Orders of the Day — Greece (Situation)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 16 April 1948.

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Photo of Sir Toby Low Sir Toby Low , Blackpool North 12:00, 16 April 1948

I shall not weary the House with the full account of the distress in Greece now; of the suffering; of the abduction of children—the stories of which have horrified hon. Members in all quarters of the House; of the numbers of children who, because of this threatened abduction, have had to be evacuated from their homes in Northern Greece to the safety which they seek in Southern Greece; of the plunder, the pillage and the murder which goes on, day in and day out, in one village after another. We know too of the economic crisis and of the inflation which threaten that small country, despite the generous United States aid which has been offered, and is still being offered.

All this is dominated by one thing: the action of the rebelsx2014;the guerillas. Of that at least there can now be little doubt. For long there has been discussion in this House, due to a very large extent to false information in the first instance about what was happening in Greece. The facts are now clear. We know, too, as has been recently acknowledged by the Government, that these rebels, who are responsible for the distress and suffering in Greece, are given direct help by Greece's northern neighbours— Yugoslavia, Albania and Bulgaria. Only recently there has been in "The Times" a report to the effect that the Special Balkans Commission have again reported that they have evidence of help of one kind and another from those three countries.