GREECE• 221unduly favorable in his opinion of ELAS, partly as a result of an initial
prejudice, and mainly from the very brief experience he had had in
Greece.... He was a clever, quick-witted man of eager temperament and
quick enthusiasms.The paucity of information reaching SOE from the field was in-
tended to be rectified by a tour of inspection undertaken by Stevens
and a similar mission completed by Major David Wallace of 60th
Rifles in July 1943 on behalf of the Foreign Office. Wallace was sent
asAnthony Eden’s personal emissary to see what was happening on
the ground and, according to Myers, Wallace was quite surprised by
what he found during his fortnight with ELAS.
It seemed that neither he nor the political authorities in either Cairo or Lon-
don had any idea that EAM and its armed forces, ELAS, had such an ex-
tensive grip on the people in the mountains, and such extreme Left-wing
political control. He appeared surprised at the way that, time and again, I
had turned a blind eye to their behavior, when it had not critically affected
operational plans, in order to remain in their confidence and to get the best
value militarily.When Myers and Wallace arrived in Egypt in August 1943 they
discovered that they were the first members of the British Military
Mission in Greece to return from the field. Stevens, who had been
dropped in the previous March, had left by caı ̈que and had been de-
layed in Turkey. This caused considerable difficulties because both
SOE Cairo and the Foreign Office still seemed to be backing the
Greek government-in-exile, led by the king, which was completely
out of touch and out of favor with the men in the mountains. Worse,
Myers had been accompanied to Cairo by Communist-backed ELAS
delegates, who did not know what to make of the ambiguity of the
British position and were as keen to be rid of the king as they were
of the Axis. Cairo, however, had not been given advance warning of
the arrival of the leftist delegates and a political row ensued, which
went right to the top. Woodhouse recalls:
Both sides accused each other, and both suspected the British authorities
of bad faith and ulterior motives. The atmosphere of Greek politics in an
Egyptian summer made it easy to believe almost anything of almost any-
body.