GREECE AND NEW ZEALAND

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 106, 6 May 1943, Page 4

GREECE AND NEW ZEALAND

THE message which we published yesterday from the Greek Minister for Information is a reminder of the abiding friendship which bound our soldiers and the Greek people during their common adversity when German legions overwhelmed both army and people alike. The courage and devotion of the Greeks, the devices and stratagems which they dangerously used to feed, clothe and hide our soldiers from the clutches of the Hun bred in the hearts of our men an affection which time will never erase, while it also inflamed the people with the hope that when the day of their freedom dawns New Zealanders will be represented in the army of liberation. The Greek people have kept up a stout heart amid the welter of destruction, starvation and murder whicn has followed in the wake of every Nazi onslaught., They endure, in the certain belief that punishment will overtake the tyrants under whom they now suffer. In the mountains of Thessaly their guerilla forces still immobilise thousands of enemy troops; in Crete so many armed bands are still in the mountains, ready to swoop down on the enemy lines, that they have denied the use of most of the interior to the Germans, who are now compelled to use the sea for their transport from place to place on the island. New Zealand and British troops are still with them—how many will not be revealed until the Germans are thrust off the island. We have suggested that New Zealand will wish to mark her appreciation of Greek friendship, heroism and tenacity by sending food ships to the relief of her starving people as soon as the ports are opened. It may be that that day is distant, but a message from New Zealand to the Greek Government expressing our earnest desire and intention to"go.to their assistance at the earliest possible moment would not only forge another stout link in the chain of friendship but would help to foster those feelings of comradeship between the smaller nations which will make them an effective factor in keeping the peace when the power of Germany has been humbled.