第3巻第4章 バートランド・ラッセル平和財団
7月にギリシア国王のバッキンガム宮殿訪問があった頃には,英国での(ギリシアに対する)感情は沸点に達していた。私の気持も同じだった。私はトラファルガー広場でギリシア国王の英国訪問に反対する演説を行ない,デモ行進に参加した。新聞も.女王の臣民(である英国民)のそのような(ギリシア王室への)無作法な行為にショックを受けた。閣僚たちは騒ぎたて,警察は逮捕したデモ行進参加者のポケットにそっと煉瓦を入れ,凶器を所持していたとして告発した。英国のデモ隊のなかで最も執拗かつ勇敢だったのはベティ・アムバティエロス(Betty Ambatielos)であり,彼女のギリシア人の夫は長年の間(ギリシアで)囚人のままであった。その2年後,彼女の夫は釈放され,ロンドンの私たち夫婦を訪ねて来た。しかし他の囚人たちは依然として獄中のままであった。その後彼は再び --それに一時ではあったが彼の妻も-- 投獄され,さらに多くの囚人たちがギリシア政府によって強制収容所に投げ込まれた。照りつける太陽のもと,水もなく,衛生設備もなく,何らの注意もはらわれずに,彼らが家畜のように扱われている光景を想像すると,吐き気を催す。(注:1967年,軍部がクーデターを起こし,1968年には憲法が改正され,ギリシアに軍事独裁政権が確立する。米国は,防衛上の観点から,結局は,ギリシアにおける軍部の独裁体制を容認) |
v.3,chap.4: Foundation In 1963, my interests in the resistance fighters in Greece came to a head. They had opposed the Nazis there but were still languishing in prison because most of them had been 'Communists'. A number of their representatives came to see me, among them the Greek MPs who visited England in April and May. A 'Bertrand Russell Committee of 100' had been formed in Greece and they held a march, or tried to hold one, towards the end of April to which I sent a representative. Then came the murder of the MP Lambrakis at Salonika, with, it was fairly clear, the connivance of the Authorities. This deeply shocked me, in common with other liberal-minded people. Again, at request, I sent my representative to the funeral of Lambrakis in Athens. He returned with a very moving story. By the time that the Greek Royal visit to Buckingham Palace took place in July, feeling here had mounted to boiling point. I shared it. I spoke in Trafalgar Square against the visit and took part in a demonstration. The press were shocked at such unseemly doings on the part of Her Majesty's subjects. Cabinet Ministers gobbled, and the police planted bricks in the pockets of arrested demonstrators and charged them with carrying offensive weapons. One of the most persistent and bravest of British demonstrators was Betty Ambatielos whose Greek husband had been held a prisoner for many years. Two years later, he was freed and visited us in London, but others of the prisoners remained in gaol. Later he and, for a time, his wife were re-imprisoned and many more prisoners were thrown into concentration camps by the Greek Authorities. The contemplation of what their lives must be in these camps, herded together in the blazing sunlight, without water, without sanitation, with no care of any sort, is sickening. |
(掲載日:2010.5.4/更新日:2012.7.22)