By Grigore Gafencu*

[...]When we took leave of our hosts at Jalova, we had little idea that, as we shook hands in confident farewell, it was to be the last for a long time to come. The Dacia set course for Athens.  We entered the port of Peiraeus to the sound of deafening noise. Everything was beflagged and festive. The ships' sirens whistled. Sailors, lining the decks of the ships, waved their caps, and a boisterous crowd had swarmed onto the quays.

Under a brilliant sky, the pile of the Parthenon stood out even more brightly, as though lifted on invisible wings. In this setting, the most beautiful in the world, where so much joie de vivre and such an overflow of happiness welcomed us, I felt the approach of disaster on the rebound. Has not the sense of tragedy always been near to emotion stirred by the sight of beauty, in this region where the Gods dwelt? Forsaking the traditional formulae of diplomacy, I tried to express my forebodings in my reply to President Metaxas' speech of welcome.

"Doubtless you know that, since our last meeting, I have made a long journey to the capitals of Europe, as the envoy of my country. When today, under the blue sky of Athens, I saw the sacred hill and the white columns of the Temple of the Goddess of Reason, I realised that I neared the end of my journey. Does not this simple, by its perfect proportions, express the idea of the unity of Europe, inheritor of the most brilliant civilization ever known; and does it not give, with its magnificent but mournful ruins, a solemn warning to all those who would again blight our common heritage?"

The Greek government gave us a particularly warm welcome. In regard to foreign policy, there was no possible conflict between President Metaxas and myself. We were in agreement on all the points of our common action. Since the creation of the Balcan Entente, Rumania and Greece had shared the same opinions and taken the same decisions. The European crisis had brought our two countries still closer together. Greeks and Rumanians grasped events in the same way, with the same swift intuition.

So that, removed from official ceremonies, we could discuss the latest news of the "crisis", the President took me to Cape Sunion to see the sunset. A few yards from the ruins of the temple where Byron had inscribed his name there was a little inn where dinner had been prepared. Alas! I could not do honor to M.Metaxas' hospitality. A sudden attack of the disposition which I had simulated when with Herr von Ribbentrop's messengers this time really gripped me. I had to lie flat on a camp bed, in a small roon in the inn, where through the open window rose the sweet-smelling air of the Greek countryside mingled with the odor of fish on grill. The old president seated himself paternally at my beside; and, to take my mind off my indisposition, quietly spoke of the many phases of his political life.

General Metaxas had seen a great deal during his restless life: parliamentary quarrels, party strife, consiracies, revolutions. In the course of his relentless opposition to a very great adversarym he had suffered imprisonment, exile, persecution, and had been condemned to death more than once; afterward, he had "governed" freely dealing out exile and imprisonment in turn and maintaining  public order with an iron hand.

The voice of the redoubtable General became surprisingly gentle in tone, to spare the ear of a sick friend, and also the better to convey the intensity of his passionate love for his native land.  This love filled him completely, since the passion of the partisan had died down. The only end which Metaxas still wished to serve was that of arming Greece so that it might be in condition to defend itself. If he had been led to thwart the savage appetite of his people for freedom, it was, he said, the better to assure the preservation of the national freedom. Times were at hand no long favorable to the small countries. Everywhere the "new order" was attacking our most cherished conceptions. In face of the tendency toward unification and force, our native countries wer constantly in danger. Henceforth, it seemed, nations were unnecessary. But what in the world could be greater than our small native lands?

The President extended his arm in the direction of the spot where the ruins fo the Temple of Minerva had been lost in the darkness.

"It is there, there that Europe began" he said with a simple pride. "And there it may end if we are not constantly on the alert". Then, turning toward me, he asked suddenly: "If they come at you, are you determined to fight?"
"I certainly think so. Does not our whole line of action show it?"
"I hope", he replied, "that it will be possible for you to do so. As for us, the sea ensures our freedom of action. We shall fight, even if we have again to cover our country with ruins".

President Metaxas kept his word. On the night of October 27-28, 1940, when the Italian Minister entered his villa at Kiphissia and handed him the peremptory note, Metaxas, without a moments' hesitation, rejected the enemy's injunction. At a time where almost all the European nations had given way to the Axis, this was a very great gesture. Its echo, and the echoes of the first successes of the Greek Army, reached me in Moscow, where I was thenceforward to represent my country's interests, and filled me with fear and pride at the same time. Greece was avenging the honor of the Balkan Entente. The newspapers reproduced Metaxas' magnificent words to the Greek people:

"A few days ago, a treacherous enemy attacked us without any cause. His sole aim was to rob us of what we held most dear: our independence, our freedom, our honor. Greece has risen as one man; it has taken up arms; after desperate battles, victory smiles on us; from Macedonia to Epirus the enemy is in flight along the entire front. I have only one thing to add: Greece forgets neither Santarosa, nor Fratti, nor Garibaldi, nor the many other Italians who shed their blood for our liberty. Were they alive today they would be oppressed, for the fascist regime cannot tolerate free men.

Mussolini has warned us that Greece will be annihilated. We reply that we are determined not to let ourselves be annihilated. Greece will continue to be independent and free. As for the Italian people, it will have to weigh the consequences of its defeat when it settles its accounts with Mussolini.

Untill then, Hellenes, let us cletch our fists and lift up our hearts. Let us fight with the ferocity aroused in us by a treacherous aggression. We are not fighting simply for our own cause. We are fighting for the freedom of the Balkan peoples. We are fighting for an ideal which goes far beyond the frontiers of our country and extends to the whole human race".

When, a few months later, the German armies broke the heroic resistance of the Greek people, General Metaxas died of heart failure.

I cherish the recollection of the words I heard one evening at Cape Sunion. The old Europe would end when the swastika flew above the Acropolis.

*Grigore Gafencu  was former Rumanian Minister for Foreign Affairs and ambassador to Russia.

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