868.00/8–2247: Telegram
The Ambassador in Greece (MacVeagh) to the Secretary of State
1441. Colonel Miller and Dana Schmidt, New York Times correspondent, returned Athens Wednesday from north (former for one day only) and fully confirm seriousness of situation there (my telegram 1426, August 21).
Miller reports that after comparative lull since August 1, important guerrilla activity resumed August 18 with heavy attack by 600 on Naoussa and with other ominous movements in Florina and adjoining border areas. Guerrillas, he says, have now consolidated control over various areas from which national army excluded for first time, while in Thrace skillful sabotage of bridge has cut railroad north of Alexandroupolis. Meanwhile army over-dispersed and adopting excessively defensive attitude. Miller’s conclusion is that “house is on fire, but few in Athens or Washington seem to realize how fast flames are spreading.”
Equally serious phase of problem is plight of refugees comprising, according AMAG, some 150,000 persons or roughly 10 percent entire population north Greece. In Florina (normal population 12,000) Schmidt found nearly 6,000 refugees from guerrilla destroyed villages plus 5,000 more who have fled other villages in panic, while approximately one-third normal residents of Florina have in turn left isolated town to seek safety in Salonika or other larger centers. In Veroia (normal population 18,000) Schmidt saw 6,000 refugees, some living Quonset huts but majority in leaking freight cars. In Salonika (normal population 180,000) where refugees now number 90,000, Schmidt interviewed people living ten to twelve in single room of bombed-out tenements without sanitation or cooking facilities. Standard Government allowance to refugees is three-quarters pound bread plus 750 drachmas (15 cents at legal rate) per person daily. Morale of these people is necessarily at lowest ebb, and while all claimed to be nationalists they also expressed despair at seeming hopelessness of future and Government neglect. Prolongation this situation and attendant economic dislocation can only result in defeatism and collapse.