The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-05-07 00:00:00

THE MURDERS IN GREECE.

in connection with these recent murders, the following ex-
tract from a letter of The Tintes correspondent at Athens wilt
be read with interest. When the letter was penned the
a rite, had the fullest confidence that our countrymen would
be set at liberty :
Experience has made Englishmen acquainted with
two prominent features f the modern Greeks—their
capacity for commerce and for brigandage. As these
two things are irreconcilably hostile, it is certain that
commerce would soon extirpate brigandage if it could
obtain a fair field. Tha commercial :dames are now
cut off by the want of road+ from an accurate acqxain-
tance with the extent to which brigandage has afflicted
the agricultural population ever since the incursions
into Epirus and Thessaly instigated by King
Otho's Government in 1053. Things, however, never
were so bad as during the last year. The klepths
and the armed bands who returned from Crete,
and who have since been living lawlessly at
the expense of the agricultural population have
amounted to 500 men. We have seen a moderate
calculation showing that the peasants of the districts
infeste 1 by tae bri sands must have contributed 250.000
drachmas to their supp since the mouth of Feb-
ruary last year, this is excluaive of the some the
brigands have collected by ransoming individuals
which probal ly exceeds a million. In addit:on to this
if one-half of what is said concerning the exec.:ions of
the troops sent ti pursue the brigands be true, their
exactions have exceeded the contributions levied by
the brigands in bread and provisions.. At least 500,000
drachmas appear to have been extorted daring the last
fourteen menthe from about 10000 families of hard-
working peasants. Tom loss has falLn heaviest on the
outlying villages in the mountainous dietricti., and
explains why the traveller in going from Athens in
every direction finds fertile and beautiful valleys in the
mountains with perennial fountains even under the
summer sun of Greece desolate and visited only by
goats and brigands.
The existence of brigandage as a social evil, growing
in strength, is closely connecte.l with the land ques-
tion, and there is no prospect of its extirpation until
the peasant finds his relation with the Government
changed, and feels that he is sole master of his crops
and his labour. Toe importance of the subject is be-
coming greater from year to year. In 1855 the King's
Speech noticed brigand age as claiming the earnest
attention of the Government, and on the 17th of June
last year his Majesty opened the parliamentary session
with a speech from the throne, in which he declared
that brigandage was carried on with such audacity
and violence as to call for new and more stringent
leirialative measures for Ms suppression. The Ministry
of Mr. Zainme did not carry these measures, but
it remained in office, and brigandage continued its
course of audacity and violence. The Hellenic
Kingdom, with an army of 13,865 men cannot
render the vicinity of Athens, Livadea, Miesolonghi,
and Lepanto safe from the brigands. The military
forces of Greece must, therefore, be reformed, weeded,
and reorganised in order to give them a capacity for
acting efficiently against the brigands or 1875 may
witness a repetition of the events of 1870, as 1870 has
repeated on a greater scale the evils of 1865. It is im-
possible to think what good government might have
made the Hellenic Kingdom, and to look at the con-
dition to which it has been brought by maladministra-
tion and the neglect of their duty by Greek Ministers
without feeling sorrow. Byzantine hopes are fading
like a morning dream, and Hellas is like Niobe, at name
haw andar hosti.

were

The following letter from Mr. Lloyd, to a friend in
London, possesaes a melancholy interest :
" urieands' Hot. near Oropus, April 19, 1870.
"Deer B--You will see by date of this that I mu not
In a position to make any affidavits. You must under the
circumstances he able to get time. I can't tell when we
shall get out. But these gentry generally kill their prisoners
after three months. I hope that result will not be ours
" Perhaps you will be so cod as to prepare an affidavit for
vie, as I think you have all the facts, and as I hope to be in
Athens in the course of a nrmth it would be many for me to
swear.
" Under the very depressing circumstances of my captivity
you will not be surprised If! now say goodbye. With many
thanks to you for all your attention to my interests, Yours
very truly, " EDWD. LLOYD."

"W. E. F." has sent the following for publics.
tion
• • • • "

..„ .
flaying been captured by brigands formerly In Greece,
permit me to offer a few words of commonsense prudence
to my travelling countrymen, who are too prone to think all
verde blackguards except their own ; and that a Briton may
at all times, aiel in all places, defy the world. One cannot
bring hack the dead, but one may save the living from death
and dishonour, and England from lamentable embrollments
tam not for one moment defending the Greek Govern
meet. Nothing on be mole dreadful than what has hap
pened, and the state of things in Greece is a disgrace to
ivhsed Europe. I think. however, that many, especially
ary men, will agree with me that a very little prudence
woidd have saved Mr. Herbert and his pull their lives. I
take the statement as officially written :—The party was told
there was no danger, yet they took four mounted police !
To any one who knows Greece and brigands they might as
well have taken four rocking-homes, for brigands always
plant themselves behind rocks or scrub, where no horse can
reach them. The commander at Marathon sent twenty-live
infantry (with officers must be presumed ,„ to guard the
party ou their return. Mr. Herbert's party not only per.
formed the un-military process of eutmarely ng their escort,
but placed its commander in a very false p rendering
it as the sequel shows, impossible for him to have done his
duty.
Now, will any man of common sense believe, when this
party on its return is offered, in addition to four mounted
men brought with them, a detachment of infantry number-
ing 25, and then say that there was no danger apprehended?
I simply ask, what does a mounted weird Mean, unless it is
to -.mixed you from some danger? and what doeathe addition of
a guard pix times the strength of the first mean, unless it he
inc,eased and more forfeit able &nig, known to those
on the ep,t, which might not he known at Athens Now. i
the party had not entmarched their esg rt, tho.e four gentle-
men would probably now be alive, for between combatants
and non-Conthatents the party numbered 35, and the fighting
Men one.third more than the brigands Brigands do ton
go in simply for hard knocks, with great risk, if emtured ;
and I to not believe, under the circumstauces, that they
would have attacked the party, as it is clear that the military
even the elhall patrol, did their duty well, and only ceased
fire when those they were sent to protect were in danger
from their fire, arid all hope of recapture, without great risk
of their friends lives, was at an end. Now, all that I venture
to sugoest is that wheu you take au escort let it be sufficient
and efillent and do not outmarith it; for in this instance the
escort might as well have been at Corinth as at Nifira•hon,
and if you do not take an efficient escort, go in such guise as
not to lay yourself open to cupidity or plunder. I have
traverse all Europe tied a large portion of \da and Africa.
My eaptore in Greece was as foll,ws :—I came from
&trout to Nap-ill di Romania ami was cros,ing to Corinth,
finally going up the 'Jell of Lepanto to Patrae to meet the
Corfu and Malta steamer. I had a muleteer, and had not
gone a league from Napoli when I noticed la the bushes at a
distance seine strange bright red spots. lat last caught the
, glint eta bright barrel, I knew then that it was all up, and
in a few minutes I was the uncomfortable centre of 17
, Albanians armed to the teeth, but even then I could not help
admiring their splendid get up They marched me across to
' the Acropolis at Cuinth and held a council under the shade at
that magnificent fortress. They called me Into the circle and
cross-examined me in lingua Franca. I stated that I was a
British officer returning to England with dispatches from the
Levant; they credited my statement, and as I was not good
eating, or in other words had nothing to plunder, they re-
leased me and I walked to the Bavarian guard-house in
Corinth, where my captors in the course of the evening had
to give up their arms. I attribute my escape under Provi.
dence to my exhibiting nothing worth plundering and putting
a good face upon it.

A letter from Athens in the Augsburg Gazette gives
the following particulars of the tragedy n -
" When the brigands found that the troops were approach
log them on all sides they de:ermined, on Thursday, the
21st April, at four in the afternoon, to escape across the
Asopus to the sea coast. in the intentnn of crossing over
into &aces. They dragged their prisoners, wet through and
exhausted by fatigue AO tick miss, to the stream swollen by
the recent heavy rains, and endeavoured to compel them to
swim across. Count Boy', who was eutfering from lung ills.
ease, refused. He waa laid hold of. and would have been
carried across, but the robbers perceived the gun boat
A phroroa off the coast, and a number of soldier, suddenly
appeared on the other side of the stream. They imme-
diately cut him down with their yatagans and tied, taking
with them the rest of the prisoners. The troops plunged
into the stream in a terrible rage, many of them were
c anted away by it, but the rest climbing the
shore, holy pursued tho brigands. They had not
got far before they came epon the bloody and still
quivering corpse. of Mr. Vyner and Mr. Herbert, killed by
the knives of the brigands. The shots fired drew other de-
tachments of s diners to the chase, and before nightfall nine
of the brigands were killed. One severely wounded, was
taken prisoner, and the interpreter had e-caped. Mr. Lloyd,
however, still alive, was in the hands of the brigands, who,
nine in number, with three wounded, had taken ref uge in
the thicket. A later telegram from Thome, the correspon-
dent rays, announces that the mutilated corpse of Mr. Lloyd
had been found in the thicket,