FORGOTTEN ISLAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26479, 5 June 1947, Page 7

FORGOTTEN ISLAND

NO ASSISTANCE FOR CRETE GREEK GOVERNMENT’S APATHY Special Correspondent Rec. 8 p.m. LONDON, June 4. An American correspondent who has been visiting Crete says in a despatch to the European edition of the New York Herald-Tribune that six years after the German invasion, a trip round the island shows heart-breaking results of the Cretans’ will to resist—-heart-breaking because their reward has been almost complete indifference to reconstruction. The Cretans want to rebuild their homes, but because no materials have been made available by the Athens Government little has been accomplished. UNRRA supplied some materials which the islanders stretched to make go round, but to-day 3000 homes destroyed by the Germans' are still not restored because of lack of materials. “The majority of Cretans are bitter against the Government in Athens, which they hold to be as guilty as the Communists in trying to bring civil war to Crete,” says the correspondent. “The prevalent opinion among, the Cretans is that the Government is not interested in reconstruction here. “In every community it is a common sight to find families picking over rubble in the hope of finding some usable building material. They have attempted to improvise living quarters, but nobody begs for anything. The Cretans have never begged for help or mercy, but they wonder if the Government ip Athens will allocate any of the American aid . for reconstruction to Crete.” The correspondent says that at Perivolia, near Rqthymo, he saw a flower-bedecked bronze cross marking the spot where the Germans shot 129 hostages almost exactly six years ago. Looking at the ruined houses of the village, a peasant grandmother, clutching two small children whose parents perished in the German reprisals, remarked, “ Houses to shelter these poor children would be the best monument a to those who died.”