GREECE IN TRAVAIL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 29 October 1941, Page 4

GREECE IN TRAVAIL

ONE of the most, disagreeable suri prises Mussolini has had was the resistance offered by the Greeks when | he ordered his armies over the frontier from Albania a year ago yesterday. Mr Churchill has chosen the anniversary of what he calls “Musso- j i lini’s crime” to express to the Greek Prime Minister in exile the gratitude of the British people to the people ol the Hellenes for all they have done! and are doing for the Allied cause. Except in Libya the Greek offensive is the only one Mussolini has staged in this Weir. He chose it because the prey looked easy, but it was to elude him till the Nazi tiger came to rescue ; I the Italians and over-run Greece. It i has been estimated on good authority that if the Italians had been left unj aided for another ten days or a fortnight they would have been pushed into the Adriatic Sea. The price paid ] by II Duce for this much-needed help | was abject subservience to the Fuhrer. for since the Greeks put him: to shame, and Wavell captured a large slice of the Fascist army, and; the British Navy destroyed the pride ot his fleet, Mussolini has not been! able to hold up his head in Italy except as a Nazi gauleiter. To the everlasting credit of the Greeks they did not follow the example of their Balkan neighbours, Bulgaria and Rumania, or of Hungary when threatened by aggression which they must have known would overwhelm them. Britain and the Empire did their best to succour them but without avail. Like them we were driven from Greece and our soldiers; again fought beside them in Crete] but the result was the same. It is known that the Greek morale, which j stood constant before the Italians, wavered before the Germans and 1 this, combined with internal disaffection in tHe hour of trial, led to a retreat from their hard-won Albanian positions, thus allowing the German' break-through which rendered the Allied line in the centre and on the; right untenable. If the thought of what a German blitz involved made 1 !kem falter when they had already; been sorely pressed, it is but fair to; assess their contribution to the com- ; mon cause by their campaign against : the Italians and the magnificent example of Hellenic defiance which the' decision to resist gave the world. Their lot now is hard for they arc; being trampled under the heel ofj ! their Nazi-Fascist-Bulgar oppressors. 1 A sea captain who has just visited | Greece speaks of haggard crowds and j bare-footed children who almost; [stormed his ship crying pitifully for i food. Residents described Athens to] I him as a “gaunt, hungry city, its] [ streets and parks deserted.” A special i correspondent of the London “Times”' says that the Axis has reduced no 1 country except Poland to such bitter ; destitution as Greece. Bulgaria is one : of tlie jackals that feed on the car- | ease, in reward for her “collabora- : tion” role. The proud Hellenes did j not collaborate but fought. After a year their cup of misery is full, and they have to endure the gibes and j persecution of a neighbour who went [ Hitler’s way as well as the brutality I l of Italians and Germans. Yet. if they ! ! can lift up their bowed heads and cast! their eyes to the horizon, they will | j glimpse a fairer future than is in ] j prospect for the satellites of the ] ! Dictators.