Show 9 00 r L EA correspond our freenis Fri enis jhc thc greeks by gervasi F future ture through special arrango ment on with Colli collm ors s weekly king george II 11 of greece a monarch temporarily out of a country but not out of a job recently visited the united states Some something think of the debt which the united nations owe his tough liberty loving people was told during his visit of all the little nations of bewildered wil dered europe that lay jay in in the path of axis domination of the doomed continent only greece after poland loved democracy so well is as i to fight for it vigorously enough to call what happened a war it war in holland it was murder it war in belgium it was a skirmish in poland desperate though the resistance of the poles had been tile the german campaign proved an enormous exercise in panzer tactics only the greeks had a war for it all took their toll of the enemy holland belgium poland even norway cost the germans and therefore the axis many men and MUC much h equipment but until russia entered the war no foe inflicted such punishment on the axis as the greeks did upon the italians and later with the help of the british upon the germans you cant put a calipers on what greece did for the cause of democracy and measure it accurately the war is nt over yet but it might have been over had it not been for the greeks there were quislings Qui slings in the greek government king george knew this he said so courageously at a cabinet meeting held in the last days of athens just before the swastika was raised on the acropolis premier korizis went out and shot himself like lexington and concord but the greek people the goat herders gerders and the tobacco farmers the wine ame growers and the of olive groves the factory workers and the keepers of wine shops the common people of greece had no mind to do business with mussolini or hitler the night the italians tre treacherously descended upon greece from their long established base in albania october 28 1940 those people filled the village squares and the streets with their clamor down with fascism ml it was to have been a victorious march in arch to t 0 athens for the italians choice of the date october 28 anniversary of his pull man car march on rome indicated that metaxas greek premier heard the cries of the people he was as shrewd a politician as he was an able general perhaps one of the ablest officers of our times he saw and seized the opportunity of going goin g down in in history as a paladin of democracy rather than a dictator he chose to fight and what was to have been another easy victory for in vinci bles those veterans of one sided battles against unarmed natives in in ethiopia and barehanded republicans in spain turned into a catastrophic defeat fascism fed on glory there awas was none for fascist arms in greece fascism gorged on victory had m met ei costly defeat in greece it dawned on even the staunchest staunches black shirts with the greek debacle that mussolini was very definitely not always right the decline of the second roman empire that may meet its end one day soon on the sands of libya began in greece because greeks loved freedom well enough to fight for it what greeks accomplished something more the greeks accomplished complis hed italis mission in in the axis strategy in the mediterranean region was to have been twofold two fold the fascists were to have marched to athens and thereby intimidated where the treacherous Stoya dinovitch had prepared the terrain for an axis coup into the new order lineup turkey which at the time leaned far toward berlin was to have been won over by tats this fascist triumph and the fascists were also to have conquered egypt hitler attacked the soviet union 0 on june june 22 22 1941 but greek resistance in the balkans which inspired rebellion in in and further complicated matters for the nazis had given russia another seven months preparation moreover hitler was caught on the russian plains by winter because his timetable was thrown off schedule by the balkan campaign hitlerism some believe may die in russia but if so it received the mortal wound in in the balkans at the hands of the greeks |