RIOTS CHECKED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 134, 4 December 1944, Page 5

RIOTS CHECKED

ATHENS AND ROME

GREEK DEMONSTRATORS FIRED ON

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) Rec. 10.20 a.m. LONDON, December 3. Rioting broke out in two European capitals today—Athens and Rome. For 25 minutes this morning Greek police poured a withering fire from machine-guns, tommy-guns, mortars, and • light anti-tank guns into the ranks of unarmed demonstrators of the E.A.M. outside the Royal Palace, in the heart of Athens.

A number of demonstrators were killed or wounded as they flattened themselves on the ground, unable to take shelter from the hail of lead, says, Reuters Athens correspondent. Government police opened fire against several thousand demonstrators who marched past the Royal Palace in defiance of . the Government's order. Crouching behind low walls and lodged on flat roofs and balconies, the police poured thousands of rounds of small-arms ammunition into the massed demonstrators. As a second body of demonstrators advanced down the street the policemen increased the intensity arid range of their fire, using heavier weapons. The demonstrators included many young women and girls, several of whom were carried off wounded.

The police ceased fire after 25 minutes, presumably from higher Greek authorities. A number of British armoured cars stood by, but British troops did not fire at any stage.

The Athens correspondent of the British United Press reports that the E.A.M. decided last night to call a general strike throughout Greece as from December 4, and also decided to appeal to Britain, America, and Russia disapproving the attitude of LieutGeneral Scobie, British commander in Greece, and demanding that Greece's right to self-administratjon should be respected.

[General Scobie declared in a broadcast to the Greeks: "I stand firmly behind the present Constitutional Government until the Greek State can be established with legal armed force behind it and free elections can be held. I will protect you and your Government against any attempt at a coup d'etat or acts of violence which are unconstitutional."]

Rioting swayed through the 'centre of Rome at noon today when squads of Communists and republican youths armed with wooden hammers arid other primitive weapons attacked similar groups of Royalists who were leaving the first big Royalist meeting held in liberated Rome. Mounted police rode into the crowd after foot police had failed to disperse the rioters.