WAVE OF UNREST

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 June 1943, Page 3

WAVE OF UNREST

SWEEPING OCCUPIED EUROPE SOME OUTSTANDING EXAMPLES OF SABOTAGE. ACTIVITIES OF GREEK GUERILLAS (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.35 a.m.) LONDON, June 28. A new wave of unrest is sweeping across Axis-occupied Europe. The Vichy Premier, Laval, is reported to be growing increasingly nervous of French resistance. The Vichy radio said special tribunals were being set up to deal with "terrorists.” The Paris radio blamed terrorists for a fire which destroyed a big store containing food supplies. In another area, a Fascist militia leader was attacked with a tommy-gun. Fritz Schmidt, German Commissioner for Holland, and one of Hitler’s party bosses, was killed this week in France. In Denmark saboteurs set fire to a big clothing factory last night. Stocks of wool and other materials were lost and the factory was burned to the ground. Newspapers have reached London from Belgium reporting that three Belgians and one Frenchman were executed for blowing up colliery buildings at Lambusart, in Hainault. The explosion put the colliery out of action.

Greek guerillas have effectively blocked the sole railway linking South Greece with Europe, according to reports reaching London. Several bridges have been blown up and dynamiters have blasted hillsides across tracks. A Greek Government official in London revealed that Greek guerilla officers frequently went to Cairo from Greece to confer with the Allied military authorities. “There is no doubt,” he said, “that their movements will be synchronised with Allied plans. They are striking at the heart of Axis communications in Greece.”

STRONG DEFENCES BUILT AL.ONG THE AEGEAN COASTS. BUT TENSION IN BULGARIA BORDERING ON PANIC. (Received This Day, 10.30 a.m.) (Special P.A. Correspondent.) LONDON, June 28. The Germans are reported to be preparing to meet the possibility of an attack against Greece, Fortifications all along the Aegean coast have now been, completed. Anti-aircraft batteries and long-range guns form the backbone of the defence system. German and Bulgarians are building a second line of defence 15 miles inside the coastline,while a third chain of concrete fortifications is being erected in Bulgarianoccupied Gi’cece, along the River Maritsa.

The “Daily Telegraph’s” Istanbul correspondent reports that tank barricades have been built along the strategic highways in the region of Salonika, Kavalla and Dedeagatch and the bridges mined. Trees have been felled on both sides of the highways near Salonika and in the Mount Athos peninsula. A hundred villages have been evacuated in these areas, rendering 10,000 people homeless. The correspondent adds that tension bordering on panic, caused by expectations of an Allied invasion of the Balkans, prevails all over Bulgaria, wjiere there has been a run on the banks and business is practically at a standstill. On the other hand all preparations, jittery Axis propagandist and inspiring Allied broadcasts are causing great excitement throughout the Greek population. The “Observer” expresses the opinion that Axis anxiety about Greece is well founded. She is the weak point in the Mediterranean front, because an invasion would receive full collaboration from the Greeks. There are several thousand Greek soldiers fully trained in the Middle East and also 33 Greek warships, including one cruiser.