GREEK DEPORTATIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26353, 7 January 1947, Page 5

GREEK DEPORTATIONS

LEFT-WING SUPPORTERS BRITISH DELEGATION’S REPORT LONDON, Jan. 5. The Greek Government deported more than 1000 persons to arid, barren islands under the 1924 Banditry Law, alleging they were dangerous to public order, says the report of the allparty British parliamentary delegation which visited Greece in August, 1946. The deportees Included wembers of E.A.M. committees, editorial staffs of Left Wing newspapers, and some women and children. Operations between Left Wing bands and gendarmerie in parts of Macedonia and the mountainous areas of Thessaly amounted to miniature civil war. It seemed probable that the bands received some aid and encouragement from the other side of the frontier, but it should not be assumed that their activities were entirely due to foreign inspiration. The report declared that Greece should now endeavour to establish an all-party Government aiming to reestablish law and order and to restore constitutional liberties. The ppeople who have been exiled to the islands should be permitted to return, and, subject to considerations of strategy and high policy, British troops should soon be withdrawn.