GUERRILLAS CONTINUE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23971, 11 June 1943, Page 4

GUERRILLAS CONTINUE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM

GREEK RESISTANCE

William Pitt said in his speech of June 14 1776. in the House of Commons: “I rejoice that America has resisted. Three millions of people so dead to all the feeling of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would have been At instruments to make slaves of the rest. I like to paraphrase these noble words and to apply them, not only to the guern 1 warfare raging now in Greeceasw ell as in Jugoslavia, but to the wnoL. population of the two countries which, united by old ties of friendship and alliance, keep high the torch of freedom in the Balkans. , . • ... Here I shall deal exclusively wuh Greece since the German invasion and the Italian and Bulgarian occupations. “De Taudace, encore de 1 audace, toujours de I’audace!” exclaimed the great orator of the French Revolution Resistance, more resistance, resistance for ever” was and is the unexpressed dictum of the soul of the Greek people. It is not an order given to them by anybody; Greek people hate to take orders. It was the same strong impulse which inspired the people’s unanimous decision that the Italian ultimatum of October 28, 1940, be rejected. They opposed the invader who, according to ail human conjecture, should have overwhelmed an army far inferior in all except valour. , , The dignity displayed by the population towards the occupying forces is marked. The Fascists—who wanted to play the victor—and the Nazis were amazed by the coldness of the people, and arrogance and ruthlessness were shown at once. One of the first instances of this was an order to officers and others to gather one day in the vast marble Stadium. Not content with the number summoned to assemble. the Gestapo gathered passersby without any discrimination, adding them to the gathering, and after taking note of their names, sent them to concentration camps far away from Athens. The fate of these first victims remains unknown. Are they still in the camps? How many have perished? How many will survive? A recent authentic report refers to 20.000 persons being interned somewhere in Greece. They live in dreadful conditions of destitution and starvation. International charity organisations approached Greek authorities abroad urging for immediate assistance to the interned.

Swastika Removed from the Acropolis The swastika and Fascist flags were hoisted side by side on the Acropolis. The report that a Greek soldier wrapped himself in the lowered Greek flag, which had always flown over the Parthenon as a symbol of undaunted Greek independence, and flung himself from the Acropolis to the rocks below is not authenticated. It is well known, however, that one day someone removed the swastika and for a whole day the mast remained bare. The anger of the Germans was fierce. It was never discovered who removed the flag, and it is not improbable that the Germans executed hostages by way of reprisal. As a matter of fact, the Germans did not delay applying to Greece the horrible practice of collecting hostages, from whom they chose victims to murder as revenge for the slightest sabotage, for any act of resistance, or for any show of sympathies. The sabotage of a bridge of the Athens-Salonika railway near the village of Liossa, in Attica, resulted in the execution of 10 or more hostages. The hiding of British prisoners, or assistance given them in the form of food, particularly exasperates the Germans. When such acts are discovered, execution follows immediately. Arrogant and distant in their attitude towards the population, the Germans used to reply to their complaints during the dreadful months of the winter famine of 1941-42 by re-peating:-'*-‘You have to. die;-you must be punished for your pro-British feelings,’* or by ranother slogan: ‘?The time hag’ borne when. well-off people . will. become poor and the poor will die.” The Italians show themselves more human: first, because they realise the paradox, of their presence in command of a country by which they were defeated; and second because at the beginning of the occupation, at least, they indulged in the dream that, after all, Greece was to be annexed to Italy like a second Albania, their King adding to his now vanished-for-ever title ‘‘Xing .of Ethiopia” that of ‘‘King of Greece.” Mussolini, however, must have been rather uncertain of this from the beginning. When he . failed to enter Alexandria and Cairo from Libya, he went to Athens for consolation, and after hearing the reports of his representatives, addressed (as is reliably reported) to Hitler a memorandum reminding him that Greece must form part of Italy’s Lebensraum and come within the area of her influence. Although the number of German troops in mainland Greece has been reduced by transfers to Crete, to certain of the Aegean Islands, and to the Dodecanese—where, it seems, the Italians have been put aside—Germany still holds the upper hand, especially in the capital. Germans and Italians do not come into contact save for official intercourse. Their military forces do not salute each other in the streets.

(By DR. DEMETRIUS CACLAMANOS in "London Calling.")

Italian troops are lodged in;the bar. racks of the Greek Army a short distance from Athens. The German soldiers are all billeted in the town itself. All the best hotels and all the large houses have been requisitioned for German officials, officers, and men and members of the Gestapo, and some hundreds of families sent from Germany to escape air raids. An amusing incident which in the midst of their depression brought a smile to the faces of the Athenians was that in which a German officer hearing that an Italian commander, about to hold a party, had slipped some ingredients to a confectioner to be made into sweets, went to the confectioner concerned and requisitioned the sweets for a party of his own. The Italian cena was abruptly transformed into a German Kermiss. Organised Guerrillas

For a time Greek resistance had an unorganised form, with some acts of sabotage here and there and small guerrilla forces in Crete and Epirus; but it may now be said to have taken on a systematic character. A sort of army, although its uiits lack strict connexion, has come into existence. Its sections, although acting in separate areas, are moved by the same indomitable spirit. Greek guerrillas, it is asserted, are now organised into five groups: in north-east and north-west Greece, in central Greece, in the Peloponnesus, and in Crete. They operate on the enemy's lines of communication, his troops and their supplies. The most important of these bodies of francs tireurs is under the command of an officer of exceptional bravery and daring initiative. It was this .group that bfew up the Gorgopotamos bridge in central Greece, over which runs the railway linking Athens with Salonika, thus Interrupting the essential communications of the enemy who was in the course of regrouping his forces . to counteract any eventual Allied attack. Another daring and effective attack by the “un -uniformed army” took place in Crete. Last summer a contingent of these brave men attacked an aerodrome on the island, destroying many aeroplanes and damaging others. After the attackers had disappeared, the Germans, who keep strong garrisons there had recourse to their usual and favourite system of revenge. They arrested innocent hostages or chose some from among those already in custody, and executed 66 persons, mostly intellectuals, lawyers, doctors, or schoolmasters. It was perhaps the cruellest of the reprisals perpetrated in Greece. The sabotage at the Salamis Arsenal • reminded us all that, even immortal Salamis has been desecrated by the Nazis, who use its ever-glorious roadstead as a naval base. The ghost* of .. Aeschylus and his brother Kynaegeirus, the hero of the battle, if haunting the spot, must shiver with anger and curse against the sacrilege. The organisations which support the various guerrilla bands bear various names. The most important and ac- . tive among them is “The National Front of Liberation.” Another form of resistance in Greece is the publication of clandestine newspapers, secretly printed and circulated. They are ■ widely read and some of their titles are; “The Glory,” “Greek Youth,” “Fighting Greece,” and “The Secret Brigade.” Copies of them are received in Egypt from time to time. The food situation has been a terrible experience, especially during the 1 , winter months of 1941-42, when the mortality was really appalling. Since . that winter, however, owing to the . generous offer of the Canadian Government. 15,000 tons of wheat has been : reaching Greece, while steps have been taken to send condensed milk 1 ,, > for the children. Black market prices : have -risen to a fantastic level and * people sell everything in their posses- . sion to buy food. German officers are making money by dealing in the black market. “With a Firm Heart” Such is the general picture of Greek resistance to-day. It is inspired by ; the determined will of the people to show that they have never relinquished their fidelity to their natural ideal of independence. Not for a moment have they betrayed, even in' their thoughts, their Allies and friends. Their faith in victory remains untouched. The R.A.F. raids on the aerodromes near Athens are acclaimed by the people who climb upon their roofs to watch the flashes and listen to the distant thunder of the bombs. But they do not conceal their impatience to see the tide of war, this time at the dietation of the Allies, sweep towards the shores of Greece, bringi#g to the sorely-tried population their muchsought freedom and putting to an end the hard trials of almost two years. With a firm heart the Greek people withstood the hazards of unequal battle; they now withstand, with the same fortitude, the cruelties of a foreign yoke with its accompanying starvation and sufferings. They do so inspired and helped by the deep consciousness that they pledged freely their soul to a great cause, that of human liberty. “The will to do—the soul to dare” has been and continue? to be their watchword.