Book Review: Grivas and the Story of Eoka
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206001500409 |
| Author | Mary E. White |
| Date | 01 December 1960 |
| Published date | 01 December 1960 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REvIws
357
esting
and
original
chapter
is
the
one
dealing with
Hess's
flight
to
Scotland,
where
Kirkpatrick
was
sent
to
interview
him.
There
are
also
some
interesting
comments
on
post-war Germany
and on
the
conduct
of
policy
at
the
Foreign
Office.
University
of
Toronto
ROBRaT
A.
SPENCER
GRIVAS
AND
THn
STORY
op
EOKA.
By
W.
Byford-Jones.
1959.
(London:
Robert Hale;
Toronto:
Thomas
Allen.
x,
192pp.
$4.75.)
For
this study
of George
Grivas
and
his
terrorist
force
Eoka,
Colonel
Byford-Jones
had
the
double
advantage
of
personal
acquaintance
with
Grivas,
and
full
and
constant information
from
the
British
authorities
during
the
four
years
of
guerrilla
fighting
which
preceded
the
present
settlement
in
Cyprus.
It
is
not
a
flattering
portrait
of
Grivas
which
emerges.
He
was
an
ambitious Cypriot
who,
in
search
of
wider
opportunities, went
as
a
youth to
Greece
and became
a professional
officer
in
the
Hellenic
Army.
Just
when
he seemed
to
be
winning
recognition
for
his
undoubted
capa-
cities
as
a
staff
officer,
his
hopes
were
shattered
by
the
Greek
surrender
to Germany.
He
then
in
1943
raised
a
private
army
"X"
with
extreme
Right-wing
political
sympathies
to
be
ready to assist
the
Allied
forces
of
liberation
against
the
Communist
forces
of
Elas.
In
the
ensuing
liberation
and
Civil
War
in
Greece,
he
was
embittered
by
what
he
regarded
as
lack
of
recognition of
his
services
by
the
British
authorities
and
the
Greek
Right-wing
political
leaders.
He
turned
his
guerrilla
army
"X"
into
a
political
party
of
the
extreme
Right,
but
again
failed
miserably.
He
was
defeated
in
the
Greek
elections
of
1946
and
1250,
and
finally
was forcibly
retired
from
the
Hellenic
Army
because
his
terrorist
methods
had
made him
politically
embarrassing.
Bored
with
civilian
life
and
smarting
under
the
sense
of
failure
and
injustice,
he
found in
the
situation
in
Cyprus
an
opportunity
to
rebuild
his
career.
He
was
a
violent
opponent
of
Communism,
the
growth
of
which
in
Cyprus
he
viewed
with
alarm;
at
the
same time
he
was
a
fanatical
supporter
of
Enosis,
and
of
the
Greek
Orthodox
Church
whose
leader
in
Cyprus, Archbishop
Makarios,
was
a
friend
of
his
youth;
and
finally
he
had
become
bitterly
anti-British.
This
is
the
background
against
which
is
told
the
story
of
Grivas'
return
to
Cyprus in
1954,
the
organization
of his
private
force
Eoka,
and
the
campaign
of
terror
which
he
carried
on
against
the British
forces
until
he
left
for
Greece
under
safe-conduct
in
1959.
It
is
a
horri-
fying
tale
of
intimidation
of
the
Cypriot population,
of
cold-blooded
stabbing
and
shooting
in
the
back
both
of
British
soldiers
and
innocent
civilians,
of
sabotage
of
military
and
non-military
objectives,
and
of
cruel
and
ruthless
brutality
toward
prisoners
and hostages.
Grivas
directed
the
operations
himself
from
various
hide-outs
in the
island
under the
norm
de
guerre
of
Dighenis,
maintaining
so
strict
a
secrecy
about
his
identity and
whereabouts
even
among
his
own
followers
that
the
British
were
unable
to
capture
him
in
spite
of
all
their
efforts.
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