GREECE STARTS FULL-SCALE DRIVE ON GUERRILLAS

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 November 1947, Page 5

GREECE STARTS FULL-SCALE DRIVE ON GUERRILLAS

LONDON, November 13. “The long-awaited general offensive against the guerrillas in western Macedonia has apparently begun, says the Associated Press correspondent in Athens. “Fierce fighting is reported near 15 villages and towns round Grevena. The air force is taking part.” , “The Greek civil war can never be terminated by purely military operations,” says the Athens correspondent of The Times. “The Greek Army is in excellent spirit, and has had a measure of success against the rebels in Thessaly, but it cannot alone crush the rebellion so long as the rebels can retreat into Jugoslavia, Albania and Bulgaria. - T t m. i “The newly-established United Nations Balkans Commission will be given every facility to examine the situation in any part of Greece, but it remains to be seen whether it will be granted equal facilities by the other countries concerned. “Meanwhile the rebels and the G r eek Communist Party still threaten to establish a separate government in the north. If they were to succeed they would presumably ask for belligerent rights, which, if they were recognised by the Soviet’s satellite countries, would entitle them legally to receive arms from abroad without violating international law or the United Nations Charter.”