Grim Picture of Gestapo-Ruled Greece

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 115, 16 May 1941, Page 7

Grim Picture of Gestapo-Ruled Greece

F«od Situation Growing Worse Daily SYSTEMATIC GERMAN ROBBING OF COUNTRY United Press Association—Bv Electrlo Telegraph—Copyright. Received Thursday, 5.5 p.m. LONDON, May 14. Conditions in Gestapo-ruled Greece are very grim, says the Istanbul corrofl' poudent of The Times. The food situation is growing worse daily, especially in the islands where the people are on the verge of starvation. Bread, which is the Greeks’ main sustenance, is rationed to less than half a pound daily and almost all the meat is going to Germany. The Germans have requisitioned all the stocks of tobacco, turpentine, oils and minerals, also ships above 50 tons. Many Greek towns except Athens were seriously bombed, rendering the housing problem acute because of the flood of refugees from Macedonia and Thrace, The Germans are doing their utmost to enlist support for the puppet Government, but the public’s attitude is illustrated by the Athens radio’s injunction that cheering British prisoners of war is being severely punished. The Daily Telegraph’s Cairo correspondent says tho specious moderation in the early days of the German occupation of Greece is being dropped in favour of progressively ruthless dragooning of the population. Several Greeks have been sentenced to live years for offering cigarettes to British prisoners. The Germans announced the death penalty for sheltering British soldiers. ,

M. Killakoglu (puppet Prime Minister) announced that all concerned with the Metaxas regime will be tried by a military council for preparing for war against Germany.

Interviewed on his arrival by air from Cairo, the former Minister to Sofia (Mr. G. W. Rendel) said: “The Bulgarians appreciated my work and treated me well, but three weeks before I left the Gestapo gained complete con trol. We were all watched and the name and address was taken of everybody visiting my military and ait attaches and if they were Bulgarians they just disappeared to concentration camps. Our Bulgarian friends disappeared one by one.”

The British United Press correspondent has learned from a neutral correspondent that British and Anzac prisoners of war in Corinth are not getting enough to eat. A group stated within four days they received only a little rice and soup. The camp commandant admitted that food conditions wero bad because of a shortage throughout the Pcloponnesos, but this was temporary and the prisoners were soon being transferred to Germany. In addition to the British and Anzacs the Corinth camp accommodates a thousand Jewish labour battalion members, some refugees from Germany, four Yugoslav generals and a thousand Yugoslav officers and men.