| Show news TH E BY PAUL MU LC released by western newspaper union THREAT OF REVOLT IN GREECE TURKEY BEHIND OUR OUK ACTIONS washington the avoided and practically unmentioned background of the greek turk aid measures Is simply this A russo bulgar yugoslav plan Is supposed to start now to sever macedonia from greece and create there a separate new balkan state under communist control A spring merger of of ies to this end is supposed carnon com cor non on report among under underground round agencies including the british to have been planned at a meeting of Tol bukin and tito last september simultaneously a revolt within turkey sponsored by kurds burds encouraged by moscow is expected to get under way through guerilla activities of small bands the turkish part of the plan is not well organized the turks who spend 60 per cent of their budget for arms arm 9 are convinced the revolt will lead to world war III HL and are willing to fight the greek guerilla forces how bow ever are supposed to number about infantry mostly communist they are supposed to enjoy excellent connivance from bulgaria albania and yugoslavia the albanians tor for instance have two divisions on the greek border the government antigovernment anti movement within greece as a whole is regarded as being supported by perhaps 15 per cent of the population to thwart the guerilla effort before it gets under way the greek army is moving northward and attacking the known guerilla areas although they are hampered by bad communications including destroyed railroad stock and damaged roadbeds possibilities OF WAR the average world diplomat sees more world war possibilities than exist in these potentialities because russia is everywhere a hidden partner unwilling to accept open responsibility military men think the communist withdrawal in north china may have been undertaken recently to clear the way for the spring balkan campaign at any rate it was this situation from which britain announced withdrawal of her troops from greece march 31 and into which mr truman proposes to move with money tor for a local defense line the money plans have been concluded mr truman Is to give million dollars in nearly any way he sees fit loans grants advances of which millions will go to greece of this amount millions will be purely military advances rations clothing and millions are for civilian purposes including 50 millions for equipment railroads and road reconstruction st 20 millions for agricultural rehabilitation and 80 millions for or internal costs including administration the turks are to get the other millions mostly in military material but including some work on the roads and improvement of railroads the human relief advances are to be in addition to this and centered in 50 millions tor for greece in a general million dollar balkan food relief bill in addition the greek war relief association in this country Is raising 12 millions under approval of the president herbert hoover governor dewey and others to give medical child and direct relief assistance WORLD leadership FOR U S thus greece is to cost millions more atop the millions already given largely by the united states tor for a visible total of millions so tar far the need is great but this is not bad for a nation with an estimated 1939 population of 7 million it represents over per man woman and child so far probably more because the population is probably not today as large as 1939 the very nature of these steps shows them unlikely to involve as in war As the russian participation Is secret the reds are re hardly likely to come out of their explosive shells indeed they can hardly openly oppose our efforts to sustain governments against guerilla warfare ao matter what they may do in secret furthermore if greece and turkey really succeed in thwarting spring guerilla operations they will have made war just that much more unlikely lor for this year the graver possibilities lie in our assumption of world leadership at this point to continue presumably from now on britain is gone from the scene of major world influence she is giving away half her empire on the other hand the russian empire has arisen expanding and aggressive gres sive we shy way from an empire of our own which might sti sustain stain itself in resistance to communism but give our money to meet what we pretend to be a temporary situation in these larger diplomatic diplomat fc 60 considerations aldera ties lies the danger |
