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Mountain Birds. At that time Markos had perhaps 2,500 armed followers in bands scattered about Greece. Within a year the number had grown to 8,000. Now he has 25,000. The hard core and leadership are Communist. But the KKE (pronounced coo-coo-ay) seldom admits that it controls the guerrillas, and refers to them as a "democratic force fighting against monarcho-fascists." Last year one member of the Greek Politburo earned a sharp rebuke from his comrades by boasting that "KKE has birds which sing in the mountains."
The strange but vigorous aviary includes other breeds. Some are "slavo-phones," Slavic-speaking people of Macedonia lured by Communist promises of an autonomous Macedonia. Some are simply bandits. More & more new "recruits" are conscripts, shanghaied into the guerrilla forces by raids into their villages.
Markos' stronghold is the range of the Pindus Mountains, extending like a probing finger from Albania and Yugoslavia into the heart of Greece. In those crags Markos Vafiades can claim to rule. And his influence extends to any rocky slope throughout Greece where armed men may hide beyond the easy reach of troops not anxious to stage a manhunt.
Exotic Resolutions. Markos, since proclaiming himself Premier of the "Provisional Democratic Government of Greece" last Christmas Eve, has not only been issuing conscription orders but otherwise acting like a government. Around him he has a "cabinet" of twelve men. Slight, dark Petros Roussos is Minister of Foreign Affairs; short, bespectacled Ioannis Ioannides, a consumptive ex-barber who went to Moscow's School of Eastern Studies, is Markos' Vice Premier and Minister of the Interior; Minister of Justice is Miltiades Porphyrogenis, a 45-year-old lawyer who has been busy organizing an international brigade to help the Greek Communists; Leonidas Stringos is Minister of Economy and Supply. All boasted the common badge of Communist leaders —a police record for political crimes.
So far Mother Russia and her chicks have not publicly received the Markos government into the Communist brood. Their aid is still covert—providing training camps, bases of operations, military supplies, food, funds. But since Markos' proclamation of his "Free" Greek government, all the Communist countries have publicly set up societies to help Markos.
Tolling Bell. In the last few weeks help of a more substantial (and, for the Greek army, more ominous) kind has been piling up on Greece's northwestern borders. Over the two main roads leading to villages on the Albanian side of the border, there has been a steady movement of convoys bringing up supplies. Nightly their lights bob and weave among the hills. Nightly mule trains wind across the rough hill tracks into Greece. Villages on the Albanian side of the border, for a depth of 30 miles, have been practically cleared of civilians.
The "Free" Greek radio also was stepping up its boasts. Last week it broadcast: "The bell is tolling for the great spring offensive. . . . Now is the time to close our ranks . . . for final victory."