WITH CORSO IN GREECE

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25298, 25 September 1947, Page 2

WITH CORSO IN GREECE

WOMAN WORKER’S EXPERIENCES SIXTEEN DAYS WITH THE REBELS “I spent 16 days in the Kozani district,” reports Mrs O. M. Greig, who will probably be the last to leave tat the end of 1947) of the four CORSO representatives still in Greece. ‘‘Fifteen degrees below zero we were in snow feet deep, am.. > ice and andartes (rebel troops). Somehow my Greek helper and I had inadvertently got into an area entirely under rebel control. We were surrounded by men and girls with machine-guns and rifles. But when they understood our errand they were very helpful and polite. Sleeping in their mountain stronghold all night, we were never left alone for one moment, even sleeping , m the same room as a village lamily. However, the only injury I got was bed-bug bites. On such occasions so long as there is a British or American person in the party there 18 i trouble. The Government forces asked me if I was not afraid to travel into such places, and I said: ‘No, except for mines in the road.’ One is never quite sure about that. “In Kozani district (65 villages) there are over 6000 refugees, a homeless population moving constantly as the fighting makes unsafe one village after another. ... I was most impressed with a domestic school that has been started there—of a makeshift order, run for orphans. They make clothes foi themselves and their families and for the orphan and unprotected children who are cared for by Greek War Relief Association. I thought the £lO which we got for the wireless could not be better used. It will pay the teacher’s wages for almost three months.

“I now have some very good Greek friends and in particular all my young Greek staff, who seem like a family for me to look after. They are the nicest young people, hard working and with ideals, and I long to help them all to recover their pride in their country. They love Greece, but their pride in it is shaken. The toys will be a delight when they come. I am often astonished at the toys the little boys make out of tins and bits of wire and scraps of wood. But even those things are in short supply (except the tins) and very small children cannot manufacture such things for themselves. “Thank you all,’’ Mrs Greig concluded, “the name of New Zealand stands high here. It is my greatest help.”