S/PV.60 Security Council

1 should like ta ask whether there are any members. of the Council who want to abject or start a discussion on the thifd item. Sir Alexander CADOGAN (United Kingdom): If the, Council will proceed now to discuss whether the third item should be adopted on the agenda or not, itmight give r~e ta a discussion,' 'and that might tend. ta stand in the way of and delay the other questions that have ·a1ready been adopted. • T.be PRESIDENT: 1 should like to avoid postponing the.discussion of the meritsof the second item and for thiS' :reason 1 propose topostpone the adoption of thethird item because otherwise we might get .involvedinanother discussion for ~everal hours which would delay tne discussion Qf the second, item. " . Therefore, unless there is any objection by this 'Council, 1 propose thaf we keep the third item on the provisional agenda as it is until our discussion of the second item is finished or until the Council qecides ta change this decision. Un- 1ess there is objection, 1 shall postpone discussion of the question of inclusion of the third item in the agenda. . . 36. Discussion of the·Ukrainian complaint against Greece (contin~ed) The .PRESIDENT: This' te1egrâIIl from the UkrainianSoviet Socialist Republic ta the Secretary'-General 'deals with certain activities of the Govemment of Greecè. Therefore, unless, there is objection, Ishall ask the representatives of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and of Greece ta come ta the table. There is no objection. quelques Mr. MANUlLE,KY (Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic) (translated tram Russian): Before' proceeding to the substance of the question 1 Wish to make sorne remarks of a pre1iminary cl1aracter. , . The representative of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic has met with the reproach here that bis sÙl.tement iB not written in such 3- way as to please even the representatives of the governments whose' activities are eriti~ed in , that stateri:lent. But we did not set ourselves such a task, and could not do so: criticism' is a1ways unpleasant to those against whom it is directed. It has been said that .the Ukrainian stateme.i1t is not quite in accordance with estab- lished diplomatie form, It is known from bis- tory, however, that one of the,firstdiplomats of the United States, Benjamin Franklin,. aIso hear,d reproaches for that from people who de- sired to protect themselves behind formaI techni- calities from the truth which was unpleasant to them. It is impossible to agree with a fotnl of ,conventionaI etiquette, which is at variance with , the common sense of millions of people. To us Soviet' people it seew..5 strange, for' ex- ample; when one of the partiesat thediplo~atic table, in removing·bis neighbour's ash-tray, begs a thousand pardons, whilst at, the same 'time he is trying to shift the frontiers of a foceign coun- ~, let us say for example those of Albariia, bycentaines hundreds of kilometres, not orny without apolo- gizing, but into the bargain provoking frontier ·ment incidents and shouting about a state of warwith Albania. They frequen~y express regret when they barely gra:z;e the foot of ~ neighbour at table, bl;lt at the same· time they imprison and ~e republicans,physically destroy democrats ID Greece, andnot orny fail to apologize but even get angry when they are criticized for it: !h,?y thank a neighboUJ.' for a match ',.Nhen light- mg a cigar, but at the same time they take the petroleum and :raw materiaI, let us say, from Indonesia for example, and not orny do t~ey not .. la t~ank Indonesia, but .they express dissatisfacti0Il: wl14 Indones!a's resistance. . ' ,As you see, there 'are .various conceptions . about relations between governments, nations and persans. " .. .nations The U;~ted :KÏl}gdom representative advised' the Ukranuan delegation'even before it made its address .toobserve .moderation in its utterances. T~e representative of the Netherlands, speak- ing at the meeting on 3 September after the. representative of the Soviet Union,' stated that Mr. Gromyko's speech had fiot convinced him as there were no documents in it. Let us con- sider a further document, secret arder No. AP- 168 from the Governor-General of Eastern Macedonia, General Melisinos, from which it is piain that the Greek extreme monarchists in collaboration with the British authorities are forming monarchiSt bands and are terroiizing the .local population. Here is the text of this arder: . "The fourth British Indian division, desiring ta improve arder in Macedonia, has dècided ta issue arrns to trustworthy peasants to the extent . of not more than six peasants pel' village. These peasants will be chosen by the eIders, the British military authorities and the gendarmerie. Lists of villages which are ta be issued with arms will he announced by the prefects· jointly with the . local British and gendarmerie authorities." This .document .·is, of course,. unpleàsant to thœe who are respônsible for the activity of these groups, but there is no getting away fromgroupes. it. Let us take yet, another document. It is well known thatin. Thessaly the -armed .mon- archist group of Surlas, that professional killer who has the lives of dozens of murdered demo- etats·on his conscience,. isoperating;· Attached to this Illonarchist group in the capacity of politi- cal adviser is the British officer George, whokid:- napped' the proInînelit .Greek journalist Vidalis - from a train and shot him after torture~ Mr. van Kleffens has asked for photographs. • Isubmit for his attention aphotographportray- ing these hunters of· men~ You will agree that whatever fin~ diplomatie language we were to àpplay, the document could not but annoythose whom it concerns. . . . . 1 will now pass. ta the substance ofthe ques- tièm. The question of the situation which· has -msen in Greece.is notbeing discussed for thè fîtst time by the'Security Cbup.cil. As early as February of this y'ear th~ Soviet de1egation sub- mitted to the 'SecurityCouncil extensive ma- It is a we1l-known fact that aU reactionary reiUïîes preparing external aggres;;ions against o~he." peace-Ioving nations hav~ adopted such methods. At iirst the reactionary governments and reactionary forces oppressed their own people, after which t..'i.ey proceeded to aggres- sive acts against other natio:ns. The Soviet dele- gation foretold that the aggressive monarchist ~lements, utilizing the presence of British troops in Greece for the purpose of internai strife against EAM and other demüeratic parties and, unions, would thereby be aided in the imple- mentation of their aggressive intentions towards their neighbours. . , At the·time we were told that the' Soviet dele- géltion was overstating the case, that foreign ob- servers would see that the elections were prop- erly conducted, that there would bepeace in Greece aftel' the·elections, and that orny after the pacification of Greece would a plebisCite on the form of gàvernment in Greece take place, but this would not take piace earlier than 1948. . Ml'. Bevin prùmised further that as soon as the eIections had taken place and circumstances per- mitted, the British Government would withdraw its troops from Greece. That was what he stated on 4 February at the meeting of· the Security CounciI, and what he stated in the House of Commons on 27 March 1946. A simiiax state- ment was made by Ml'. Attlee in the HOlliie of Commons on 4 March 1946. AU this is ,con- tamed in statements, most important docmnents for our discussion. Finally, Mr. Bevin said on 4 February.1946 that he would'be readyto use all bis influence with the Greek Government ta put an end to the frontier incidents. Seven months have passed since February 1946. The promises made have not been fulfilleq. The position of Greece today isworse tJb.an it was in February 1946. The promised pacifica:- tion in Greece has nat come about. It was not Mr. Bevin who proved to he right but Mt, So- phoulis, who conducted the elections of 31 March 1946 and who foresaw then that the result of these falsified elections in Greece wou1d be the intensification of civil war, and of the terroristic activities of the extremist monarchiSt elements, po~ble. And, actually, immediate1y after the elections of 31 Maréh the Greek Governmentproceeded to what is called in Greece the "monarchisation" ôfthe country. A purge of th~ government organizations and the army from republican de- 'ments and their replacement by .monarchistic elements was begun; Who conducted this purge? People who,hadcollaborated with the Germans, of the ilk of General Ventiris and Spiliot<?potP-os who, in the month of May, qismissed from the army eighty generals and' more than 0n.e hun- ,dred, colonels, replacing them with ext,remist, ,monarchists, as was statedby èx-Minister of .War Manetas. The satne action was taken iIi civil administrations. ' Such a' wave of terrar surged across'the whole country that it'even sur- ,'passed the terroristic measures whereby the 'elec- tions of 31.:fv.[arch 1946 were effected.' , The representative of the Soviet Union has made .public here the ilumbers of democrats and republicans murdered, maimed and· tortured by thê Greek monarchists. Yes, these figures are :'knoWn ta the entire world. In spite of all obsta- c1~, information as to the methods wherebythe present, Greek Govel'IlJllent prepared tJ:Ie,'plebi- $dtehas penetrated into theworldpress.Every- body,knows ab,out them except,those who were cnot interested in" the truthbeing pu.blished, at leastnot before 1 September, the day of the ,plebiscite. Itmay seem wild,but it iS a fact that a month ' beforç ,the' pl,::biscite ,in Greece washeld, the , tra,deunions were dissolved,dissolved' at a tUne wllenalldemocratic governments of the world ,wc::reacknowledgirig or -w.eré being obliged to ac~ knowedge the, COnSiderable' part which the trade' unions.playedin thewarand which'they .are still playing in the recovery of the world from the wounrnrinflicted by.the war. They were dis~ solvedata tiIne when the United Nations Gen- referend~m, only SOper cent of the e1ectorate v6ted, and that all democratic·parties assett that the lists of voters were falsified. It is also necessary to mention-the significance ofpunitive expe~tions in the systen+ of prepara- tion for. the. forged plebiscite. Punitiveexpedi- tions havebeen C;p~rating tbroughout 1946. Theywere an integral part of measures for what is called the "pacification" of Greece. Primarily, however; they were directed against the national minorities,Ï'flc1uding.the Slavs in Greecé. As an example,inthirteen village districts of Flûrina and Aminteu alone, out of 8,SOC!. Slavs 3,400 person.c: weremaimedand seriously wounded and, 550 men were arrested. '1 Pa.rticulàrlY active in'the Florina district was a gendarmerie lieutènan,t Deligianis, who had served in the Ge1i:iJ.an S.S. and on whoseorders ,houses inhabited'hy Slavswereburned. l appeal ta yO"u, to. consider' for a minutethat people belonging totheAnglo-Sa,xon race and fonnin!!i a.nrinority somewhere in some State' or territory ,were subjected. to::sirnilar treatmen~, wùuld YOli acknowledge the rightof Great J3ritain to defend However, the practice of sending punitive expeditions was particularly intensified for sorne weeks before the plebiscite. Let us take as an example the eastern part of Macedonia where the J\1acedonian population is most densely con- centrated. Punitive detachments penetrated into the area of Bermon round the town.s of Naoussa, Vern, Edessa and Yanitsa. Wholc villages were set on fire and the population was driven out. Terrorist groups killed people without any kind of trial and inquiry. Measures of repression were extended to women and old people. Thus in the outlyingvillages of the town of Naoussa forty WOrnen were seized and subjected to such cruel treatnient that two of them lost their reason. If the names of the persons who have suffered thus ' are required we can supply all these names. The newspaper Vradini is a righti:>t newspaper which does not sympathise with the democrats, but on 3 August that paper, in descllbing the punitive expedition of the 9th division in the area of Olympia, wrote that the "Minister of ,Public arder and a British officer, the assistant to the Head of the British mission, are super- 11ÎSÏng the operations." The representative of the Netherlands may say that this newspapeI report is not a document. Well, would the statement cf the assistant.to the Head of the British mission. in Greece be 'a docth-nent? Such a document is available. It is published in the .'lame paper Vradini on 6 August 1946, as a statement by the assistant tothe Head of the Military mis.~on to Greece. A~ the .'lame time a photograph of this officer supervising the progress of the puni- !ive~peditionwas supplied and 1 have it here. On the very eve of the plebiscite, the Minister of the Interior Spiro Theotonis announced on , 31 August that he had secured a powerful pre- election victory in northern Greece, having de- stroyed about 200 Republicans by bringing in- fantry and artilleryinto action agairist them. It is known, accordingto official data, that on Sunday,· 1· September alone, on the day of the so-caUed plebiscite, 250 persons were killed. If the protectors of the present Greek Govern- ment· are satisfied with that and consider that such methods of 'conducting a plebiscite are normal, that istheir affair. World public opinion can onlyconsider, however, that such methods ofconducting the plebiScite compromise the very ideaof a national plebiscite and are a flagrant violation of the fundamental principles of de- morracy. Snch. plebiscites were conducted formerly before· the war by sorne reactionary governments and are known to have left painfuf - memories behind them. As a result of our corn- on~ régimes où ordinaires, adoptés sont naires battre le aussi figurer bres connaissance. prend pas deS tribunaux extraordinaires. Si invraisemblable cela jugent, tragiques Grèce, à grec, partie réfugiaient trement ainsi De procès le un mêmes mandes, saient Is it possible to speak of a free plebiscite whcn special courts-martial are operating in the coun- try the statute regarding which) as adopted by th~ Gn~ek Parliament on 18 July 1946) is copied exactly irom those special tribunals,which were formed in Italy for fighting the anti-fascist move- ment? 1 think that this document also ou~ht to be brought forwarcl here and taken into con- 'Sideration by all members of the Security Coun- cil. Every unprejudiced person understands that {)nly a government which is not based on the support of the people is obliged to have recourse ta the adoption of such extreme measures as the formation of special tribunals. And however improbable it may seem, the fact remains that these special tribunals are judging not those people who in,the dark days of 'the German- Italian occupation of Greece collaborated with the emmy and· helped him to establish his dominion over the courageous Greek people, but those who, at that time either participated in the resistance movement or' took to the moun- tains and conducted an unre1enting struggle against the usurpers of Greek territory, and thereby helped' the mission of liberation of the Allied armies. FurthermOIe, these special tri- bunaIs which are today judging the people of the resistance, the Greek dèmocrats, include none other tball those judges who fulfilled the same functions for the German-Italian occupants and themselves collaborated with the latter and pun- ished those Greek patriots who did not reconcile themselves to the enslavement of their fellow- countrymen.' , There may be submitted only two facts t:e": flccting with crystal-like clarity the real nature une of the regime existing in Greece. On ~2 July existe 1946, in the town of Edessa, a woman teacher, ville Irene., Jini, was condemned to death and duly l'institutrice executed. Who was this Irene Jini? A German être spy perhaps? Perhaps like Ralis, Cholyakoglu Ralis,' and Logotetopoulos, all three.former Prime trois Ministers of quisling governments durin~ the quisling sous l'occupation allemande, German occupation, she collaborated to~etl1er elle ac~epter ~th them? No, .Irene Jini was one of the hero- . des mes of the Greekpopular resistance. She was exécutée, executed, but Ralis, Cholyakoglu and Logoteto- .topoulos, ..poulos, members of the same party as the present' le Prime Minister in the Greek Govemment, are tue!, sontvivants. aIive. . Almost simultaneously with the execution of , Irene Jini, a Greek court exonerated from aIl :responsibility Theodore Turkovasilis, a former . bank ditector -during the German occupation, who wrote to General von Altenbutg at the end of 1941: "1 am a tried and tested friend of the tribunaux bilité vers tenburg: nation. soriné Athènes, nlan.d.es ~lorious German nation. 1 was deported 'and nnprisoned before the arrivaI of the German forces in Athens because of'my feelings towards ~:d",Y~tional her ;"coll\paro: That is the case of Irene Jini, but let us takc the case of another person in the forefrànt of the CUITent political scene in Greece, Gonatas. Even b~fore the estahlishment of the Nazi regime in Gamany, Gonatas was an instigator of Jewish extermination in Macedonia. During the Ger- man occupation regime, he was an organizer of the S.S. battalions who, like Lavars militia, fought against those patriots who were clefend- ing the honour and dignity of their country. Irene Jini was el\.~cuted but Ganata!-. ~s be- come Deputy Prime Minister in the Greek Government. This list could be extended many times over.· People like Gonatas and Turko- vasilis are the masters of the situation in Greece tod~y. They prepared and carried into effect the plebiscite of 1 September 1946. The "men of 1 September" are.n~w referring to the, for them, happy outcome of the plebiscite. I will permit myse1f, however, to recall what was said by the British M/"..rnber of Parliament Warbey in the House of Commons on 20 June 1946 regarding the electoral lists prepared by the Greek Government fç.r the general elections and on the basis of which the plebiscite took plac~ on 1 September. Mr. Warbey described those lists as catastrophic. It is known that in· Greece in 193.6, 1,753,000 persons were entered in the electoral lists. But as we know, the war has occurred in the meantime, there was a frightful famine in Greece during the occupation which 'carried away many people. It is well~ known that in aIl·countrles thenumber of elec- tors dropped after the war. In Greece, however, .an electoral miracle has tàken place. The num- ber of e1ectors has risen by almost half a million men, that is to say by 25 per cent. Warbey,on the basis of this calculation,'has come to definite conclusion that no more than 20 per cent of the people are behind the present Greek Govern- ment. It is known that the lemand of the demo- cratic parties for the r~vision of the lists was re- fused .by the Greek Government. Today we know still more about the plebiscite of 1 Sepiember. The· entire world press lias reported thatthe envelopes usedin the voting were so transparent as, in fac:t, to deprive the voting of its secret character. In any demo'cratic country, that would' constitute a reason for an- . nulling the plebiscite, butin Greece, even trans- parent things visible ta the whole wùrld do not worty the present Greek Government. The press has aIready stated that the RepubliGan parties do not recognize this plebiscite. According to .an Associated Press report, Mr. SophouIis call~d this plebiscite "ftaudulent.", Headded that he eVen~ expected that still· !'lore votes would be given for the revival of the monarchy "in view of the terrai' which has beeri exercised in Greece .. during the pastfew months." '-Ilifëceaucours jesty~ the results are really faked. The real percentagc is somewhere about 25 pel' cent. Neverthcless, we want you back; Incidentally~ it is the same John Theotokis, now Minister pf the Interior under the fascist Government, who has caoked up the present plebiscite." mon affaire fait ence rieures. dû glaises C'était· anglaises allié. de des républicaines C'était pression accord l'ELAS, agressifs que sur M. savoir ingérence aux Gouvernment le la exemple, à dt pas son fonds de 1 will proceed ta the most important part of my speech. It is said that the question of L'he plebiscite is an internaI a,ffair of the Greek people themselves. That is absolutely true, but on one condition, that nobody from outside should in- ten'ene in internaI affairs. Meanwhile, however> the present plebiscite is, to sum up, the result "lf ~rolonged interventicm by the Br~tish authorities in the internaI affairs of Greece. The introduc- tion of British forces into the territory of Allied Greece was an intervention. The participation of those forces in the internal str.uggle on the side of the monarchistic elements against the republican and democ:;ratic forces of Greece was an intervention. The conclusion, under British Government pressure, of the notorious Varkis agreement for the disarma..ment of the ELA,S forces confronted by detachments of aggressive monarchist elements, was an intervention. The pressure exercized by the British authorities on the Greèk Government in the matter of the con- duct of the elections of 31 March 1946, about which Mr. SophouliS public1y s'poke, was an intervention. The participation QfBritish officers \ in the launching of punitive e..'l:peditions by the Greek Government was an intervention. The control by British autborities'of Greek ~conomy was an intervention. It is known, for example, that Greece is not entitled on her own account to' effect the issue and disbursement of Greek currency, and it'is a1so known that Greèce !las not a free hand in cùntrolling its gold' reserve and currency fund: . Article 2, paragraph 7 of the United Nations . ~harter denies other governments the right to Nations mtervene in th(~ iIlternal affairs of a foreign d'intervenir country. Inthat case, however, t.'ùs Article and autre paragraph are directed against the British au- ce thorities who have violated the Article. Action qvi in the present case by the· Security Council is t.:1le . not intervention in, theinternal 'affairs of Greece, pas but it is the duty.oJ the Security Counüil to de prevent intervention by a foreign government ment m the internaI affairs of another country and devoir the creation of suchconditions, in aêcordance tervienne with At:tic1e 2~,paragraph 7· of the Charter of pays, the :U~ted Nations, as to guarantee.that the paragraphe plebIscIte remains an internal àffair of the Greek garantissent P~ople oruy. une Secondly, the question of the pl~biscit~ cèa:ses to be mere1y aninternàl affair of Greece from d'être themoment when the present Greek Government moment où le makes tp.atplebiscite an instrument for further de . And,apparently, such acts,of provocation by . Gteek aggressive e1ementS are part of a system applying to the. frontiers of Greece with othét Balkan govemments also. Thus, for. e.'"{ample, on 26 June 1946tworeconnaissance airplanes flew from the Greek frontier on ta Yugoslav territory and in a hedge-hopping flight under- took a reconnaissance survey of the frontier -from Lake Doiran ta the outpost of Dub.' The same thing wasrepeated in the district of Belashits. On 23"July in the district of LakePrespan the Greeks fired on the Yugoslav frontier post, aIl-d on the .night of 24 July in the very same district Whom do these incidents benefit? They do not benefit the .Albanian Government which advances no daims 1:0 Greek' territory. They benefit watmongers laying daim ta Albanian territory, and exploiting these incidents às me~s of initiating anned activities against Albania. th~ ~~eeks opened machine-gun fire on Yugoslav terntory. . .' . . .' These fac~, 'lik.~. many. others which çan be lUdnced)-testifyt1iatthepresentGl"e7k-C-ovem= 1 .Gouvernement avait été faite pas ment. l'Union la prévoyants propagande guerre, reprises futurs Gouvernement de berlain, Munich, plusieurs sens accusés gande. fils mieux cette We have been told here that the stafertlent of the Ukrainian Government of 24 August is presenied for purposes of propaganda. It is not the first time we hear that. When, before the war of 1939-1945, the Soviet Union championed the idea of collective security, there were short- sighted people who asserted that that was Soviet . propaganda too. When the Soviet .Union mor~ than once before the war of 1939-1945 caUed for a more active policy in rela,tion to the future aggressors, these samepeople made the charge against the Soviet Government that the Soviet Union was pursuing anti-fascist propaganda aîms. When Mr. Chamberlain returned from Munich and stated at the aerodrome that he had saved the peace for some generations to come, and people with common sense criticized him on that account, they were,also accused of hidden propagandistic intentions. Millions of mothers who have lost their sons in the war of 1939-1945 know better than any of those sitting in this chamber 1N'hich side was right. nous l'on tiques" .de seigné Nous le ferons nien ment douloureuse, ce que c'est que que sont L'Ukraine vasions lions de p<èlx Ems conséquence troupes avons ont -Gouvernement fluences a Enfin, rassemblement qu'on les Despite ail the obstaclès which may confront us, déspite ail insults to Soviet citizens, w~ shall, as our great leader Generalissimo Stalin has taught us, untiringly defend the idea ofpeace between the nations, and aU the more so because the Ukrainian people' knows from its own ex- perience of much suifering, what war is and what are the calamities which it involves for the nations. Four times in thirty years the Ukraine .has been subjected to foreign. invasions. In the course of those four foreign invasions "Xe have lost five million men. Thq,t gives us the right to . raise here the question of a _threat to peace and security. In 1914, the torch of war was lit in the Balkans; and as a result our country suffered the invasion of German-Austrian troops. In 1918-1919 interventionoccurred, in which Greek troops also participated. In 1920, the Pilsudski Government, in pursuance of orders from abroad, resorted to warwhich cost the Ukrainian and Polish peQples dearly. Finally, in 1941, the Hit- lerite bands who were bred from fascist organi- zations and detachnients, and who at that time had not been checked or rest!'ainecl, trampied .the Ukraine, underfoot causingunspeakable hl1IQ.anand material sacrifices to ~ur people.

We have heàrd the representative of th~ Ukfanian Soviet Socialist Republie. Next to be recognized is the representative of Greece, and 1 wouid like ta ask whether it would be agreeable to him if we èontinue our debate tomorrow. Mr. DENDRAMIS (Greece) (translated from French): Myspeech will not be as long as the two which you have heard, dealing with the substance of the question. However, 1 agree ta postponè it until.tomorrow' as r do not wish it .to be intertuptt;d. Sir Alexander CADOGAN (tJnJ.ted Kingdom): 1 should like ta speak arter the Greek representative. .My Government has been indicted by the representativè for the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic almost as much as that of Greece. 1 shall have; of .course, a' good deal to say in reply ta and, as 1 believe, in countervention or refutatiOn of whafhe has said. However, . sinec the Greek representative has agreed to the Council adjourning, 1 shall not, of course, wish to oppose.that. . The PRESIDENT: The wish oÙhe representative of the United Kirigdom will be granted. The next meeting will take.place tomorrow at 10.30 a.m.