-13- #669, Eighteenth, from London             
 
                                                            
 
 
Greece. EAM and Communist ministers threw sand in the wheels 
      of the government at very stage. They did their best to hamper 
      the landing and distribution of food by provoking strikes on 
      some occasions. In addition they fought over every officer in 
      the army, which it was necessary for the poor state to raise--you 
      cannot have a state without some kind of national army; I am 
      entirely against private armies and we are not going to have 
      private armies. Every single appointment was wrangled over in 
      this time of crisis till the last minute and then when the moment 
      came when the fierce mountaineers who had been so tame and idle 
   against the Germans had got well into the city of Athens-
 
                                                            
 
 
       Mr. S. O. Davies (Merthyr): That is not true.        
 
      The Prime Minister: Well I speak according to the best information 
                             I have.                        
 
  Mr. S.0.Davies: It is not true; it is a slander on the Gre
 
                                                            
 
 
The Prime Minister: I have spared no pains to try to learn 
      what I believe are the facts. I consider myself far better: informed 
      on this matter than I was a month or six weeks ago but what I 
      have learned with great pains and patience has led me to a strengthening 
      of my original conclusions and among them is undoubtedly the 
      conclusion that the ELAS armed bands at any rate for the