Hungriest Country

Britain last week broke its own Mediterranean blockade. Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton told the House of Commons that Britain and the U.S. together would send 8,000 tons of wheat to the hungriest country in the world, Greece.

Bread was priced at $15 a loaf in Athens last week and there was no bread. There were no potatoes, no figs, no raisins, no tomatoes. There was, in short, famine. The sight of wasted men & women faulting in the street was so common that no one thought anything of it.

In Athens and Peiraeus alone, between 1,700 and 2,000 men, women & children are dying each day. Not all starve to death. Cholera, typhus, typhoid and dysentery run like a licking brush fire through the weakened population. In mountain settlements and island villages people live a little better. They can find roots, herbs and mussels to eat.

Ghouls and Beggars. Hunger has fostered a new profession. When the Athens powerhouse shuts down at nightfall to save fuel, grave robbers prowl the dark cemeteries, stripping the dead of the clothes they no longer need. It has been a bitter winter in Greece, and there is no fuel. Some of the lucky ghouls find rings and necklaces on the corpses. With jewelry they can sometimes buy a mouthful of bread from Italian soldiers.

With hunger the Axis has managed to accomplish what it could do with no other weapon--to break the stubborn spirit of the Greek people. Hate no longer snaps from the eyes of famished Greeks; there is no room for hate in lives that are one long, hopeless search for food. The Greek Government has begged for food from the Turks. Said a Greek official: "We are not asking for food that Turks would eat, but for food they refuse to eat."

The best supply line that the Greeks have had in the last months has been a little Turkish steamer, the Kurtulus, which sailed weekly from Istanbul to Peiraeus with wheat, corn, vegetables, dried fruits and a few medicines. A fortnight ago the Kurtulus struck a reef just off the Turkish coast and sank.

Design for Famine. It was not the British blockade that caused the Greek famine. The Nazi Army of Occupation last year worked like a pack of driver ants and left the country bone-clean. More than half of Greece's wheat (which had to be supplemented by imports in normal times) was "sold" to Germany. Greek tomatoes, even green ones, were hurried to scurvy-ridden German troops in Africa. Livestock, dried vegetables and fruits went the same way. The Germans fried Greek potatoes in Greek fat and shipped them, cooked, back to Germany. The Nazi Army of Occupation, during the two months it was in command, bought up all stocks of clothes with bundles of their worthless "occupation marks." By report, the only relief the Axis has given to Greece has been 10,000 tons of grain which Italy sent from her own slim stores--secretly so that underfed Italians should not protest.

The shipment of 8,000 tons of grain which the Allies plan to send to their stricken ally is just a token. In Greece, as elsewhere in Occupied Europe, no one can be sure that relief supplies will not be grabbed by the Axis. Explained Mr. Dalton bitterly: "There is no guarantee, nor would we pay any attention to one given by the Germans. We are in this case running a risk in view of the appalling conditions caused by the Germans in Greece."

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