ALLIED OFFICER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 October 1943, Page 3

ALLIED OFFICER

KILLED IN RECENT CLASH BETWEEN RIVAL GROUPS OF GREEK GUERILLAS NO SIGN OF RECONCILIATION SO FAR (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON. October 26. An Allied officer was killed during a recent clash between the two leading groups of Greek guerillas, who have opposing political aims, says Reuter’s Cairo correspondent. These partisan groups are at each other's throats, and General Maitland .Wilson was principally addressing them whep last Friday he called on the Greeks to cease their fratricidal fighting. One group is called the Edes and is commanded by Colonel Zervas, who has taken orders from General Maitland Wilson and operates in western Greece from the Albanian frontier to the Guff of Corinth. The other group, known as the Elas, under Colonel Saraphis, is active east of the Pindus Range and in western Macedonia and Thessaly, that is, eastern and northern Greece.

Both the Edes and Elas groups have the liberation of the Greeks as their paramount object, but the Elas also has a series of poliitical objectives which are proving a deterrent to an all-out effort. The authorities, from the latest reports, are convinced, first, that Colonel Zervas is resisting both the Germans and the Elas; secondly, that Elas guerillas shot an Allied liaison lieutenant.

The Edes group, under orders from General Maitland Wilson, offered the Elas peace terms and withdrew some of the Edes bands from the fighting, but so far there is no sign of a reconciliation with the Sias, who are repeating an that the Edes are collaborating with the enemy, though the Allied authorities retain confidence in Colonel Zervas.

The Cairo correspondent of “The Times” says that the political differences between the Greek guerilla leaders broke out soon after the return to Greece of a delegation of six guerilla leaders from the joint guerilla headquarters, who went to Cairo to consult the British military authorities and the Greek Government and received an unsatisfactory reply. The Greek political differences centre round the question of the time of the King’s return to Greece, and this delicate matter has been left completely unsettled. .The correspondent adds that guerilla leaders have assured him that feeling runs very high and lack of a favourable decision will assuredly lead to civil war.

It was reported in a 8.8. C. news bulletin last night that a New Zealand officer was killed in Greece as a result of a recent clash between two groups of guerillas.