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for the Communists, who were late. Churchill and the prelate spoke brilliantly and at length, with long pauses for interpretation, before news arrived of the absentees, “three shabby desperados.”1028 The Communists had been delayed arguing with British security guards about their demand to bring weapons into the conference chamber. On their appearance, Churchill wrote to Clementine later, “after some consideration I shook1029 the ELAS delegates’ hand[s] and it was clear from their response that they were gratified.” He repeated much of his opening harangue: “Mr. Eden and I have come all this way, though great battles are raging in Belgium and on the German frontier, to make this effort to rescue Greece from a miserable fate and raise her to a point of great fame and repute … Whether Greece is a monarchy or a republic is a matter for Greeks and Greeks alone to decide. I wish you all that is good, and good for all.”

Alexander said, “Instead of me putting my brigades into Greece, I should like to see Greek brigades coming to help me in Italy in the war against our common enemy.” Macmillan was disgusted by the oily platitudes offered by the Communists, who extolled their own desire for peace: “I thought it all very disingenuous1030, especially remembering the frightful atrocities these men are committing both on our troops and on harmless fellow-countrymen throughout Greece. Winston was much moved, however.” Then the foreigners rose and left the table, to enable the Greeks to negotiate with one another.

Once they were outside, their exchanges provided several notable vignettes. The prime minister engaged the head of the Russian military mission in conversation: “What’s your name? Popov? Well, Popov, I saw your master the other day, Popov! Very good friends your master and I, Popov! Don’t forget that, POPOV!” Even the colonel’s limited English enabled him to comprehend Churchill’s attempt to brandish his relationship with Stalin. Then it was explained that the delay in the proceedings had been caused by the need to disarm the Communist delegates. The prime minister looked thoughtful and withdrew a pistol from his own pocket, growling complacently: “I cannot tell you the feeling of security one enjoys1031, knowing that one is the only armed man in such an assembly as that!” He replaced the weapon in his overcoat before retreating with his entourage by armoured car to the embassy, and thence to Phaleron. When his typist Elizabeth Layton seated herself at the opposite end of the naval barge’s cabin to the prime minister, Churchill said: “No, come and sit by me.” To Alexander’s wry amusement, the two travelled back across the chilly water to the Ajax, cosily enfolded together in a huge rug.

The next day, the archbishop came to the British embassy to report on progress of the noisy, bitter talks at the Foreign Office. At one point, apparently, Gen. Nikolaos Plastiras—whom Churchill insistently addressed as “Plaster-Arse”—shouted at a Communist: “Sit down, butcher!”1032 The prime minister was in high spirits, having been taken by Alexander to a vantage point from which the general explained the Athens battlefield. Macmillan saw this as a reprise of Churchill’s famous appearance at a London shoot-out with terrorists, during his 1911 incarnation as home secretary: “Of course this affair is a sort of ‘super Sidney Street,’1033 and he quite enjoyed having the whole problem explained to him by a master of the military art.” When the ELAS delegates asked to see Churchill privately, he was eager to accept. But Macmillan and Damaskinos persuaded him that it was essential now to leave the Greeks to sort out their own affairs. That evening, the archbishop announced Papandreou’s resignation as prime minister. His last act in office was to cable to King George II in London, declaring the united endorsement of Greece’s politicians for a regency. Churchill wrote to Clementine: “This Wednesday has been an exciting1034 and not altogether fruitless day. The hatreds between these Greeks are terrible. When one side have all the weapons which we gave