THOUSANDS DYING

Waikato Times, Volume 130, Issue 21656, 17 February 1942, Page 3

THOUSANDS DYING

STARVATION IN GREECE

RELIEF VESSEL SUNK TRAGEDY OF OCCUPATION (United Press Assn —Eiec. Tel. copyrnfOw) A-NKARA, Feb. 15 According to reports reaching authoritative quarters, 40,000 people have died of starvation in Greece in the past four months, mostly in the Athens region. Travellers from Greece say that now at least 500 people daily drop dead from starvation. “I saw ex-generals, admirals and millionaires queueing for food. Money was of no value. The whole population suffers alike,” stated one story related by a traveller. People were seen in Athens in the daytime to crumble up in the gutters, where they were left until dark, when carts picked up the bodies and dumped them in trenches outside the city. A meagre bread ration is available only every other day. The Last Straw The sinking of the steamer Kurtulus in the Bosphorus last month while carrying foodstuffs from America to Greece was the last straw for the Greeks, but hope has dawned again with the knowledge that an 8000-ton Swedish ship, chartered by the International Red Cross, was loading wheat at Haifa for Greece, and also that another Swedish foodship may go from Turkey. Von Papen, German Ambassador to Turkey, has been reported to have told the Greeks in Turkey that the Germans guaranteed the safety of neutral foodships to Greece, also that the Rumanians would immediately provide 3000 tons of corn—if dollars could be found to buy it. Although Britain on February 5 had completed dispositions for the despatch of a shipload of wheat to Greece, the ship was unable to leave because the Italians and Germans would not issue a safe conduct, says the London Daily Telegraph.