New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-01-21
HELP FOR THE CRETAN PATRIOTS


We print to-day the proceedings of meet
ing Of citizens held at the Chamber Of Com
merce OH Saturday, at which Mayor Hoffman
presided, to consider the method OF helping the
wives and children of the rcvolutiOnists OF
Crete. DR.. S. G.. Howe of Boston, who long
resided in Greece, and to whom the successful
issue of the revolution in 1920 is considerably due
fully explained the nature of the Cretan lnsur-
rection. and the reasons why it should be as
sisted by Americans. Resolutions were adopted
appointing an Executive Committee to collect
funds, food, and clothing, and forward them to
Crete. and measures taken to hold n public
meeting at Cooper Institute this or next week.
New-Yorll could not do less than this, and in
all the great cities the American idea, repub-
lican precedents national sympathies, require
that meetings should be held to make the move
mcnt in aid u the Greeks worthy OF their cause
and our own Our gift should be equal not only
to their needs but to our resources. Christians
oppeal TO Christians against Mohammedans; in
tellect to intellect against brute force; dcmoc-
acy to democracy against tyranny, and Greece,
the land where tho earliest republics were
formed, two thousand years ago and more, APP
meals 10 America, the latest republic and the
greatest. Crete, now Ovenun with Egyptian
mercenaries, is msubdued, though waging war
against terrible odds. But the spirit OF Leonldas
and the three hundred Spartans at Themopy-
Lac is revived in this struggle with barbarian
Turkey. Whoever has been stirred by the
elories OF Platca and Marathon must read
with awakened sympathics the story OF this
rebellion, for this is the same battle that was
then fought, and the enemy is equally the
enemy of liberty, whether it be called Persia
or Turkey. 1t is the war OF civilization
against barbaIism. 1t is not merely the
wonderful past of Greece that should
make Americans her friends; true, the splcndor
of Athens and the integrity of Sparta have de-
clmed, but the spirit of the people has not been
subducd by centuries of slavery, and the Greeks
of 1867 are, in their love of freedom, still the
Greeks of the days of Periclcs. Say what we
may of Crctan vices the grand fact that they
have rebellcd remains, and n people who night
as they do for Liberty arc by every tie the
allies of patriots in all countries. The future
of Greece appeals to us as eloquently as her
past.
DIR Howe declares that the aid America gave
TO Greece in 1928 did more than any one other
thing 10 encourage her soldiers and obtain her
victory. To-day we print telegram from
Athens stating that the Cretans have won
victory over 5000 Turks Such facts indicate
the complete redemption of Greece from bar
barrie rule, and we may hasten the result by
promptly answering the call of the women
and children who are now starving on Mount
Ida. At the meeting at Cooper Institute we
trust our citizens will nobly prove that their
love of liberty, their faith in democracy, are
not limited by national boundaries, but that
they fully know that freedom in Greece and in
the United States is the same, and cannot be
crushed in the enc without feeling the blow in
the other