During the end of the Second World War, for some the Nazi occupation of Greece during it clouded the fact that the pre-war regime had in fact been itself fascistic. The only effective anti-Nazi resistance inside Greece was Communist-led. There had never been a strategy to win Greece for the Communist bloc, indeed the highly successful left-led resistance movement EAM/ELAS (Ethnikon Apeleftherotikon Metopon/ Ethnikos Laikos Apeleftherotikos Stratos) called for a government of national unity. Greeks in England formed a Greek United Committee in 1943 under the sponsorship of Sir Compton Mackenzie. But much of the practical support came from the Federation of Greek Maritime Unions (FGMU), which had its wartime base in Cardiff and Tony Ambatielos was based there as its General Secretary and a key figure in the overall strategy. It was in Cardiff that he met and fell in love with Betty Bartlett, a local Communist.
The UK government was hostile to EAM/ELAS, marking Greece in the post-war period to be within a British sphere of influence, even if that meant promoting native fascists to run the country. The popularity of Greek Communists within the country was a severe inconvenience and annoyance to Britain. So much so that, in 1944, Winston Churchill prohibited favourable mention of the Greek resistance movement of EAM-ELAS by the BBC. To ensure it gained news coverage, the FGMU set up a news agency with Diana Pym as its secretary. Press releases and, from 1946, a Weekly Survey of Greek News were issued. Pat Sloan was director of the news agency from 1946 to 1962.
To put pressure on the British government, the League for Democracy in Greece (LDG) was additionally launched at a public meeting at the Garrick Theatre in London in October 1945 with D M Pritt QC, MP in the chair. Diana Pym became secretary. After the end of the global war, civil war followed in Greece, with the rightist forces being aided by the British military. Along with several thousand other leading Communists, Tony Ambatielos was imprisoned. Indeed, repression by the right-wing victors was carried out in a highly vindictive war. The death sentence initially imposed on Ambatielos was commuted, in part due to an international campaign spearheaded by a driven Betty.
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