FIRST STAGES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 November 1940, Page 5

FIRST STAGES

LITTLE CHANGE IN POSITION DISCLOSED GREEK MINISTER’S WARNING STRUGGLE WILL BE LONG. AND THE SACRIFICE GREAT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONODN, October 31. The latest Greek communique dealing with the fighting against the Italians says that on the Epirus front the Greek forces, after a slight withdrawal of advanced sections according to plan, held their positions throughout the day of October 30 and thwarted enemy efforts. Calm prevailed on the rest of the front. Patras was bombed indiscriminately. Some houses were damaged but there were few casualties. Non-military targets in two other towns were bombed. A Greek aeroplane which engaged Italian machines over Albania failed to return. A Reuters message from Athens says that Greece’s small air force has been in action for the first time. Three big bombers machine-gunned Italian troops on the western sector of the northern frontier. The text is now to hand of a broadcast speech to the Greek people by the Under-Secretary for the Press. He referred to the strenuous efforts by General Metaxas to keep Greece out of war in spite of Italian provocation. When Greece's integrity and very existence became threatened, however, he had no option but to order the action taken.

“In the first stage of the struggle our small forces are checking the enemy,” he.said. He warned the Greek people, however, that the struggle would be long and the sacrifice great . Without these sacrifices the country’s death was certain and they would fall under the barbarous regime which had brought disgrace to the Dodecanese Islands. Agency reports of the land fighting say that the Italians are slowly progressing from the Albanian frontier along the coast and that elsewhere the Greeks are holding their line. There ate also reports that British ships and troops have been in action, but in the absence of official confirmation these reports should be treated with reserve. It is very difficult for Britain to give air assistance to Greece except by means of the Fleet Air Arm. Already, however, naval planes have been in action by bombing Italian naval bases in the Dodecanese Islands. Moscow denies the accuracy of a report from Salonika which stated that the Greeks had received 134 Russian planes.