STARVATION IN GREECE

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 40, 17 February 1942, Page 6

STARVATION IN GREECE

500 DEATHS DAILY

ANKARA, February 15. According to reports reaching authoritative quarters, 40,000 people have died of starvation in Greece in the past four months, mostly in the Athens region. Travellers from Greece say that now at least 500 drop dead from starvation every day. "I saw former generals, admirals, and millionaires queueing for food," said one traveller. "Money is of no value, and the whole population suffers alike." People are seen in the daytime to crumple up in the gutters, where they are left till dark. Carts then pick up the bodies and dump them in trenches outside the city. A meagre bread ration is available only every other day. The - sinking of the Kurtulus, which was wrecked on January 20, was the last straw for the Greeks. Hope again dawned with the knowledge that an 8000-ton Swedish ship chartered by the International Red Cross was loading wheat at Haifa for Greece and also that another Swedish- food ship might go from Turkey. Herr yon Papen, German Ambassador to Turkey, is reported to have told the Greeks in Turkey that the Germans guaranteed the safety of neutral food ships to Greece, and also that the Kumaniaris would immediately provide 3000 tons of corn—if dollars could be found to buy it. , Though Britain on February 5 completed dispositions for the dispatch of a shipload of wheat to Greece, the ship is unable to leave because the Italians and Germans have not assured its safe conduct, says the London "Daily Telegraph."