UNDER GESTAPO RULE

Evening Star, Issue 23886, 16 May 1941, Page 7

UNDER GESTAPO RULE

GRIM CONDITIONS IN GREECE NAZIS STRIP COUNTRY OF FOOD DEATH PENALTY FOR SHELTERING BRITISH LONDON, May 14. Conditions in Gestapo-ruled Greece are very grim, says the Istanbul correspondent of ‘ The Times. ’ The food situation is growing worse every day, especially in the islands, where the people are on the verge of starvation. Bread, which is the Greeks’ main susten-. ance. is rationed to less than half a pound a day. Almost all the meat is going to Germany, and the Germans have requisitioned all stocks of tobacco, turpentine, oils, and minerals, as well as ships above 50 tons. Many Greek towns, except Athens, have been seriously bombed, rendering the housing problem acute, and the position has been accentuated by the flood of refugees from Macedonia and Thrace. The Germans are doing their utmost to enlist the support of the puppet Government. but the public’s attitude is illustrated by the injunction of the Athens radio against cheering British prisoners of war, which is being severely punished. The Cairo correspondent of the ‘ Daily Telegraph ’ says specious moderation in the early days of German occupation of Greece is' being dropped in favour of progressively ruthless dragooning of the population. Several Greeks have been sentenced to five years for offering cigarettes to British prisoners. The Germans have announced the death penal tv for sheltering British soldiers. General Killakoglu announced that all concerned with the Metaxas regime will be tried by a military council for preparing war against Germany. TREATMENT OF PRISONERS * SHORTAGE OF FOOD LONDON, May 15. The British United Press learned from a neutral correspondent that British and Auzac prisoners of war in Corinth are not getting enough to eat. One group stated that within four days it had received only a little rice soup. The camp commandant admitted that food conditions were bad because of the shortage throughout Peloponnesus, but this was temporary, and the prisoners would soon be transferred to Germany. In addition to British and Anzacs, the Corinth camp accommodates 1,000 members of the Jewish labour battalion, some refugees from Germany, four Yugoslav generals, and 1,000 Yugoslav officers and men. IN BULGARIA BRITISH MINISTER'S EXPERIENCES (British Official Wireless!) RUGBY, May 14. Interviewed on his arrival by air from Cairo, the former Minister to Sofia, Mr George Hendel, said: “Bulgarians appreciated my work and treated me well, but three weeks before 1 left the Gestapo had gained complete control. We wore all watched and the name and address was taken of everybody visiting my military anil air attaches, and if they wore Bulgarians they just disappeared to concentration camps. Our Bulgarian friends disappeared one by one.”-