Mystery Death Of War Correspondent

Wanganui Chronicle, 30 October 1948, Page 2

Mystery Death Of War Correspondent

NEW YORK (APl.—After more than four months of investigation by a half-dozen agencies, the sudden death last May of George Polk, an American journalist and Columbia Broadcasting System correspondent in Greece, is still a mystery. The true story of Polk’s sudden death last May 8 or 9 has ben sought by C. 8.5., the Overseas Writers’ Committee to inquire into the murder of George Polk and the various Governments involved.

Constantine Rendis, the Greek Minister of Public Order, says he is "encouraged” by developments in the investigation. General William J. Donovan, former head of the United States Office of Strategic Services, recently has returned from his third trip to Greece as counsel for the Overseas Writers’ Group, and has announced a 10,000-dollar reward offer, Donovan said he had told Greek authorities "that they had failed to explore, earnestly and carefully, all the possibilities” ’to the solution of the slaying. Polk's body was recovered last May from the sluggish waters of the harbour in Salonika, a bustling seaport at the dramatic crossroads in world history. Where he was killed one can see 50 miles across the bay to Mount Olympus, and, to the right, is the range of bare and wild hills where so much of the guerrilla warfare, which Polk reported first-hand to the world, has taken place. SINGLE SHOT THROUGH HEAD. Polk, a tall, broad-shouldered correspondent, was 34. A single shot was fired through the back of his head. The muzzle of the gun was pressed close against the back of his skull. After he was shot, his hands and feet were bound tightly with ten yards of. coarse hemp rope; five yards around his wrists, and another five yards around his ankles, then his body was flung into the murky waters of the Aegean seaport which was, in World War I, the base of Allied operations in the near east.

Polk's body remained in the water until the morning of Sunday, May 16, when it rose to the surface. The body was fully clothed, only the necktie missing. In his wallet was the equivalent of 95 dollars in Greek and American money. His address book was missing, and so was his United States War ’Department card identifying him as a war correspondent. The murderers mailed these back to the Salonika police the next day. Greek police have been concentrating on the theory that Polk may have been murdered by Communist elements, although they have not ruled out the possibility that he may have been a victim of the opposing Right Wing terrorist fringe, which is a formidable part of Greek politics. Salonika is the terminus of a Communist underground route that goes out from the city, sometimes overland. sometimes over water, into the mountain territory where the Com-munist-led guerrillas are operating. SEVERAL POSSIBILITIES

The widespread investigations into the death of Polk have revealed several possibilities for the murder other than the correspondent’s search for information concerning Communist and other political activities. One such possibility arose from the fact that a 22-year-old Greek soldier reported that he had known Pol!:, and, in a talk in a street cafe, Polk had told him that he had information about an international narcotics ring which operated in Iran, Greece, Italy, and Yugoslavia. Polk told the soldier he knew some of the top Greek figures in thisring, that their base was in Salonika, and that he was going to seek information concerning the workings of this ring.