May 1-7, 1953
MARKEZINIS: According to sources, the minister for coordination, Mr Spyros Markezinis, is to discuss three categories of issues in his talks with the government and other officials in the United States of America. The first concerns the long-term program for economic growth, the second focuses on defense expenditures, and the third, the relationship between the US mission in Athens and the government. In order to support the long-term economic growth program, Mr Markezinis is to bring up the overwhelming burden of recent defense expenditures, especially following the exhausting war against the outlaws that Greece embarked upon at a time when all the other countries, both victorious and vanquished, were repairing the damage caused by the Second World War and modernizing means of production. Greece is not about to revoke its declaration that it will under no circumstances relax its defense policy, nor will it reduce the size of its army. In view of these efforts, however, it will ask for the United States’ support in implementing a long-term (three-year) program of production growth that may allow it to stand back on its feet economically. EXILED: The Attica prefecture security committee has sentenced 39 communists who were arrested for trying to cause a riot at the Kentrikon Theater on Labor Day to a year’s exile on the island of Aghios Efstratios. The committee has also sentenced another 10 communists to Trikeri for the same period of time.
