TERRORISM IN GREECE

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 September 1946, Page 5

TERRORISM IN GREECE

GOVERNMENT HELD NOT BLAMELESS AMERICAN PRESSMEN’S VJEWS ■ [N.Z.P.A, Special Correspondent.) LONDON,. September 20. The Manchester Guardian to-day draws attention to American correspondents’ dispatches charging the present Greek Government with terrorism arid the suppression of Greek Liberals and Labour supporters. The correspondents claim to have seen truckloads of men, women, and children sent to prison and have evidence that the Government forcibly deprived some communities of UNRRA 1 supplies and anti-malarial equipment to punish them for -displaying anti-Government sympathies. For the same reason the correspondents claim that other communities were entirely disfranchised during the elections. These dispatches, which appeared on September 17 in the New York Herald-Tribune, were immediately quoted by the Ukrainian delegate (Dr. Manuilsky) in the debate before the Security Council which at present is considering the Ukrainian charges against Greece. British Press Comment. Commenting on these reports in a leading article, the Manchester Guardian says: “We have nearly reached the point where we consider that if Mr. Molotov or Mr. Gromyko accuses us of some crime, that alone is sufficient reason for believing the accusation is false. This complacency can be dangerous. “In -the interminable debate on Greece by the Security Council, the Russian and Ukrainian delegates made many wild and unjustifiable charges. Their motive for raising the matter is highly suspect. Yet among the usual cliches of abuse some very damaging evidence was produced against the present Greek Government. “It would be unfortunate if the British Government assumed that these charges could be dismissed with a shrug. We cannot disclaim all responsibility while we still maintain troops in Greece. If it is true that we are, however, innocently supporting Right Wing terrorism in Greece, even if there also happens to be a Left Wing terrorism there, it is high time our policy changed.” Newspapers in Athens report that a band of 150 men who came from Albania armed with machine-guns and grenades attacked three Greek villages near the frontier, cut telephone wires,- pillaged, and set fire to houses. One hundred attacked a village in the Koziani district 0 of western Macedonia and killed the mayor. Disorders Provoked. The Prime Minister (Mr. Tsaldaris), who has returned from Paris, said disorders were being provoked in Macedonia so “outsiders” could enter Greece. The Greek policy regarding border infiltrations in the future would be announced before the world. Greece’s security and integrity at present were not endangered. Mr. Tsaldaris said that during his visit to Paris he was persuaded that it was a question of a war of nerves. The whole effort being made in certain circles abroad was aimed to present Greece as a trouble maker. Mr. Tsaldaris added that the King would not return until September 25 or 26, because he had to stay in Paris “until vital matters in Greece were concluded.”

UKRAINIAN CHARGE AGAIN CRITICISED NEW YORK, Sept. 19. “The Ukrainian charge against Greece would be a joke if it were not for the memory of similar tactics which brought disaster to the world so recently. The whole world, however, recognised that the latest example was a sham,” said Sir Alexander Cadogan (Britain) at to-day’s meeting of the United Nations Security Council. Mr. Herschel Johnson (America) said that the United States opposed the Russian resolution which declared that most of the charges against Greece had been proved true. He hoped the Russian motion would be rejected by a large majority. The Security Council should examine the border difficulties and the national minorities problem in the Jugoslav-Greek and Bulgarian-Greek, as well as the Albanian-Greek sections of the border. Mr. Gromyko (Russia) opposed the United States proposal. He said it was a tactical manoeuvre aimed at deflecting attention from the Ukrainian charge. Dr. van Kieffens (Netherlands) moved that the council invite the Sec-retary-General (Mr. Trygve Lie) to notify the Greek, Albanian, Jugoslav, and Bulgarian Governments that the council, without pronouncing any opinion on the question of responsibility, earnestly hoped that the Governments would do their utmost to stop the regrettable frontier incidents by giving appropriate instructions to their national authorities and making sure that these instructions were rigidly enforced. “Five senior Greek Army generals who held high office in the E.L.A.S. resistance army during the German occupation were ordered yesterday to be ready within three days to proceed to a still undesignated location,” reports the correspondent of The Times, London. “E.A.M. circles say this is the fourth series of E.L.A.S. officers to be deported.” . 570 ANARCHISTS ALREADY DEPORTED (Rec. 1 p.m.) . ATHENS, Sept. 20. The Ministry of Public Order announced that 570 anarchists had been deported to September 1 under the provisions of the emergency measures to combat enemies of the State. He added that a further 1379 were appealing against deportation orders. In reference to the transfer of five generals, the spokesman of the Ministry of Defence stated that they had been on the inactive service with pay and would receive an additional 50 per cent, when they were assigned to a new sphere of duty.