Statement on the Liberation of Greece.

I am deeply moved at the news that the liberation of Greece has begun. In a truer sense, its enslavement has never been a fact. For nearly four years an indomitable Greek Nation has suffered the terrifying effects of aggression on an unprecedented scale. When many men—even stout-hearted men of good will -had almost lost hope, the Greek people challenged the invincibility of the mechanized Nazi monster, pitting against inhuman engines of war and cold-blooded calculating strategy little more than the fierce spirit of freedom.

Four years is a long time to starve and die, to see children massacred, to watch villages burn to rubble and ashes. But it is not a long enough time to extinguish the clear flame of the Hellenic heritage which throughout centuries has taught the dignity of man. It is more than fitting, it is inevitable, that as hopeless darkness is engulfing the ideals of Nazi barbarism the clear Greek air will once more be breathed by free men without fear of oppression, and that the Acropolis, for twenty-five centuries a symbol of man's accomplishment in an environment of human liberty, will again be a beacon of faith for the future.