League for Democracy in Greece, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1943-1974

Organisation

League for Democracy in Greece, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1943-1974

1943-1974

In response to a call from the leftist resistance movement EAM (Ethnikon Apeleftherotikon Metopon) for a government of national unity, Greeks in England formed a Greek United Committee in 1943 under the sponsorship of Sir Compton Mackenzie, the author and philhellene. Much of the support came from the Federation of Greek Maritime Unions (FGMU), which had its wartime base in Cardiff. Other supporters included a Smyrniot carpet merchant, E Athanassoglou. But under wartime conditions of censorship the Committee could reach only a restricted section of opinion, and in 1944 Winston Churchill prohibited favourable mention of the Greek resistance movement EAM-ELAS (Ethnikon Apeleftherotikon Metopon-Ethnikos Laikos Apeleftherotikos Stratos) by the BBC. The FGMU therefore sponsored a news agency, of which Diana Pym became secretary. The agency's first campaign concerned conditions in concentration camps in Erithrea (Ertra) and the Sudan. The news agency issued press releases and, from 1946, a Weekly Survey of Greek News . It closed at the end of 1962, but was re-opened in 1969 by Andonis Ambatielos (former FGMU secretary) and his English wife, Betty, and resumed the issue of press releases and monthly surveys until Ambatielos returned to junta Greece in 1974 and was arrested. In 1945, the election of a Labour government raised hopes of a change in British policy towards Greece, but the appointment of Ernest Bevin as Foreign Secretary ensured continuity with existing policy. A British pressure group was founded to campaign for a change in policy and for the Greek left-wing resistance. The League for Democracy in Greece (LDG) was launched at a public meeting at the Garrick Theatre in London in October 1945 under the presidency of Sir Compton Mackenzie and with D M Pritt QC, MP in the chair. Diana Pym became secretary. The League aimed to rebuild and strengthen the traditional friendship between the peoples of Greece and Britain on the basis of the establishment and development of democracy in Greece; to enlighten the British public about the situation in Greece and to promote cultural relations between the two countries; to provide relief to Greeks who suffered for their democractic beliefs and activities, their dependants, and the dependants of Greeks who died fighting for democracy; and to work for a general amnesty for Greek democrats imprisoned for political reasons, the restoration of trade unions and civil liberties, and the suppression of armed terrorism and the trial and punishment of collaborators during the occupation (the latter deleted as obsolete in the late 1960s). The relief functions, initially exercised by a sub-committee (the League for Democracy in Greece Relief Committee), were later taken over by a Greek Relief Fund. The LDG adopted a constitution in 1946. Marion Pasco (after 1952 Marion Sarafis, wife of Stefanos Sarafis, former commander of the wartime ELAS resistance movement) acted as joint secretary, 1946-1952, with Diana Pym. At its inauguration, the League had support from Labour Members of Parliament (MPs), including some who had served in Greece. Influencing parliamentary action was a major part of its work, and involved supplying information to MPs for questions in the House and briefing them to take up cases with the Foreign Office. The League's sphere of action extended to the trade union field and speakers from the League used available opportunities to address trade union branches, Trades Councils and local Labour parties, with a peak year in 1949 when League speakers addressed 255 meetings. The fall of the colonels' junta in 1974, followed by elections and the referendum on the monarchy, was thought to make the League's services unnecessary, and it renamed itself Friends of Democracy in Greece and continued on a stand-by basis, with a small list of supporters and a bi-annual bulletin.

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Final

Partial

Further information is available at the National Archives (F125560)