APPEAL TO GREEKS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 October 1943, Page 3

APPEAL TO GREEKS

BROADCAST BY GENERAL SIR H. M. WILSON TERMINATION OF FRATRICIDAL STRIFE. AND UNITY AGAINST GERMANS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.55 a.m.) RUGBY, October 22. The British Commander-in-Chief- in the Eastern Mediterranean, Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, broadcasting a special message to all Greeks, said Germany’s last gamble in Greece was the weakening of the Greeks by internal quarrels. The collapse of Fascism in Italy had burdened Germany with a„ serious problem in the Balkans, especially in Greece. Germany could not afford to withdraw troops from other fronts and she could only hope to remain in Greece if she could weaken the Greeks by internal quarrels. It was the responsibility of the Greeks to see that this gamble failed. General Maitland Wilson appealed to the Greeks to cease their, fratricidal strife and to join the majority of Greeks who were united against the common enemy. According to another message, fighting has occurred in Greece as a result of attempts by some Greek commanders of irregulars to impose their authority by force on others. The Germans are believed to have some twenty divisions occupying the Balkans. It may be assumed that the bombing of the main railways from Belgrade to Sofia and Salonika, which began a few days ago, is connected with General Smuts’s forecast of still further advances, especially in Southern and South-Eastern Europe this winter.