740.0011 European War 1939/3687: Telegram
The Minister in Greece ( MacVeagh ) to the Secretary of State
[Received 10:39 p.m.]
124. The Director General of the Foreign Office told me this morning that Greece’s policy remains unchanged for the moment. He confirmed rumors from Salonika that some fresh Italian troops have recently arrived in Albania, but neither he nor the Chief of Staff whom Johnson interviewed regard the concentrations there as sufficient for an offensive or see any reason at present to doubt Mussolini’s assurances. Regarding Greece’s course should Turkey enter the war against Italy, the Director General repeated his remark reported in my telegram No. 108 of May 28 to the effect that this would not necessarily affect Greece, but thought it worth mentioning that should Bulgaria attack Turkey the Balkan Pact8 would come into play.
The British Minister9 called to offer congratulations on the President’s speech.10 He informed me that he and the French Minister saw the Premier last evening after Mussolini had made his declaration11 and that Mr. Metaxas reaffirmed his sympathy with the cause of the Allies and his belief in their ultimate victory by terms that “if he were not speaking the truth he is a greater liar than Mussolini or Hitler.” He also said that Mr. Metaxas reasserted Greece’s determination to resist whenever and wherever attacked and that in view of previous conversations he understands this blanket statement to include Crete as well as all other Greek territory. In this connection Sir Michael added that Great Britain will not make the first move to occupy any [Page 530] point in Greece and that unless her policy has changed without his being notified, it will suit British plans to have Greece remain nonbelligerent if Turkey enters the war. Finally he gave me a précis of a note which he said he felt unnecessary, but which he was instructed to communicate to Mr. Metaxas today expressing “the hopes of his Government that no country will be tempted to attach the least importance to the assurance offered by Mussolini in his speech of yesterday”.
The President’s speech has made a deep impression here, and summaries and quotations are published today in the entire controlled press despite an obviously inspired attempt to give no unusual space or emphasis to Italy’s alarming decision. Only two papers, however, leading ex-liberal Vima and Acropolis, venture to quote the President’s statement about the dagger in the neighbor’s back.
- Signed at Athens, February 9, 1934, by Greece, Rumania, Turkey, and Yugoslavia for text, see League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. cliii, p. 153.↩
- Sir Charles Michael Palairet.↩
- Address by President Roosevelt at Charlottesville, Virginia, June 10, 1940, Department of State Bulletin, June 15, 1940, p. 635.↩
- On June 10, 1940, Italy declared war on France and the United Kingdom.↩