ee Carrying

“ang

Even Nazis didn’t use it

‘Island of death’ faces

20,000 Greek patriots

By THEODORE DOGANIS
LONDON
Unless world public opinion
acts swiftly and resolutely, over
20,000 Greek patriots will soon
-be buried alive.

At this moment they are still
in fascist jails all over Greece.
The plan is to transfer them all
to Youra, the island of death.

The world at large has already
heard of the Makronisos horror
camp—-which the present Greek
Premier Plastiras a year ago call-
ed a stigma on Greece’s civiliza-
_ tion.

But very few people abroad
have ever heard of Youra. Now

Youra has surpassed Makronisos }

in horror.

You would not find this barren,
Snake and scorpion-ridden island
‘On an ordinary map of Greece. It
is just a black rock swept day and
night by fierce winds. It has so
Water, no vegetation except
thorny bushes. No humans have
‘ver been able to live on it,

Tacitus records that when it
Was suggested to the Roman Em-
Peror Tiberius that he deport his
Political opponents to Youra, he
Teplied: ‘No. When we spare the
life of a man we must leave him
the means of keeping alive.”

Even the Nazis, when they
Sccupied Greece, did not use
Youra as a place of torture and
extermination. The “honor’’ of
having selected it for such a
Purpose goes entirely to the
present American - supported
fascist regime of Greece.

Five years ago the Athens
4uthorities started sending poli-
tical prisoners to Youra. Al-
together some 18,000 have been
Sent there in the last five years.

Thousands of them have either
died or have become mental and
Physical wrecks as a result of
torture, starvation and illness,

Some who managed to survive
SmMuggled out of Greece a diary of
their ordeals. It contains this de-
Scription of the torture of stone-
inflicted on the de-
tainees:

“During the day long lines of
men, carrying enormous stones,
*re forced to circle round and

half-dead from exhaustion.

“Other
hashish,

guards,

they are ordered to throw them
into the sea, The guards shout:
‘Scoundrels!
throwing stones into the water
until you can walk from her to

away).”

At this moment new prisons
are hastily being built- with
American ‘‘aid’ to house an-
other 20,000 political prisoners.

oners, now threatened with trans-
fer to Youra, appealed to the civ-
ilized world. In a letter smuggled
out of the prisons, they write:

“The new Youra prisons are
built only ten metres away from
the sea. They are already cov-
ered with mould and stink like
sewers. If you scratch the walls,
salt comes off on your hands.

“The foundations are built on
sand and pebbles, so that they
have already sunk down by 2%
metres. The building materials
are so poor that in January 1952
an entire .wall, 15 feet high,
crashed down. ...

“In winter, the cells are icy
cold. In summer, they are like
ovens. The prisons are surround-
ed by huge walls so that neither
sun nor air can enter them.”

, It is in this camp that the
Athens government intends to
bury ‘20,000 imprisoned Greek
patriots,

Among those thus threatened
are heroes like Manolis Glezos,
who pulled down the swastika
from the Acropolis in 1941, and
the gallant trade union leader
Tony Ambatielos.

This crime can still be pre-
vented if world public opinion
moves immediately to demand
the abolition of Youra and all
other concentration camps in
Greece and an amnesty for all
Greek political prisoners.

round aimlessly for hours on end,
without respite, beaten savagely
by their guards until they drop

drugged with
are furiously beating
with’ clubs and sticks prisoners
who are excavating stones from
the top of the rock, transporting
them down to the beach, where

You will go on

Syra’’ (the next island, 30 miles

A few days ago political pris-

ee ee | |

Farouk « poor man’

now

the ex-king.

Ex-King Farouk of Egypt, exiled by General Neguib follow-
ing a military coup, says he is no longer a rich man, although
his style of living at Capri, Italy, shows little sign of poverty.
(Above, Farouk and one of>his three daughters are shown at
the swimming pool of his Capri luxury hotel.)
new Egyptian government will soon issue a “‘black book’ on the
Farouk regime listing “misdeeds and scandals” associated with

Meanwhile, the

Malanazis
new race
resistance

Quakers’ world conference issues

appeal for end to war in Korea

OXFORD
An appéal for peace in Korea
Was cabled across the five conti-
Rents last week from the Society
of Friends’ World. Conference, at
“© conclusion of its nine-day ses-
Slons at Oxford.
The statement, unanimously
“Ndorsed by the 900 delegates
ho represented some 180,000
akers throughout the world,
Was sent to the British, Ameri-
an, Soviet and Chinese foreign
Mnistries,
a Was cabled also to the secre-
ay “Seneral of the United Na-
’ we to Indian Prime Minister
a aharlal Nehru, to the princi-
Regotiators at Panmunjom and
the prime ministers of North
South Korea,
The Quakers’ appeal says: “The
Mtinuing tragedy of the war in
as rested heavily upon-us.
our earnest hope that all

to

Korea h
“Tt is

those in positions of political
authority will make renewed and
constructive efforts to achieve

peace,

“In particular, we hope that the
willingness of the government of
India to use their good offices in
the cause of peace may be follow-
ed up actively.

“Tt is our desire that all ‘Friends
everywhere should unite in prayer
for those in authority that they
may be led into the path of peace.”

In another unanimous state-
ment addressed to ‘‘Peoples Ev-
erywhere’”’ the Quakers attack
war and war preparations. They
declare:

‘War leads to a vicious circle
of hatred, oppression, subver-
sive movements, false propa-
-ganda, rearmament, and new
wars. An armaments race can-
not bring peace, freedom or

security,

“We call upon peoples every-
where to break this vicious circle,
to behave as nations with the
same decency as they would be-
thave as men and brothers, to sub-
stitute the institutions of peace
for the institutions of war.

“Let us join together through-
out the world to grow more food,
to heal and prevent disease, to
conserve and develop the re-
sources of the good earth to the
glory of God and the comfort of
man’s distress.”’

Working for peace “‘in the poli-
tical sphere or in the fields of
economic or racial conflict’’ is one
of the responsibilities laid down
“for all Friends and listed in a
message to them from the world

gathering at Oxford.

threaten
laws as
spreads

CAPE TOWN

A threat to introduce further laws against non-Europeans was
made last week by South African Justice Minister Charles Swart.

Speaking at Ventersburg, on the fringe of the Orange Free
State’s goldfields, he particularly attackéd the African National
‘Congress and the South Africa Indian Congress, which are organiz-

ing the civil disobedience cam-
paign.

“T give you the assurance,” he
added, ‘‘we shall take action even
if new legislation must be intro-
duced.’”’

Police, using batons, attacked
non-Kuropeans who gathered near
the court at Port Elizabeth while
a group of non-Europeans was
being tried for taking part in the
“defiance of unjust laws” ‘cam-
paign.

Several people were
about the face and head.

A charge of holding a public
meeting in a scheduled area with-
out permission: against seven non-
Europeans was formally with-
drawn at the magistrate’s court
in Vereeniging, 30 miles from Jo-
hannesburg.

The seven, who included Yusuf
A. Cachalia, secretary of the South
African Indian Congress, and S.
Selle, secretary of the African
National Congress of the Trans-
vaal, had previously been re-
manded three times.

Cachalia later disclosed that
1,635 non-Europeans had been
arrested so far in the campaign
against Malan’s racial laws.

injured

Learn from
Nazis, says
general

By SAM RUSSELL

LONDON
A statement by General Sir
John Harding that the Western
countries can best learn to fight
the Russians: from their new al-
lies, the Germans, has brought
home to the British people the
full implications of the Bonn
agreements to rearm West Germ-

any. .

As General Harding, now com-
mander-in-chief. of the British
Army of the Rhine, is to take over
the post of chief of the Imperial
General Staff at the end of the
year, the statement is considered
almost as a statement of policy,

In his address to the Foreign
Press Association in Bonn last
week, General Harding openly dis-
cussed the prospects of working
with a revived German army,

“TI think,” he said, “that Germ-
an military thinking wil] contri-
bute tremendously to Western de-
fense.

“After all, the Germans were
the ones who fought the Russians
in their own country in the last
war.”

When a reporter remarked
that the Germans “were licked”
in Russia, Géneral Harding
smilingly replied: “It’s never
too late to learn the hard way,
is it?”

He went on to say that he had
told British troops that -they
should have a “fair and friendy”
approach to the Germans.

Many Labor MP’s believe that
this statement shows that there
must have been already much
more discussion between British
brasshats and the opposite num-
bers among Hitler’s former gen-
erals, than has béen disclosed to
the British public,

“Every British exserviceman
and woman will be outraged by
this statement which shows that
‘Britain’s brasshats are openly
planning a war against the Soviet
Union with the help of Hitler’s
former generals.’’ said Charles
West, secretary of the Ex-Service
Movement for Peace.

“We did not fight a war for
Six years against Hitler and
everything he stood for, to en-
able a British general, evén if
he is going to be chief of the
Imperial General Staff, to
praise ‘German military think-
ing’ which brought such havoc
to the world.

“General Harding may rub his
hands at the prospect of a joint
campaign with his German friends
against the Soviet Union, but that
prospect will be vigorously repu-
diated by every decent exservice-
man and woman.

“The men and women: now have
the duty, to themselves and their
children, to make it clear to Gen-
eral Harding and his friends that
if he. and Hitler’s generals ever
embark on such a war, they will »
do so without the exservicemen
and women of Britain.”

General Harding was once be-
fore reprimanded in the House
of Commons for anti-Soviet re-
marks. :

These were made during an
address to Territorial Army of-
ficers in December 1948, when he
said that the Soviet Union was
planning to ‘“‘get the world into
the Communist system.”

Emanuel Shinwell; who was
then war minister, Said that he
did not approve of the remarks
and that senior officers were not
expected to make them.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — AUGUST 15, 1952 — PAGE 3