THE GREEK DICTATORSHIP
2ornmonwealth and Foreign
BY A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
ATHENS has been celebrating the fourth of August, not only in the capital, but all over Greece, to commemorate the second anniversary of the advent to power of General Metaxas' Fascist regime. By military parades, processions of the para-military youth organisations and the " phalanx," dele- gations from every municipality in the country, Greece demonstrates her enthusiastic loyalty to her dictator. How spontaneous this "enthusiasm" is, can be judged by the fact that in the past two years martial law has never been repealed, that the police may arrest any "suspected "citizen without a warrant, that they can break into any house and search it at any time of the day or night when the authorities think fit, that with only one exception every leader of whatever shade of political opinion has either fled from Greece or been exiled to the islands, that free speech is illegal, and a rigorous censorship is imposed on the Press, on private correspondence, and on telephonic and telegraphic communication.
Perhaps because Greece is a small and relatively unim- portant State the nature, and often even the existence, of the Fascist regime there is not generally realised. To the six million Greeks living under it, however, it is a grim and unavoidable reality, and in the realm of foreign politics, now that the balance between democratic and Fascist States is so precarious, it is of no little significance. It should be remembered that had Greece intervened, effectively and in time, on the side of the Allies during the Great War, that intervention might have been so decisive as to have ended the conflict years sooner, and today, though her military strength is not great, her strategic position affords potential bases from which naval and air forces could control the entrance to the. Black Sea, and the whole of the Eastern Mediterranean. The political sympathies of the Greek Government, therefore, are—or should be—of more than academic interest to British statesmen.
In view of the general ignorance which seems to prevail on this subject, it may be well to recall some of the circum- stances which led to the initiation of the dictatorship. In t935 King George II was recalled to his throne ; the details of his return are, for the present purpose, unimportant ; it is enough to say that during the first few months he succeeded in making himself almost universally popular among his subjects—no easy task. A democratic non-party Cabinet ruled Greece in an unusual degree of peace and tranquillity. After a short time, however, the Prime Minister, an ex-university professor, M. Demerdzis, died of heart- failure, and the King entrusted his next Cabinet to the leadership of General Metaxas, a Prussian-trained, Prussian- minded ex-army officer, who during the War had been one of the most violent Germanophile Greeks, and largely responsible for the anti-Ally policy pursued by the late King Constantine. He was supported by only four deputies In the Chamber.
During , the period of his constitutional Government General Metaxas set about pursuing his own personal policy, which,' as was natural in a man of his temperament and antecedents, obviously tended from the very beginning towards totalitarianism. This soon caused a working agree- ment between the two largest parties in the Chamber, lesigned to result in a Cabinet of "national defence." The '.general, however, had no intention of losing his position. He laid his plans with care. During July, 1936, a series of industrial disputes had broken out, centring round Salonika. A Bill providing for compulsory mediation in these disputes was proposed by the Government, and as a protest against this a general strike was organised—with the full knowledge of the Government and police—by the trade unions. It was to last for a fixed number of hours.
Using this as his excuse, and fabricating a story of an imminent Communist revolution, whereby the monarchy would once again fall, the General evidently obtained from the King—who knew the meaning of exile only too well—a mandate to establish martial law, to abolish the Chamber of Deputies, and to undertake a personal dictatorship of the country. The exact events of the days preceding the fourth of August may never be known, but on that day Athens and Salonika woke to find machine-guns at every street corner, and Greek democracy dead once more. The next steps are familiar to all students of Fascist methods. Arrest of all " Communists " and " suspects," exile of all prominent political figures, a purge of all liberal-minded public officials, and a complete censorship of all the means of information and expression.
Two years after, with a population almost universally hostile—in my own experience I can confidently state that not more than 2 per cent. of the people is anything but hostile —there seems little prospect that the dictatorship will be over- thrown, though last week's revolt in Crete goes to prove how unpopular it is. The king, to save himself from an imaginary revolution, has now become so irretrievably bound up with the Fascist regime in the minds of all his subjects that if the dictatorship ever falls, there can be little doubt that he will fall with it. Nevertheless, he still holds a powerful position : he is the only man in Greece who could take a successful lead against Metaxas, and, if he ever did so, he would certainly be supported by the armed forces—always a vital factor in the political life of all small States. At present, however, he lacks either the courage, or else the will, to give this lead; it will be interesting, indeed, to discover exactly how strong his opposition to the Fascist Government really is : in any case, it is clear that his position with regard to the General is —like that of monarchs in other authoritarian States—dis- tinctly subservient.
The internal politics of Greece today are like those of any other Fascist country : liberty and free thought are illegal, the financial position is strained by increasing armaments, and discontent is growing daily. But it is not this aspect of the Metaxas Government which specially concerns Great Britain, it is Greece's foreign policy. Although the Government emphatically denies any change in the traditional Anglophile sympathies, it is impossible not to believe that the increasing influence of German propaganda, the intensive German cultural infiltration, and the close economic connexions with Germany are not an indication that Greece, too, like most of the other Eastern European States, is becoming bound to the Rome-Berlin Fascist axis.
As yet Great Britain has done little to prevent this, and no attempt on her part can ever meet with concrete success until two conditions are fulfilled. The first is that the rulers of this country should realise the importance of the foreign connexions and sympathies of the smaller States of Europe— after all the great majority of European States are not great Powers. The second, that instead of wasting money and energy on futile propaganda methods, Britain should be ready to conclude economic and political agreements with the States whose friendship she desires. Germany by her trade agree- ments has almost monopolised the Greek export market ; if we, too, could realise that concrete actions carry more weight with the rulers of small States than honeyed gestures, our prestige and influence might be re-established. Great Britain might become the democratic leader of a democratic Europe.
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