Christmas Eve in Athens was peaceful. On café terraces around Sintagma Square people sipped coffee in bright sunshine. Flower stalls did a rush business in hyacinths, violets and almond blossoms. Hardly anyone heard the guerrilla announcement when it was first made, because Athens has been jamming the rebel broadcasts from the north.
The news was relayed to the government of Premier Themistocles Sophoulis by an army radioman in Macedonia and by a destroyer which had picked it up at sea. A spokesman for General Markos Vafiades, guerrilla chieftain, had proclaimed formation of a new northern state the "First Provisional Democratic...