KONITZA RELIEVED BY GOVERNMENT TROOPS

Grey River Argus, 2 January 1948, Page 5

KONITZA RELIEVED BY GOVERNMENT TROOPS

ATHENS. Dec 30.

A Government relieving brigade has begun to push the beleaguering rebels off the mountains dominating Konitza. It is officially announced that the army, with heavy air support, has cleared the rebels from Mount Vigla, near the Albanian border, and from the heights around Kalpaki, south-west of Konitza. The rebels lost heavily and were retreating towards Albania. Those from Mount Vigla were heading for the Borazani bridge, near the frontier. The garrison of Konitza has repulsed all guerrilla attacks but it is net clear from the communique whether the rebels still almost surround Konitza. They have been entrenched round the town in defences built during the Italian invasion in 1940. Relieving forces recently opened a mule path to Konitza, which became the sole supply line to the garrison of two battalions. Military observers said Konitza was virtually out of danger, unless the unexpected happened. The rebel radio claimed earlier that guerrillas had now entered Konitza. ' (Rec. 9.30 LOK DON, Jan. 1 Reuter’s Athen’s correspondent states- A Greek army relief column has linked up with Konitza’s’ defenders five miles south of the town, and the column has also recaptured Borazani bridge, toward which the rebels retreated yesterday.

IS MARKOS GOVERNMENT COVER FOR SOVIET PLAN AGAINST GREECE ?

LONDON. Dec .31. The “Daily Mail 1 ,” in a leading article, lists Greece as one of four of the world’s ’’flash points” to-day, the others being Palestine, Persia and India. . ~ „ “These trouble spots”, it adds, are all on the Russian frontier. Is this chance, or is there some design running through it? “The Ma’rkds Government is a cover behind which Russia hopes to

overthrow the real Greek Government and spread Communism and widen her sphere of interest. “There is evidence that Russia has been fishing in the muddy waters of the Middle East and that Russian heat is being applied to Persia.” It notes that the Kashmir rebels are said to possess German rifles of 1945 make, which could hardly have come from Germany, and it suggests that the Soviet may have done her bit towards making trouble in Kashmir, which is “near enough to give Russia an excuse to ‘restore order’ in the event of trouble."

SOVIET ATTITUDE RECALLS HITLER’S DOMINATION POLICY

LONDON, December 31. Commenting on the establishment of the rebel Government in Greece, “Ma’lichester Guardian” says: “The results may well prove as serious as any single event since the end of the war. In Greece is to be seen a Soviet parallel with Hitler's policy of seeking world domination. “Almost everything that has happened in the field of international relations since the end of the war has shown that Russia is prepared to go to great lengths to achieve her immediate goal of creating a solid block of Communist dependent States along her European borders. As a result of shameful political trials, those who opposed or gavd less than complete support for the totalitarian regimes of these eastern countries have now been liquidated and the peoples cowed into acquiescence.

“A whole network of treaties has been woven, binding each country to each other and all to Moscow. The Cominform has been created to maintain and develop what has already been achieved. The absence of Turkey and -Greece from this block alone ‘makes the realisation of this immediate Soviet goal less than complete- - , J4U * “It is against this background that the establishment, by General Markos of an ‘independent Government’ in Greece must be seen. Russia will be prepared to sacrifice much if she can squeeze out Western influence from Greece and draw her into the group of pliant Communist satellites. “That an ‘independent Government’ has now been proclaimed can mean only that such assistance as has already been given to the Greek guerrillas is henceforth to be substantially increased. For ovei- a year foreign help has enabled the guerrillas to. hold out against the Greek Government forces, but little more. That phase has now presumably ended, and one with a more positive object—control of all Greece —has begun. . ± xl . “The initiative is at the moment with Russia. The next few months will show whether the Western Powers are in a mood to appease Moscow in Greece or whether they are prepared to make determined resistance against, her, because it looks as though nothing less than direct and determined action will prove effective. The Greek question seems to have all the elements of a test case in the struggle between the East and West.”