"Just Thugs"

In Athens last week, a group of British soldiers who had been captured in the recent fighting told of their experiences as ELAS prisoners.

They were marched for miles in company with Greek civilian hostages, head ing north in straggling columns over snow-covered roads. Some civilians, who dropped of exhaustion, were left to die.

All the British soldiers had been harshly treated. From many of them the ill-clad ELAS men took uniforms and boots.

Said one Tommy: "In snow and slush we marched 17 miles, then they quartered us in one room 14 by 20 feet --50 of us. . . . We asked for food and water, but were given nothing. . . . After a night of misery we marched on next morning, some of us singing hymns. . . .

When this thing began we almost felt the way people at home felt -- that we were interfering. . . . But after what we have seen of ELAS and its treatment of people who are opposed to them politically, it's different. I am a socialist myself. These people are just a gang of thugs."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.