Greeks Ambushed By Guerrillas

Grey River Argus, 21 March 1947, Page 5

Greeks Ambushed By Guerrillas

ATHENS, March 19

Guerrillas suffered heavy losses when they ambushed a party of Greek troops near Papaskoi, says the Exchange Telegraph correspondent, quoting reports from Salonika. The guerrillas retreated over the Yugoslav border under cover of fire from Yugoslav troops. An Associated Press correspondent states that a band of four hundred guerrillas set fire to the police station, town hall, and several houses in a village near Nigrita, abducted a number of women and children, and forced the gendarmes, who are running short of ammunition, to retreat to the hills. Premier Maximos gave the American Ambassador, Mi' Edwin Wilson, a message for Mr Truman, assuring him that his Government was doing its best to restore peace as Mr Truman desired. LONDON, March 19. The United Nations’ Balkans Commission’s visit to the guer-rilla-held territory of Greece was a fiasco, reports Reuter’s correspondent with the Commission. General Markos, the guerrilla leader, with whom a meeting had been arranged, failed to turn up, and the visit culminated in an open split, in two stormy sessions, at the guerrilla headquarters in Castanofiton, a tiny village nestling in a ring of snow crested mountains, 15 miles from the Albanian border.

The delegates from Britain, Australia, America, France, Belgium, Brazil and Syria lined up against the delegates from Russia, Poland and Yugoslavia. They decided not to wait for Markos. When a mule train left for the Government-held territory of Greece, the minority remained behind, still hoping to meet General* Markos.

The United Nations Balkans Commission ordered the Yugoslav, Bul-

garian and Albanian liaison officers who .remained in the guerrilla territory to return to Salonika “to avoid misunderstandings,” reports Reuter’s correspondent in Salonika. The liaison officers stayed with the Soviet and Polish delegates after the rest of the team left because they were tired of waiting for General Markos to keep his appointment. Mr Kyrou, Greek Government representative, wrote to the commission declaring that these Slav delegates were “moving from village to village accompanied by a crowd of rowdies.”

Reuter’s cm respondent in Athens says the members of the commission visited Strumica and interrogated five witnesses about frontier incidents. Five hundred demonstrators

JERUSALEM, March IS. A Jewish Agency spokesman de- ! Died the report that several Jewish organisations, including the General Federation of Jewish Labour, had offered to co-operate with the Palestine Government in suppressing terrorism. He said the agency regarded such a report as a continuance of the Fqlestine Government’s attempt to undermine the agency’s authority. Two recent Government communiques had attempted to drive a wedge between the agency and the rest of the Jewish population.

during the hearing shouted antiGreek slogans, including “Long live an autonomous Macedonia.”