NO STATEMENT LIKELY YET

Southland Times, Issue 24422, 30 April 1941, Page 5

NO STATEMENT LIKELY YET

END OF OPERATION AWAITED LONDON, April 28. “No official statement is likely to be made yet about the evacuation from Greece, but there is every prospect that a substantial proportion of the forces has reached safety,” says The Evening Standard. “Transports cannot use their wireless without giving away their position to the enemy and consequently the numbers on board cannot be radioed. Therefore no definite news can be expected until the whole operation is complete.” The latest cablegram from a correspondent with the British Forces in Greece says that for over a fortnight the small force of Anzacs has resisted the whole might of the German Army. Despite the tremendous weight of the forces thrown against, it the Anzac line has never broken.

The enemy had definite superiority in aeroplanes and ceaselessly divebombed and machine-gunned the Anzacs. The British forces could have protected either the ports, the troops or the transport but, though the airmen worked like fiends, they could not discharge all three tasks. The forward British troops could withstand the dive-bombing because they were dug in, but the transport could not. The convoys moving along the roads were bombed from 40 to 50 times a day and were forced to take shelter every 15 minutes. For two and a-half dreadful weeks the Anzacs fought by day and withdrew by night. Everyone has a bandage. but everyone has also a smile. For eight hours a small band of Anzacs held a height beyond Larissa and for eight hours their guns fired a round a minute. They stuck to their guns amidst a hell of bombs and shells. BRITISH MINISTER INTERNED (Rec. 9.30 p.m.) BUDAPEST, April 28. The American Ambassador, Mr Arthur- B. Lane, arrived from Yugoslavia. He said he believed the Italians had interned the British Minister, Mr Ronald Campbell, and his staff and several other Britons at Dubroonik.