CLEARING ATHENS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 22, 23 December 1944, Page 5

CLEARING ATHENS

WIDER BRITISH CONTROL TANKS SHELLING. E.L.A.S; ■ (N.Z. Press Association. —Copyright:) - (Rec. 11.10 a.m.) LONDON, Dec. 22. The British have considerably•••• • extended the area under their control in Southern Athens and in the- , "" 1 direction of Piraeus, reports Reu--" " ter's correspondent. Allied tanks in the centre of Athers shelled F.L.A.S. concentrations in the/ 1 : neighbourhood of the Military-;- 1 ;-; Academy in Northern Athens, •'•'•■■ which is now the main E.L.A.S.. j concentration, area. Rocket-firing Beaufighters flattened the main block of the Averoff prison, which has been in E.L.A.S. hands since Monday. British forces in landing craft crossed Piraeus harbour from the south'': during the night and before dawn to-" day occupied the northern part of the harbour, thus placing the whole port in British hands. British tanks went ashore and penetrated several hundred yards inland before meeting stiffening opposition. "flic general strike in Athens* continues, at least as far as the publicutilities are concerned, and food is becoming scarcer," says the Athens cor- . respondent of the Times. Extortionate: prices are being asked for the available food, and Athens is growing dirtier, more scarred, and infinitely desolate. "It is. clear as the dreary days go by that the fight has developed into a struggle between the Right and Lett, with the Government —headed by a man who was formerly known' as 'a Left Wing Liberal, and containing four members of his Social Democrat tic Party—hardening into a group of embittered conservatives. , ', REGENCY ESSENTIAL.

"Everyone ,recognises that the essential first step in bringing peace to Greece is the appointment of a Regent and through him the formation of a new all-party Government. However, the individual parties constituting the Government are busily blocking the issue, and some of them are persuading the reluctant monarch to stand firm. -f

"There has been no contact between M. Papandreou's Cabinet and the E.A.M. The members of the Cabinet individually seem to be trying to persuade the British military forces already engaged in pulling their chestnuts" from the fire to redouble their efforts to exterminate the members of the E.L.A.S. Such Greeks say it would be so much the better if, in the execution of that unpalatable task, death, ruination or just ordinary misery is brought upon the mas* of ordinary Left Wing Greeks. "Together, the E.L.A.S. forces and the British are inflicting far greater damage in Athens than the G-ermanes. The British attitude, probably dictated from London, still seems to be that til! the British strength is sufficiently established it would lie useless to negotiate a political settlement, because there would be nothing to guarantee its fulfilment. Theoretically that argument is sound, but the majority would prefer to throw theory to the winds and do something positive to end this horrib'e war in which British and Greek blood is still being spilt."