September 27, 1954
YIAROS: (Commentary in Kathimerini): It has been said and written – even in this column – that the prison built on the island of Yiaros – a wonderful, modern building with all the requisite installations – is useless, as the island has no water supply. We hope that the justice minister, who has gone there to examine the issue, will see that on Yiaros – which measures 18 square kilometers (11 square miles) – there are two springs and two wells. Before the prison was built, it was the home of 4,000-5,000 goats and their herders, who are not, naturally, able to live without water. We also remind the minister that Yiaros was used by the Romans as a place of political exile and that in antiquity it was populated, as is clear from the ruins and coins found there. Moreover, once upon a time 11,000 communists lived there and there was a water shortage only during the major drought (although to a lesser degree than in Athens) and resolved by sending a water supply ship. It is only the communists who give Yiaros a bad name. They don’t like it, for the same reason they don’t like Makronisos, Aghios Evstratios, Anafi or Icaria. But the islands themselves are not to blame. Even if chains are made of gold, they are still chains.
