MARKOS “HAS LOST THE GAME” IS AMERICAN CLAIM

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 August 1948, Page 5

MARKOS “HAS LOST THE GAME” IS AMERICAN CLAIM

ATHENS, August 7

General James Van Fleet, military head of the American aid mission in Greece, said that the Greek guerrilla leader. General Markos, had “lost the game.” A Greek communique claimed fresh gains in the Nestorian area of the Grammes range. It said that villages evacuated by the guerrillas in the battle area were deserted and that hundreds cf guerrillas were wandering on the wooded eastern slopes of the range. The Associated Press correspondent in Athens says that a spokesman of the Greek Army General Staff confirmed the earlier report that General Markos’s headquarters had fled to Nikolista, in Albania. General Markos had between 8000 and 10,000 troops still in the Greek mountains, said the spokesman, and because of the difficult terrain it will take the Government troops at least six weeks to clear the guerrillas out of the area. Mr Dwight Griswold, who has ended his duties as chief of the American aid mission in Greece, told Reuter’s Berlin correspondent that he was not satisfied with the co-operation. Which the Greek Government, had given the mission. The Greek Government was unwilling to make the “tough economic decisions,” requiring more austerity lor the Greeks, which were necessary. The outlook in Greece had greatly improved, economically, and militarily, in the past year.