◆ SpookStack

2 Many weeks went by but Premier Hoxha made no reply. Thus, when winter set:in, and NCFA's emissaries reported that people in many regions of Albania were reduced to the eating of plant roots and tree bark, the Committee undertook the wholesale distrillution of foodstuffs. Ingenious methods (which NCFA spokesmen refuse to di- vilge in the fear that their aid will be cut-off) were developed and it is a well-known fact throughout the Balkans that countless thousands of Albanians who might otherwise have starved have been the recipients of scarce foodstuffs. Conversely, Premier Hoxha and his cohorts have been driven out of their wits in an effort to combat the growing sentiment for the NCFA which this humanitarian activity has caused. At first, Hoxha's government spread the word that the foodstuffs being distributed were really sent for the support of hostile armies which were soon to invade the homeland. When this measure failed to halt the spread of enthusiasm (and the voluntary relinquishment of foodstuffs by recipients to the security police) the Puppet Government started a campaign to convince the populace that the Free West was distributing foodstuffs in Korea which were laden with germs for the purpose of spreading an epidemic throughout the land. This is obviously an attempt to implant fear in the minds of the Albanian people that the foodstuffs being distributed in Albania by NCFA are also germ laden. It is also apparent that this lie is being propagated in this manner in order to avoid the open admission that the Hoxha Regime is worried by the extent of this NCFA activity and its widespread effects in gaining sentiment for the Free West. FOr some days now Radio Tirana has been building-up this campaign. The current etories of germ warfare which their Moscow masters are spreading are a clever means of substantiating these claims. There is little doubt in the minds of BCFA leaders that this isAall part of a scheme developed in Moscow. The material aid program launched by NCFA last fall has been widely duplicated by other exile groups. Naturally, the Iron Curtain Puppet Governments and Moscow know that these exile groups operate from bases in the Free West; thus, they really blame the Free West as the supporters of these groups. 40'