CONDITIONS IN GREECE

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25083, 15 January 1947, Page 7

CONDITIONS IN GREECE

Improvement Unlikely For Some Time VIEWS OF N.Z. WORKER WITH CORSO (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 14. That there is little hope of any improvement in the general conditions in Greece for some time is the opinion of Dr. Alison Hunter, of Wanganui, Who arrived recently in London after spending eight months in Greece. She was a member of a group of 24 New Zealanders who went to Greece with CORSO to work in conjunction with UNRRA.

The people in the country districts, laid Dr. Hunter, were desperately poor and many of them were undernourished. Many had seen their villages destroyed, first by the Germans, then during the civil war. In the north, the Bulgarians had completely stripped many of the villages of all their belongings. Unfortunately, while practically every organised body in Greece was tinged in some way or other with politics, there was little Or no political cohesion. The main opposing factions were the Royalists and the Communists, but there were a number of other political bodies. All of them would only support a government formed by their own political party. Intolerance and harsh treatment of opponents were general. At the same time there seemed a general unwillingness to start on the job of rebuilding Greece. The general attitude was that in the last 30 years, Greek life had been shattered by war and that it was probably only a matter of time before fighting broke out again.

The Greek economy had been broken by the war. Greece’s mercantile and fishing fleets had been practically, wiped out. and her tobacco and currant industries were still not restored. Restoration of the national income seemed a long way off, and the people were struggling along on a hand-to-mouth basis.

If it had not been for UNRRA, Greece would have been in a desperate plight. Practically everybody had been aided by UNRRA, the majority directly and a great many indirectly. With the cessation of UNRRA, Greece would be faced with an extremely difficult position and few Greeks seemed to know how it was going to be tackled.

In many areas, the people were depending on the Government to help them. In some cases they received no wages for months, and in districts where they were growing tobacco they often grew no food, being entirely dependent on outside supplies which were very scarce. The general outlook was, therefore, one of doubt, while the people generally, though being attractive, kind and sociable, seemed almost universally frustrated.

Tsaldaris, that they should join the administration. A band of guerrillas attacked a train standing at the Gravia station and killed two army officers and one policeman. They took all the passengers captive, blew up the engine with a land mine, set fire to the first-class coaches and looted the station’s cash box. The local leader of a royalist organisation was shot dead in a workers’ suburb of Athens. Police, with rifle shots, wounded a man escaping from the scene.