PRISONERS IN GREECE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 May 1941, Page 5

PRISONERS IN GREECE

ANZACS & OTHER BRITISH TROOPS NOT GETTING ENOUGH TO EAT. i POPULATION SAVAGELY ’ OPPRESSED. I By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, May 15. The British United Press lias learned from a neutral correspondenl that British and Anztte prisoners of war at Corinth. Greece, are not (retting enougli to eat. A group of the prisoners stated that within four days they had received only a little rice and soup. The camp commandant admitted that the food conditions were bad, and said it was because of a shortage throughout Peloponnesus, but this was temporary. He added that the prisoners would soon be transferred to Germany. In addition to British and Anzacs the Corinth camp accommodates 1000 members of a Jewish labour battalion, seme refugees from Germany, four Yugoslav generals, and 1000 Yugoslav officers and men. Conditions in Gestapo-ruled Greece are very grim, says the Istanbul correspondent of “The Times." The food situation is growing worse daily, sped-, ally in the islands, where the people are on the verge of starvation. Bread, which is the Greeks’ main sustenance, has been rationed to less than half a pound a day, and almost all the meat is going to Germany. The Germans have also requisitioned all the stocks of tobacco, turpentine, oils and minerals, and also all ships above 50 tons. Many Greek towns, except Athens, have been seriously bombed, rendering the housing problem acute, particularly because of the flood of refugees from Macedonia and Thrace. The Germans are doing their utmost to enlist support for the puppot government, but the public’s attitude is illustrated by an injunction by the Athens radios that any cheering of British prisoners of war is being severely punished. The Cairo correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph” says that a specious moderation which was shown in the early days of the German occupation of Greece is being dropped in favour of a progressively ruthless dragooning of the population. Several Greeks have, been sentenced to five years in gaol for offering cigarettes to British prisoners. and the Germans have announced the death penalty for sheltering British soldiers. The puppet leader. General Killa■koglu, has announced that all persons concerned with the Metaxas regime will be tried by a military council lor preparing war against Germany.