THOUSANDS OF GREEKS TURNED INTO REFUGEES

Grey River Argus, 21 February 1949, Page 5

THOUSANDS OF GREEKS TURNED INTO REFUGEES

(From British United Press). . One person in 10 is a refugee in Greece. Thousands of Greeks have been turned into refugees in the past month by guerrilla attacks on three provincial centres in central Greece. In these attacks Guerrillas destroyed hundreds of homes and brought unemployment to thousands but in none of the' attacks did the Guerrillas gam any real success over the Greek Army. Foreign observers consider that the military situation has not deteriorated very much, despite these attacks they are more worried about the civilian and military morale. . The Guerrillas have centred thenattacks on Karditsa on the Thessaly Plain, Naoussa, just south of the Yugoslav border and Karpenisi, in the Southern Findus Mountains. U.-j. observers believe that General Markos the Guerrilla leader has some 25,000 me’f, under his command scattered about Greece and mostly concentrated within a few miles of important towns. Because of the size of the Greek Army, only relatively small garrisons ca nbe stationed in each town If all Greece were under arms there still would not be enough men to garrison eevry town with enough troops to match a sudden and powerful Guerrilla raid. Observers say there are three ways in which to answer Guerrilla raids—firstly better information about intended Communist operations; secondly, greater mobility of the Army; thirdly more highly developed training of Greek units. While a long term policy, is under way, a plan to establish vigilante groups in towns and villages with a provision to give arms to ablebodied inhabitants has been accepted.