Redemption

After the Germans poured into Greece 42 months ago to speed up Italy's backstabbing, stalemated attack, it did not take them long. The Nazis overwhelmed the tired Greeks and Britain's courageous token army in less than a month. Then Greece was just another conquered country. Last week, except for a few stragglers, the Nazi conquerors had packed up and run. The British moved in on their heels, with the aid of Greek patriots reached the Yugoslav frontier in 38 days.

Beacon of the German exit was smoking, demolished Salonika (Thessalonike), chief port of Macedonia. It was through Salonika that the Germans had supplied the Aegean islands, through Salonika that they moved back out of the Mediterranean. The "coveted city" that "crouches on the edge of the hill and touches the sea with her feet" is a major Balkan port, served as an Allied base in World War I. Destroyed by a famous two-day fire in 1917, it was rebuilt as a modern city. Last week it was a shambles again; more than 50 ships had been sunk in its wide harbor, its docks and warehouses smashed by the retiring Germans.

Its resilient population (230,000), Greeks, Turks, Sephardic Jews, Bulgars, Serbs, Italians and Frenchmen, are old hands at war and disaster and occupations. Soon Salonika would be back in business, perhaps in time to aid the final attack on Germany, certainly in time to help Greece back on its feet.

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