To the Editors:
The Amnesty International report on Greece, prepared by two distinguished and politically impartial members of the American and English Bars, was published about one month ago and circulated to newspapers all over the world. Many papers (but not The New York Times) printed excerpts of what must surely be one of the most shocking reports of governmental brutality in recent years. It contains first-hand evidence about the falanga and other ghastly forms of torture that the Greek police are inflicting on men and women held, without charge or trial, as political suspects, i.e. as possible opponents of the military regime.
Now that America and England are officially supporting the Papadopoulos government, we cannot disclaim all responsibility for these atrocities, as we presumably could in the days of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Nor can we claim to be ignorant.
It is at this juncture that the New York Times sees fit to issue a 16-page Sunday supplement extolling the joys and beauties of sunny Greece, “the land of ancient gods and heroes” as the Greek National Tourist Office describes it. Am I alone in finding this callous? Surely the need for advertising revenue should not prevail over all human criteria.
Ivan Morris
Columbia University
This Issue
June 20, 1968