TWO N.Z. PRIVATES PLATOON COMMANDERS IN GREEK REBEL ARMY

Wanganui Chronicle, 29 December 1947, Page 4

TWO N.Z. PRIVATES PLATOON COMMANDERS IN GREEK REBEL ARMY

( P- A -> Auckland, Dec. 28. Two privates of the 2nd. N.Z.E.F. 1 are now platoon commanders in the' Greek rebel Army of General Markos' fighting in the north of Greece. This was disclosed on Saturday by Colonel A. W. Sheppard, M.C., former head of the British Economic Mission in Northern Greece, who arrived at Auckland by the Wairata from the United States on his way home to Australia. Colonel Sheppard said the two men were not evacuated from Greece in 1941 and they s?rved throughout the war with partisans against the Germans. They remained with the rebel army and one had now married and had a family. “I have sooken to one of them,” said Colonel Sheppard, whoi would not divulge their names, “and [ it was a long time before he said he| was a New Zealander.”

In 1941 Colonel Sheppard was in Greece with the Australian Imperial Forces and he was decorated after commanding D Beach at Porto Rafi, from which many New Zealanders were evacuated. He returned in January, 1945, to join the U.N.R.R.A. Mission and he was head of the Economic Mission until the United States took control last April.

The existing Government lias all the elements of Fascism,” said Colonel Sheppard “and I am very unhappy about it all.” He said the country now had a secret police, strikers were punished with death, trades unions had been disbanded and the remaining organisations were controlled by Government leaders. Civil courts were disbanded and all trials were by court martial. People were exiled for two years without appearing before the courts and all the Left-wing newspapers were suspended. “Every element of Fascism found in Germany may also be found in Greece,” he added. ‘‘lt began with the fighting in December, 1944, and we have built it up slowly and, surely. The movement has been

slightly intensified since the United States took over.” Colonel Sheppard’s book “Britain in Greece. A Study in International Interference” was riublished in November and was not, he stated “very popular with the Foreign Office.” Colonel Sheppard estimated the strength of the rebel army at about 90,000. Eighty per cent of the arms were British weapons captured from the Greek Army and the remainder were German and Italian weapons captured during the war. The movement was purely indigenous and received no external support. General Markos had told him that he had lost 75 per cent, of the party sent on a raid for arms and food and he added that he could have obtained the material merely by signalling Monastir in Yugoslavia. However, outside help l would not be accepted.