20-#669, Eighteenth, from London.              
 
                                                            
 
 
The firing was continuous all round us. That cannot possibly 
      be overlooked. We should have been very glad to have seen a united 
      government set up. We left them to it with a strong urge and 
      appeal to unite and save their country no exception being made 
      of Communists or any one at that moment. All next day they struggled. 
      On several occasions the Entire liberal Party left the room and 
      were with difficulty shepherded back into their places. It was 
      absolutely certain that no agreement to form a united front could 
      be reached and since then far worse things have happened than 
                       had happened before.                 
 
      The days passed. Our reinforcements rapidly and steadily arrived. 
      They were found without altering the operations on the Italian 
      front by putting I am sorry to say an extra effort on divisions 
      which were resting and which would otherwise have gone to rest 
      camps. But the troops accepted these duties in the most loyal 
      and hearty spirit and have frequently expressed the opinion that 
      the people they were fighting were even dirtier than the Germans. 
      Street by street Athens was cleared. Progress was very slow because 
      of the care taken to disentangle the women and children and innocent 
      civilians who were all intermingled with people in plain clothes 
                         who were firing.                   
 
                                                            
 
 
The assailants