BALKAN THEATRE: Episode in Epirus

War seemed good to the Athenians that first day. It was like a holiday. Because of air-raid alarms the shops were closed.

Bands of enthusiasts walked the streets shouting lusty jests, sticking their thumbs up, singing songs, crying the ancient boast: "We will throw them into the sea." They laughed about the macaroni-men from macaroni-land, trying to be warriors.

The people cheered when they heard what the Generalissimo, Alexander Papagos, had said: "We will write new, glorious pages in our history, and do not doubt that we will win our cause." The people were gay when they read on walls the...