50 Years Ago Today
OPINION POLL: The Greek branch of Gallup Polls has issued the following results of a survey of views on an increase in crime: Of those polled, 8.13 percent replied that they had no opinion on the matter, 82.25 percent said they believed crime had increased; 9.62 percent were of the opposite opinion. The public believes the increase is mainly due to economic factors, the war, a lack of education, poor government, the occupation, the cinema, magazines and newspapers, a moral decline and the leniency of the courts, among other reasons. More women than men believe that there is now more crime, and attribute it more to a moral decline. CONVICTS: The Justice Ministry has issued statistics on the inmates in the country’s prisons. On October 1, there were a total of 19,797, both convicted felons and those remanded for trial. Of those, 10,996 had been convicted by military courts for crimes related to EAM-ELAS (the communist-led resistance during the occupation), 3,954 were common criminals, 924 were collaborators and 688 had been convicted by the permanent military courts. In addition, 2,076 of the total are facing death sentences, 57 for common crimes and 822 for EAM-ELAS crimes. Another 1,136 received the death sentence from the emergency military courts and 30 for collaborating with the enemy. The exchange of populations is, of course, a barbaric solution, but from the first moment it was obvious that the only alternative would be that of bloody ethnic cleansing. This was proved in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. The experiment which is currently under way in FYROM is trying to prove the contrary, but it is too early to tell.
