One of the 10 men condemned to death is married to an English girl. Her father came to plead with me a few days ago, to see if there was anything I could do to save his son-in-law's life. He is a good Yorkshireman, and as Yorkshiremen do not believe in showing emotion he was a bit gruff and off-hand, and did not say much. But I knew what he felt like, because I know what I felt like when my daughter's husband was killed in the war. He, at least, was killed for something, for a good cause. But why is this young man to be done to death? His case is no better than that of the others, because he is married to an English girl, but perhaps that fact will help to stir the sympathy and imagination of the Foreign Secretary and hon. Members of this House. After all, the Greeks are just as human as Englishmen: their feelings are the same.

The reason why these men are to be done to death is a political reason. It has nothing to do with justice. As my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Mr. Solley) pointed out, those law courts, those judges, were the tools and creatures of Greek Fascism. The present Greek Government is largely composed of those who served the Metaxas Fascist dictatorship and Hitler before we put them back into the positions from which they were driven by the resistance movement. It is that resistance movement—Republicans, Democrats, Liberals, Socialists, Communists and trade unionists—which fought on our side during the war. They are now being terrorised and done to death because the Greek Government are fighting the growing disaffection among the unhappy Greek people, who have been exploited, harried, butchered and vivisected for years, until they can no longer bear it.

It would suffice for one little word to be said by our Foreign Secretary. All he has to do is to raise his little finger, and these men would be amnestied and freed tomorrow. If we chose we could admit them to this country, and let them work for their keep. They are good workers and good trade unionists, and could earn their keep and a bit more. If we do not do it the brand of Cain will be stamped on the Foreign Secretary, and his plea to be recognised as a good trade unionist, who supports the cause of trade unionism, will fall to the ground and be revealed as a hollow mockery. We can withdraw our Police and Military Missions and troops if the Greek Government do not do what we want them to do. If that is not enough we can turn to President Truman, who has just won a magnificent victory on a plea for peace and social justice, to which the American people responded. The present Greek Government was made in the American Embassy. It lives on American subsidies and Intervention. If one word would be sufficient from our Foreign Secretary, one whisper would be sufficient from Washington to stop this bloody murder.

I know the political reason for not interceding, the political reason why the Foreign Secretary has not seen fit to send anyone here to represent the Government. It is because they wish to support the Fascists in their campaign of terror as part of the glorious fight for democracy against Communism on which the Foreign Secretary has set his heart. But that fight is in any case already lost in Greece, as it has already been lost in China. The offensive has been a failure. It broke down, among other reasons—as our Military Mission in Greece well knows and has reported—because many units of the Greek army simply refused to fight. When a Government reaches that stage, it is just about ready to disappear from the scene of action.

If these men are done to death, the cause of this Fascist Government is not going to survive, even by the use of that ignoble and bloody means; it is already a lost cause, and these men will have died for nothing. I beg the Government, which will hear of this Debate—I am glad to see that the Foreign Secretary's Parliamentary Private Secretary is present and that he can give some report of what has happened—to take one little step, to send some instructions to our Ambassador in Athens. If it will send one little word to President Truman to join in that démarche, these men's lives will be saved, and we shall have done something to remove the bitterness and fear of the Greek people, who used to look upon the Labour Government as one which stood for the workers and the common people, but have since learned to their bitter sorrow that however fine a job we are doing at home, and we are doing a fine job, we stand abroad with the Tories and the oppressors of the common people.

What is the sense of pretending hypocritically that we have no responsibility in this matter? When the power is ours, the responsibility is inescapably ours. There is no doubt on earth that we have the power to stop these men being killed, and that if the Government do not choose to use that power, they make themselves as much responsible as their puppets and protégés in Athens for doing to death 10 trade unionists who fought gallantly on our side when the men slaughtering them were actively on the side of Hitler.