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passed wâås a hide-out for a guerilla band. Of late,
there had been no bloody clashes, but not long ago
the members of the band used to raid the valleys.
The Bishop of Patras welcomed us in the old
monastery of the town and after proceeding to the
projected site of the children’s home, he blessed
the ground in a religious ceremony. I laid the
cornerstone for the building and gave a short speech
in French which was translated into Greek.
During lunch in the dining room of the monastery the
discussion turned to present day political conditions.
I was told that at that time there were half a
million refugees in the south of Greece, people who
had left their homes to escape the guerilla bands.
These bands operate with great rapidity all over
northern and central Greece and on the
Peloponnese. The tactics of the government troops are to
try to surround and disarm one band after another,
but it is not so easy to catch them. When they see
their position is untenable, they hide their arms,
come down from the mountains, and mix with the
population of the villages until the government
troops have left the region.
After my return to Athens, the Assistant
Minister for Foreign Affairs told me that the guerilla
troops had at their disposal more than twenty-five
to thirty thousand men spread over various groups.
The head of them all is Markos, but it is a known
fact that he has no military knowledge or
experience, The real leader is supposed to be a
professional military man of another nationality. The
situation will become really critical when the
government troops have driven the rebels back to the
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