NAZI “LOCUSTS” IN GREECE

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23394, 30 July 1941, Page 7

NAZI “LOCUSTS” IN GREECE

COUNTRY STRIPPED OF SUPPLIES AMERICAN OBSERVER’S ACCOUNT (Received July 29, 7 p.m.) (U.PJU LONDON, July 28. A first-hand account of how the German Army stripped Greece before the Italians arrived was given to the Lisbon correspondent of the ‘Daily Telegraph” by Mr Ralph Kent, a mem* ter of the staff of the American College in Athens. „ , “The Greeks aptly called the invaders locusts,” he said. “They rolled down the peninsula, leaving nothing behind them. They even entered private gardens, counted the rows of vegetables, and informed the owners that they had been commandeered. I watched the Germans deal with a potato field near Athens. They dug the potatoes, cooked and canned them on the spot, and dispatched them to Germany. , “Technically the Germans bought everything, but they paid one-eighth of the market price. “The relations between the Italians and the Germans are anything but friendly, and the Italian occupying forces will find it impossible to live on the country after the German stripping.” A distinguished Norwegian surgeon who has escaped to Britain estimates that Norway will reach the starvation stage by the spring of 1942. He told the "Daily Telegraph” that the country’s slender resources had been plundered to feed the army of occupation and replenish the larders of Germany. Many goods were unobtainable, including meat, bacon, and eggs. Farmers were ordered to cut down halfripe harvests to feed German army horses. The Germans demand the forfeiture of 60 per cent.,, of the fish caught in return for a petrol ration for fishing boats. It is reported from Gothenburg that a large party of young Norwegians succeeded in reaching England last week in several fishing boats. Fifty who failed to escape were thrown into a concentration camp.