Now that the story of the British evacua-lion from Greece can be told it is plain that the British High Command were adroit enough to. prevent the Germans achieving their ambition of destroying the troops which had been sent to the assistance of Greece. The evacuation of more than seventy-five per cent, of the forces originally sent to Greece may possibly rank as a greater performance than Dunkirk, in view of the fact that the British over Greece did not have the local air superiority which they undoubtedly had over the Channel. Incidentally the fact that so large a proportion of British troops were removed to safety gives the direct lie to the German claims of the sinking and damaging of tonnage to the alleged extent of over 700,000 tons. It is clear that if anything of the nature had occurred it would have been quite impossible to have removed 48,000 men io safety. There is still some chance that even more men will be rescued from Greece, but in view of what was done, and the manner in which the German timetable was dislocated with such heavy casualties to the enemy, the whole venture does not appear to have been anywhere near as expensive to Britain as it was at first believed it might be.
Mr. Anthony Eden in the House of Commons on Wednesday was able to state that the withdrawal had been carried out with the agreement of the Greek Government. The exact wording of the Greek communication on the subject is interesting and highly significant:—"Consequently, the Royal Government is obliged to state that further sacrifice of the British Expeditionary Force would be in vain, and that its withdrawal in time seems to be rendered necessary by present conditions." Great Britain went to the assistance of Greece in honour bound. She was honourably acquitted of her obligation by the Greek Government, and in this declaration is to be found a direct answer to the German lie that the British were leaving the Greeks in the lurch and saving their own skins, The evacuation was in conformity with the wishes of the Greek Government and the enemy allegation that Great Britain deserted her Ally is exposed as a palpable falsehood.
Attempts to sum up the advantages and disadvantages of the campaign in Greece must of necessity be deferred until history can take a long view of the incident and set it in the perspective of the war as a whole. There' are, however, certain. aspects of its which can be dealt with now. Germany has achieved a success enhancing her prestige. That has to be admitted at once. Furthermore she has saved her tottering partner, Italy, from the utter defeat with which the latter was faced, By attracting British forces from Egypt to Greece, and reinforcing the defeated Italians in' Libya it was possible to recover the territory which Marshal Graziani had lost, while there'is also the possibility that the German success in Greece may have repercussions in Turkey. These advantages may prove to be not inconsiderable. On the other hand Great Britain has not suffered a particularly heavy defeat. What is more she has disrupted German plans and possibly forced some delay in future developments, and, as Hitler's great need is for speed against time, that in itself is by no means unimportant, In addition to that, Germany has acquired two more countries which will require to be kept in subjection, countries which are likely to give her considerable trouble. Her losses are known to be heavy, much heavier than the proportions of her victory can ever justify for the German high command appears to have sacrificed men with the same recklessness which they displayed in the last war. Britain has now the support of the Greek army, air force, navy and mercantile marine, and retains Crete, a most favourable spot whence to conduct the defence of the Suez Canal. Germany will doubtless endeavour to set up puppet governments; but it is expected, those will be no more successful than similar organizations in other occupied countries, If as it is estimated Britain has gained about two months time as a result of the resistance put up in Greece that in itself goes a long way towards offsetting some of the advantages Germany has secured, so that it will be seen that on balance the German gain in the Balkans is not so great as Hitler would have his own people and the world at large believe. Indeed the whole matter seems strikingly to illustrate General Smuts' declaration that Hitler is winning victories but losing the war.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.