Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, JULY 18, 1947 THIS INVASION OF GREECE!

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 55, 18 July 1947, Page 4

Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, JULY 18, 1947 THIS INVASION OF GREECE!

THE most startling event in this modern world of momentous occurrances appears to be the unwarranted invasion of Greece, by a small suicidal force of unknown origin. Were it not for the fact that the bizarre and the ridiculous .has now become a commonplace and accepted fact the whole story might be dismissed as pure fabrication, but today we have learnt to treat all stories seriously. Even the smallest of international ruptures has been known to precipitate mighty international conflicts, in which mankind has lost sixty millions of his species. What then lies behind the sally into troubled Greece of a few thousand un-named guerillas? If we are to believe the latest statement of the Greek Prime Minister, issued to the press of the world the inference obviously is that Soviet Russia has had a hand in this latest eruption. A little thought however makes the reasonable

man dismiss such assertion as paltry and somewhat dispicable. If the Soviet was bent upon discomforting the existing Greecian regime, it would scarcely instigate a sortie by undisciplined, troops with blatant arm-bands and starred hats. The thing is too absurd to be taken seriously, though in a nervous world suffering from war tension of the taughest kind such allegations appear feasible, and further are highly fashionable. Let us be fair, to Russia, and at the same time not under-rate her own insidious powers of espionage and infiltration, whenever she feels the need. Likely as not the invaders of Greece, having their base in Albania are in all probability an offshoot of one of the numerous insurgent elements which so tore the unhappy peoples of Arcady following "the German and Bulgarian retreat. In all probability it has been a ‘forelorn hope’ on the part of some isolated group of misguided patriots who have adopted the well-known emblems of the Soviet in order to cover up their true identity. The ‘few thousands’ for that is all they are reported to number, if they desired publicity to their cause, have certainly succeeded in this respect. Their campaign has been flashed across the press of the world in banner headlines. At the same time military operations in

China, in Indonesia, in India involving tens of thousands of troops are delegated to insignificant paragraphs, or ignored altogether. We shall probably learn, after a lengthy disclaimer by the Kremlin, and a spate of words from the Diplomatic Corps, that the invasion, was only an ‘incident’ after all and that the more sinister deductions were simply an unfortunate mistake due to the action of the unprincipled insurgents in wearing the insignia of outraged Soviet Russia. '