At this very moment, while we are assembled here, Albania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia are sending arms and munitions across the Greek frontier with the object of destroying the political independence and territorial integrity of a Member State of the United Nations. While my country is being attacked in this way and its very existence is being threatened, you must allow me to postpone, until some later opportunity, the statement of my Government’s views on the important problems which are on the agenda.
My country, as you know, is a small country; small in population and poor in material resources, but great in courage and rich in spiritual values. Its role in international politics may be limited, but the part which it has played in resisting aggression, and in promoting peace and in advancing human progress has always been great. It was in Greece that the torch of liberty was kindled for the first time. Today Greece has become the symbol of die determination of free men not to allow the flame of liberty to be extinguished.
In the debates which will take place in several of the Assembly’s committees, we shall have to consider the problems arising from the Security Council’s inability to cope with the threat to the peace which exists in southeastern Europe. That is why I think the best service I can render the Assembly today is to summarize the facts of the Balkan question.
While Greece was occupied by the troops of the Axis Powers and their Bulgarian and Albanian satellites, the Greek people organized resistance movements. By underhand methods, which are only too well known to us today, communist leaders infiltrated into these movements and gradually gained control of them. After the Axis troops left, this fact became obvious when these leaders tried to overthrow the Greek Government by violence.
Since then, and to this very day, our three northern neighbours have actively supported this campaign. To this end they have supplied, and are still continuing to supply shelter, military training and instructions, as well as arms and munitions.
In March 1946 elections were held in Greece under the supervision of foreign observers who had been invited to ensure that each citizen could freely express his will.
Foreign observers were invited, and the elections were held in accordance with an agreement concluded with the communist leaders; the Soviet Union nevertheless refused to send its own team of observers, and the Greek communists boycotted the elections. After the elections the guerrillas, whom they controlled and whom they had reorganized and re-armed with the help of Albania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, resumed their attacks on Greece.
On 3 December 1946, the Greek Government requested the Security Council to put an end to these hostile actions by Albania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. Without delay the Security Council appointed a Commission to establish all the facts and to submit recommendations. The Commission presented its report after a thorough inquiry conducted on the spot. Eight out of the eleven members found that “Yugoslavia and, to a lesser extent, Albania and Bulgaria, have supported the guerilla warfare in Greece”, that the Governments of Yugoslavia and Bulgaria had “adopted a policy of support for a separate Macedonian State within the Yugoslav federation”; that at the Bulkes camp in Yugoslavia “refugees from Greece were subjected to political indoctrination and propaganda looking towards the overthrow of the Greek Government”; that “actual training in partisan warfare was given to selected personnel”; and that the refugees so indoctrinated and trained “returned to Greece and participated in the operations of the guerilla bands”.
By a large majority — nine out of eleven members — the Commission of Investigation recommended that the Security Council appoint a semi-permanent commission to observe the situation and to offer its good offices to establish satisfactory relations between Greece and her northern neighbours. Pending the establishment of this semi-permanent commission, a subsidiary group, whose task was to keep the Security Council informed of the situation, was retained in the Balkans This subsidiary group’s report confirms that the hostile activity carried on by Albania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia has continued with the same intensity even while the Security Council was discussing the Commission’s report and was listening to the Albanian, Bulgarian and Yugoslav representatives and their friends protesting that those countries were innocent of any breach of the Charter.
The Security Council has tried, three times, to adopt resolutions implementing the recommendations of the Commission of Investigation. Each of these resolutions has been vetoed by the Soviet Union.
The day before this Assembly opened, nine members of the Security Council voted in favour of a resolution requesting the Assembly to make recommendations to end the dispute, and, pending this, to maintain the subsidiary group so that it could continue to supply the United Nations with impartial reports of the persistent violations of the Greek frontier. But this proposal was vetoed, and the subsidiary group had to be sacrificed in order to allow the Assembly to take action to end the threat to the peace.
You should be fully informed of the importance and significance of these incontrovertible facts. If the Commission of Investigation’s recommendations had not been vetoed, the Governments of Albania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia would perhaps have changed their policy; at least, they would not have been encouraged to continue their acts of aggression. If the retention of the subsidiary group had not been vetoed, you would at least have the advantage of receiving frequent and impartial reports on the true situation along the Greek frontier.
The aggression against Greece is an international crime. It is an attack against Greece and against the political and moral principles upon which international co-operation is based. Greece stands on the ramparts defending not only its own existence but also the right of all the peoples of the world to live in spiritual and material freedom. All nations, particularly the small nations, are vitally and directly concerned in the struggle. As in October 1940, and again in April 1941, we are defending now the undying traditions and ideals of democracy and freedom which ancient Greece cradled. Greece is being attacked because it remains faithful to those ideals.
We claim no right to criticize the regimes of our northern neighbours. It is none of our concern how their Governments have been chosen. We believe, however, that every government, whatever its form, should respect the right of other peoples to make their own choice freely and without outside pressure.
Dictatorships as well as democracies must submit to the principles of international law and morality. The Members of the United Nations are pledged to co-operate in punishing violations of these principles. No member of the family of nations can remain passive while another member is being attacked, without thereby incurring moral responsibility. A French jurist has summed up this moral rule in these expressive words: “Qui peut et n’empêche, pèche.”
The help which has already been given to Greece and the help it is still receiving from Great Britain and the United States of America certainly do not constitute interference in its internal affairs. This help, proffered at the request of the Greek Government, is intended to safeguard the political independence of a Member of the United Nations. May I say, once and for all, that the Greek people is deeply grateful to the British people, to the American people and to the peoples of all the other States Members of the United Nations who have contributed and are still contributing so generously to the reconstruction of Greece and to the maintenance of its independence. Any insinuation which tries to prove that this help is not wanted by the Greek people, or that it is not in its interests, is erroneous or false. The Greek Government represents the free choice of the majority of the Greek people. In Greece the communist leaders of the armed bands are trying to seize power by force at the expense of their country’s independence. They do not represent the interests of Greece. They have no more right than those who support them to speak on behalf of Greece or of the Greek people.
Do not be deceived by the insinuations that the dispute in the Security Council and the General Assembly reflects only the rival ambitions of certain great Powers. It is not a matter of knowing upon which of the great Powers Greece shall be dependent. The point is to know whether Greece will be absorbed, against its will, by a communist dictatorship, or whether it will remain a free and independent country. You should not weaken your decisions by an effort to compromise. The problem is not to reconcile the rival ambitions of the great Powers. It is a matter of principle: will the purposes of the Charter be accomplished and its guarantees respected? Any compromise on the principles of the Charter can only lead to its destruction. My country’s only defence against the aggression launched against it today, your countries’ only defence against the aggression which may be launched against them tomorrow, is the conscience of the free peoples of the world, and its expression by the determination of the peoples whom we represent at this Assembly to abide by the principles of the United Nations.
Never has the world been so eager to reaffirm the ideals of legality, truth and justice. The peoples of the world are watching us, and they are waiting to see whether we will follow the path, which alone can lead us to a renewed respect for all that is just and true. Our responsibilities are tremendous, but so are our possibilities. The men and women present at this Assembly have been appointed by their Governments to see that mankind devotes itself to re-establishing order throughout the world. This Assembly will decide whether the United Nations can be a constructive force for peace and justice.