PART EIGHT

PART EIGHT

Full national rights. Great merit and great sacrifices, the sacrifices that country made cannot have less of recognition than creating a new and great, free Greece.

I think the second sentence in this part clarifies the first. It will therefore be possible by all of us to specifically consider formulating our national requirements. Full national implementation and complete security of our borders is our new Panhellenic request.

Gentlemen,

I have the impression that we have come to full concurrence on our views on the national issue related to the imminent formation of a national unity government.

If that is so, I suggest the text of the national program as explained here be regarded as a national convention to be signed by all representatives.

May 20, 1944

(Signatures of the 25 representatives)

(Source: “Struggle Chronicles, Weapon Chronicles. Historical Archives - National Resistance”, p. 195-200 publishing house Gianakos.)

(Prime Minister G. Papandreou, after reading this Agreement, gave a copy to each member of his party.)

The Caserta Agreement

Minutes of the decisions made at the meeting held at AFHG on September 26, 1944.

The meeting was chaired by the AFHG Mediterranean Front Allied Command Commander and attended by the Greek Prime Minister, Greek government members and General Sarafis and General Servas, leaders of the Greek guerillas.

“1. All guerilla groups operating in Greece are to be placed under the orders of the Greek national unity government.

2. The Greek government is to place all these forces under the command of General Scobie, who is appointed by the Allied supreme commander as the general who will command the forces in Greece.

3. According to the proclamation issued by the Greek government, the leaders of the Greek guerillas are to prohibit units under their command from attempting to take matters into their own hands. Such acts would be considered a crime and those committing them will accordingly be punished.

4. As for Athens, it will take no action except under the direct orders of General Scobie, commander of the forces in Greece.

5. The security battalions are to be regarded as organs of the enemy. They are to be considered as enemy formations, unless they surrender pursuant to orders given by the general who commands the forces in Greece.

6. In order to put an end to the discords of the past, all Greek guerilla forces are committed to creating national unity in order to coordinate their activities in the greater interest of the common struggle.

7. After being received by the Supreme Allied Commander, as authorized by the Greek government, General Scobie is to issue orders for the operations.

Following are short orders for the operations issued by the general who commanded the forces in Greece:

1. The general who commands the forces in Greece has stated that his objective is to free the country and be able to bring the Greek government home. And at the same time to provide the people with material support.

2. The military organization related to the forces acting in Greece will be as follows:

a) General Zervas will continue to act within the territory governed by the Plaka Protocol and will cooperate with General Sarafis to prevent German withdrawal in the area that lies between the northern limits defined by the Plaka Protocol and Albania.

b) General Sarafis will continue to act in the rest of Greece, except:

I. The area in Athens. General Spiliopoulos will command all the armies in the Athens area and will act in close cooperation with the Athens government, supported by a liaison officer who will be appointed by General Sarafis. He will be under the orders of the 140th force.

II. In the Peloponnesus. The armies in this area will be commanded by an officer nominated by General Sarafis with the approval of the Greek government and will be assisted by an English mission liaison. They will be under the orders of the 140th force.

III. Later, Thrace (encompassing the city Solun) will be put under the command of an officer nominated by the Greek government.

3. Objectives:

a) All commanders are to hinder German withdrawal and neutralize German garrisons.

b) During the liberation of the territory all commanders will personally report to the commander of the 140th force:

I. Maintenance of law and order in the territories within their acting powers.

II. Avoid civil war and the killing of Greeks by Greeks.

III. For the avoidance of any kind of penalties and unjustified arrests.

IV. For their help in establishing legal political power and granting aid.

4. A map marking the boundaries of the operations is given to all commanders.”

“Communiqué.

A meeting was recently held in AFHG. It was chaired by the Supreme Allied Commander and attended by General Scobie commander of forces in Greece, the Greek Prime Minister Papandreou along with other members of the Greek government and by two guerilla commanders Generals Sarafis and Zervas.

The two generals, commanders of the Greek guerilla forces, confirmed that they will absolutely accept orders from the Greek government and from the allied supreme commander, under whose orders the Greek government has placed all Greek forces operating in Greece.

All are in agreement with the decisions made regarding the coordination of the struggle and the possibility of freeing Greece as soon as possible.”

(Source: “Struggle Chronicles, Weapon Chronicles. Historical Archives - National Resistance”, p. 205-208 publishing house Gianakos.)

(The Caserta Agreement was signed by General Wilson, Commander of Allied Middle East Command, Mr. Papandreou, President of the Greek government, General S. Sarafis,

representative of ELAS and General N. Zervas, representative of EDES).

The Varkiza Agreement

The signatories below, on one side I. Sofianopoulos, N. Ralis and I. Makropoulos from the Greek government delegation and on the other side G. Siantos, CPG Central Committee Secretary, D. Partsalidis, EAM Central Committee Secretary, and I. Tsirimokos, ELD General Secretary forming the EAM Central Committee delegation. The two groups met in Varkiza and together explored the means and manner by which to terminate the civil war and bring reconciliation to the Greek people. The following agreements were reached:

The government delegation expressed strong will to end the sorrowful internal crisis without further bloodshed and restore unity, internal peace and political order. Only then would the Greek people undertake a creative effort to rebuild the country from the ruins caused by the heavy fighting with external enemies and from the fratricidal war.

In order for the Agreement to receive impartial and moral character, expressing the words of the Greek people’s political conscience, the government delegation recommended that the Agreement be proclaimed as the resolute will of the Greek people for the development of free and normal political life, whose main feature will be respect of political opinion for the citizens, peaceful campaigning, the spread of political ideas, respect for freedom and respect for the Atlantic Charter Proclamation and the Tehran Decision in good conscience for the peoples who have fought for it.

The meeting concluded with full consent of these views and principles by the EAM delegation.

Article 1

Agreement

The government, in accordance with the Constitution and ruling Democratic principles, will ensure that every party has the right to freely express its political beliefs. The government will abolish former laws that prohibit freedoms and will ensure personal

freedoms such as freedom of gatherings, association and of the press are not inhibited. The government will establish full freedom for trade unions.

Article 2

Abolition of military law

Military law will be lifted immediately after signing this Agreement. With the abolition of military law, a constitutional protocol similar to KD will come into effect, thus permitting the abolition of article KD included in the Constitution.

The validity of Articles 5, 10, 12, 20 and 95 of the Constitution will be immediately postponed with decrees. The postponement will continue until administrative, judicial and military authorities in the country are fully established. Whatever is considered more special up to Article 5 must be postponed in Athens and Piraeus together with their suburbs and neighbourhoods. Especially again, for those arrested to date, it is determined that Article 5 of the Constitution does not apply. They will be released as soon as possible by sending the necessary orders to the competent authorities.

EAM supporters arrested and held by other organizations will soon be released.

Article 3

Amnesty

All political offenses committed from December 3, 1944 to the signing of this Agreement will be amnestied. Excluded are ordinary offenses committed against life and property that were not necessary for the successful execution of political offenses. The applicable laws will be published after the signing of this Agreement. Excluded from the amnesty are those members of ELAS, EP and ELAN who are obliged to surrender their arms and who do not surrender them by March 15, 1945. This last provision, after confirming that ELAS has surrendered all its weapons, will no longer be justified and will be abolished.

Guarantees and details for the amnesty will be provided for in the present bill now being drafted.

Article 4

Hostages

All citizens arrested by ELAS or EP will be immediately released.

Article 5

The national army, except for the professional officers and NCOs, will consist of citizens of draft age. Reserve officers, NCOs and soldiers of existing formations who are especially trained on new weapons will remain in service. Ieros Lohos will remain as it is while it is under the direct command of the Allied Headquarters and then will be merged with the national army in accordance with the basis set out above. Effort will be made to expand regular recruitment throughout Greece in accordance with the technical opportunities and emerging needs. After demobilizing ELAS, those fighters who would be invited annually in accordance with the attached plan, will enter existing units. The rest will be released from duty. All active staff of the national army will be evaluated by the Commission under Article 7 of the Constitutional protocol. Political and social beliefs of the mobilized citizens will be respected.

Article 6

Demobilization

Armed resistance forces, specifically ELAS, regulars and reserves, EAM (probably refers to ELAN) and the National Militia are to be demobilized when this Agreement comes into effect. Demobilization and decommissioning of weapons will be carried out according to a specifically planned protocol planned by a technical committee.

The state will regulate requisitions made by ELAS. Requisitioned items by ELAS, including livestock, automobiles, etc., will be handed out by the state according to the modalities laid out in the shaped protocol and, as of now, will be regarded as requisitions made by the Greek state.

Article 7

Purging officials

A government appointed commission or board shall commence the purge of civil servants, NPDD officials, city and municipal officials, etc. The criteria for purging will be - qualification, character and morality, cooperation with the enemy and the use of official authority as an organ of a dictatorship. Officials who belonged in the above categories during the occupation and who joined the resistance will be returned to their former place and evaluated the same way as other employees. The same board will also evaluate officials who participated or cooperated in the December 3, 1944 events, after the signing of this document. There will be opportunities for promotions to be determined by the government that emerges from the elections.

Article 8

Security unit purges

Purging of security units, gendarme and police units will be done by a special board as soon as possible in the same manner and using similar criteria for civil servants. All officers and fighters of the aforementioned units that fall under the provisions of the amnesty law, which entered the ranks of ELAS, ELAN or EP during the occupation, will return to their posts and will undergo assessment by the purging board the same as their colleagues. All officers and fighters mentioned, from the formations until the signing of this Agreement, will be placed on standby and their final position will be determined by the board which will be formed by the future government resulting from the elections.

Article 9

Plebiscites and elections

In full freedom and purity, a plebiscite will be held as soon as possible, certainly in the course of this year, which would finally put an end to the problems for the regime, subjecting all of the decision of the people. Soon after that, elections for the Constituent Assembly will follow in order to draft a Constitution for this country. Both delegations agree in terms of the purity of the decisions of the people’s will to call the major allied powers to send observers.

This agreement was duplicated with two identical copies. One was given to the government delegation and the other to the EAM delegation.

Athens Ministry of Foreign Affairs of 12. II. 1945.

Government delegates:

1. I. Sofianopoulos 2. P. Ralis 3. I. Makropoulos

EAM delegates:

1. D. Siantos 2. D. Partsalidis 3. I. Tsirimokos”

(Source: “History of the Civil War years 1945-1949” (Second guerilla movement), Volume II by Fivos Neok. Grigoriadis.)

The Atlantic Charter

The Atlantic Charter was a statement issued on August 14, 1941 that set out American and British goals for the period following the end of the Second World War.

The joint statement, later dubbed the “Atlantic Charter”, outlined US and UK aims for the world as follows: no territorial aggrandizement; no territorial changes made against the wishes of the people (self-determination); restoration of self-government to those deprived of it; reduction of trade restrictions; global cooperation to secure better economic and social conditions for all; freedom from fear and want; freedom of the seas; and abandonment of the use of force, as well as disarmament of aggressor nations. Adherents to the Atlantic Charter signed the Declaration by United Nations on January 1, 1942, which was the basis for the modern United Nations.

The Atlantic Charter inspired several other international agreements and events that followed the end of the war: the dismantling of the British Empire, the formation of NATO, and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) all derive from the Atlantic Charter.

US President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, discussed what would become the Atlantic Charter in 1941 during the Atlantic Conference in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland aboard HMS Prince of Wales. They made their joint declaration on August 14, 1941 from the US naval base in the bay, Naval Base Argentia, that had recently been leased from Britain as part of a deal that saw the US give 50 surplus destroyers to the UK for use against German U-boats (the US did not enter the war as a combatant until the attack on Pearl Harbour, four months later). The policy was issued as a statement; as such there was no formal, legal document with the title “The Atlantic Charter”. It detailed the goals and aims of the Allied powers concerning the war and the post-war world.

Many of the ideas of the charter came from an ideology of Anglo-American internationalism that sought British and American cooperation for the cause of international security. Roosevelt’s attempts to tie Britain to concrete war aims and Churchill’s

desperation to bind the US to the war effort helped provide motivations for the meeting which produced the Atlantic Charter. It was assumed at the time that Britain and America would have an equal role to play in any post-war international organization that would be based on the principles of the Atlantic Charter.

Churchill and Roosevelt began communicating in 1939; this was the first of their 11 wartime meetings. Both men traveled in secret; Roosevelt was on a ten-day fishing trip. On August 9, 1941, the British battleship HMS Prince of Wales steamed into Placentia Bay, with Churchill on board, and met the American heavy cruiser USS Augusta, where Roosevelt and members of his staff were waiting. On first meeting, Churchill and Roosevelt were silent for a moment until Churchill said “At long last, Mr. President”, to which Roosevelt replied “Glad to have you aboard, Mr. Churchill”. Churchill then delivered to the president a letter from King George VI and made an official statement which, despite two attempts, the movie sound crew present failed to record.

The Atlantic Charter made clear that the United States was supporting the United Kingdom in the war. Both the US and UK wanted to present their unity, regarding their mutual principles and hopes for a peaceful post-war world and the policies they agreed to follow once the Nazis had been defeated. A fundamental aim was to focus on the peace that would follow, and not on specific American involvement and war strategy, although American involvement appeared increasingly likely.

The eight principal points of the Charter were:

1. No territorial gains were to be sought by the United States or the United Kingdom; 2. Territorial adjustments must be in accord with the wishes of the peoples concerned; 3. All people had a right to self-determination; 4. Trade barriers were to be lowered; 5. There was to be global economic cooperation and advancement of social welfare; 6. The participants would work for a world free of want and fear; 7. The participants would work for freedom of the seas;

8. There was to be disarmament of aggressor nations and a common disarmament after the war.

Although Clause Three clearly states that all peoples have the right to decide their form of government, it fails to say what changes are necessary in both social and economic terms, so as to achieve freedom and peace.

Clause Four, with respect to international trade, consciously emphasized that both “victor [and] vanquished” would be given market access “on equal terms.” This was a repudiation of the punitive trade relations that were established within Europe after World War I, as exemplified by the Paris Economy Pact.

Only two clauses expressly discuss national, social, and economic conditions necessary after the war, despite this significance.

When it was released to the public, the Charter was titled “Joint Declaration by the President and the Prime Minister” and was generally known as the “Joint Declaration”. The Labour Party newspaper Daily Herald coined the name Atlantic Charter, but Churchill used it in Parliament on August 24, 1941, and it has since been generally adopted.

No signed version ever existed. The document was threshed out through several drafts and the final agreed text was telegraphed to London and Washington. President Roosevelt gave Congress the Charter’s content on August 21, 1941. He said later, “There isn’t any copy of the Atlantic Charter, so far as I know. I haven’t got one. The British haven’t got one. The nearest thing you will get is the [message of the] radio operator on Augusta and Prince of Wales. That’s the nearest thing you will come to it ... There was no formal document.”

The British War Cabinet replied with its approval and a similar acceptance was telegraphed from Washington. During this process, an error crept into the London text, but this was subsequently corrected. The account in Churchill’s The Second World War concludes “A number of verbal alterations were agreed, and the document was then in its final shape”, and makes no mention of any

signing or ceremony. In Churchill’s account of the Yalta Conference he quotes Roosevelt saying of the unwritten British constitution that “it was like the Atlantic Charter – the document did not exist, yet all the world knew about it. Among his papers he had found one copy signed by himself and me, but strange to say both signatures were in his own handwriting.”

The Allied nations and leading organizations quickly and widely endorsed the Charter. At the subsequent meeting of the Inter-Allied Council in London on September 24, 1941, the governments in exile of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Yugoslavia, as well as the Soviet Union, and representatives of the Free French Forces, unanimously adopted adherence to the common principles of policy set forth in the Atlantic Charter. On January 1, 1942, a larger group of nations, who adhered to the principles of the Atlantic Charter, issued a joint Declaration by United Nations stressing their solidarity in the defense against Hitlerism.

The Axis powers interpreted these diplomatic agreements as a potential alliance against them. In Tokyo, the Atlantic Charter rallied support for the militarists in the Japanese government, who pushed for a more aggressive approach against the US and Britain.

The British dropped millions of flysheets over Germany to allay fears of a punitive peace that would destroy the German state. The text cited the Charter as the authoritative statement of the joint commitment of Great Britain and the US “not to admit any economical discrimination of those defeated” and promised that “Germany and the other states can again achieve enduring peace and prosperity.”

The most striking feature of the discussion was that an agreement had been made between a range of countries that held diverse opinions, who were accepting that internal policies were relevant to the international problem. The agreement proved to be one of the first steps towards the formation of the United Nations.

The problems came not from Germany and Japan, but from those of the allies that had empires and which resisted self-determination—

especially the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the Netherlands. Initially it appears that Roosevelt and Churchill had agreed that the third point of the Charter was not going to apply to Africa and Asia. However Roosevelt’s speechwriter Robert E. Sherwood noted that “it was not long before the people of India, Burma, Malaya, and Indonesia were beginning to ask if the Atlantic Charter extended also to the Pacific and to Asia in general.” With a war that could only be won with the help of these allies, Roosevelt’s solution was to put some pressure on Britain but to postpone until after the war the issue of self-determination of the colonies.

Public opinion in Britain and the Commonwealth was delighted with the principles of the meetings but disappointed that the US was not entering the war. Churchill admitted that he had hoped the US would decide to commit itself.

The acknowledgement that all people had a right to self-determination gave hope to independence leaders in British colonies.

The Americans were insistent that the charter was to acknowledge that the war was being fought to ensure self-determination. The British were forced to agree to these aims but in a September 1941 speech, Churchill stated that the Charter was only meant to apply to states under German occupation, and certainly not to the countries who formed part of the British Empire.

Churchill rejected its universal applicability when it came to the self-determination of subject nations such as British India. Mahatma Gandhi in 1942 wrote to President Roosevelt: “I venture to think that the Allied declaration that the Allies are fighting to make the world safe for the freedom of the individual and for democracy sounds hollow so long as India and for that matter Africa are exploited by Great Britain...” While self-determination was Roosevelt’s guiding principle, he was reluctant to place pressure on the British in regard to India and other colonial possessions as they were fighting for their lives in a war in which the United States was not officially a participant. Gandhi refused to help either the British or the American war effort against Germany and Japan in any way, and Roosevelt chose to back Churchill. India was already contributing significantly to the war effort, sending over 2.5 million

men (the largest volunteer force in the world at the time) to fight for the Allies, mostly in West Asia and North Africa.

Churchill was unhappy with the inclusion of references to peoples’ right to “self-determination” and stated that he considered the Charter an “interim and partial statement of war aims designed to reassure all countries of our righteous purpose and not the complete structure which we should build after the victory.” An office of the Polish Government in Exile wrote to warn Władysław Sikorski that if the Charter was implemented with regard to national self-determination, it would make the desired Polish annexation of Danzig, East Prussia and parts of German Silesia impossible, which led the Poles to approach Britain asking for a flexible interpretation of the Charter.

During the war Churchill argued for an interpretation of the charter in order to allow the Soviet Union to continue to control the Baltic states, an interpretation rejected by the US until March 1944. Lord Beaverbrook warned that the Atlantic Charter “would be a menace to our [Britain’s] own safety as well as to that of the Soviet Union.” The US refused to recognize the Soviet takeover of the Baltic states, but did not press the issue against Stalin when he was fighting the Germans. Roosevelt planned to raise the Baltic issue after the war, but he died in April 1945, before fighting had ended in Europe.