would criticize only its conclusion, to the extent that it would not appear that communist-engineered anarchy in Greece would necessarily call for “direct Russian intervention” as long as the Russian-controlled forces of the neighboring states are available for such a purpose.2
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed.↩
- In note 109, January 11, the Greek Embassy had informed the Department of State that the Greek Communist Party and its collaborators had assumed full and open sponsorship of the rebels and had moved their bands systematically to the south, principally south of Mount Olympus. The purpose of the two steps, according to the mote, was to shake the basis of Greece’s appeal to the United Nations and to portray the guerrilla movement as without outside connections and merely as an internal revolt against the regime in Greece and against the general policy of the Western Powers. (868.00/1–1147)↩