Elias Eliascos, a former teacher of English at Athens College (a joint U.S./Greek institution) described to me how he came to be a news-reader at Radio Cairo in 1941 together with his brother Patroclos.
"When Hitler declared war on Greece and after the collapse of the front in northern Greece and in Albania, my brother Patroclos and I were summoned to the British Embassy in Athens and told that owing to our close ties with the British Council (of Cultural Relations), it would not be prudent for us to remain in Athens or even Greece after the German army had occupied the capital. We were told that we would be helped to leave Greece together with the British Embassy staff, the staff of the British Council and all the British nationals in Greece.
"The British Consul-General provided us with the necessary documents for my brother and me to board the last evacuation vessel sailing from the port of Piraeus. It was the s/s 'Corinthia' which left Piraeus on the 18th of April 1941. It happened to be Good Friday according to the Greek-Orthodox calendar. About five days later Hitler's army marched into Athens.
"The ship was packed and the British Embassy staff carried most of the Embassy files with them. One of the passengers was David Balfour who was the vicar of the little chapel attached to the Evangelismos Hospital, an impressive tall figure of a man sporting a large black beard. Although he had been ordained as a priest of the Greek-Orthodox Church he was a British national and it was widely rumoured that he was an agent of British Intelligence. His official title was 'Father Dimitrios'. He was also the spiritual father of the Greek Royal family. I refer to David Balfour because recently the 'ATHENIAN' which is the only English language magazine in Athens, in its issue dated January 1988, published a feature article about him, saying that even before the Germans had entered Athens he had shaved off his beard and divested himself of his clerical robes.
"I can say quite categorically that this was not true. When the 'Corinthia' sailed he was still 'Father Dimitrios' and in fact he officiated at a Resurrection service while we were still at sea. On the voyage we carried out lifeboat drill on two occasions, once when it was thought that there was a U-boat in the vicinity, and another time when an aircraft flew overhead which turned out to be friendly. I shall never forget how I was moved with emotion when I saw the women getting into the boats, most of them carrying babies or children in their arms, calmly singing hymns in low voices.
"Some time later I met David Balfour again in Cairo, and this time he HAD shaved off his beard, and he was wearing the uniform of a Major in the Intelligence Corps which is a regular unit of the British army."
Eliascos said he would like to quote a little more from the sensational article written by J.M. Thursby in the 'ATHENIAN'.
"Several years before war was even declared, the Abwehr (German military intelligence), along with the Nazi civilian secret service, had highly trained undercover agents operating in Greece. With consummate skill they had catalogued all military and civil information that could be useful to the Third Reich, and organised spy rings throughout the country. As war became more and more inevitable, it also became increasingly imperative that Britain and other anti-fascist countries should gain specific and accurate knowledge of these operations.
"During this period a monk, who had embraced the Orthodox faith in
Warsaw, arrived from Poland via Mount Athos, to join the monastery of
Pendeli, just outside Athens. According to his biographer John
Freeman, his registration at Pendeli reads,
Cell 102 Serial number 75
Secular name David Balfour
Ecclesiastic name Dimitri
Place of birth England
Age 35
Inscribed order of His Holiness the Archbishop of
Athens.
Coming from the Russian Church.
Archbishopric ordinance number 3197 of 9 May 1936."