The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1868-04-17
The Crefan QuestIon.


ular topic Of town talk this week Will
be the Cretan question. w hat Is It,
and why should we take any interest
IN it2 1t is the latest phase of Amer
icanism in Europe; it is the IncIpIcnt
stage of the fnal struggle between
Moslem domination and the religion
Of our Lord. 1t is subject, there
fore, eminently proper for our sympa-
thetic consideration on tins Easter
week.
Crete, in itself, has no special at
fractions for the American student.
Tt has an old ehequered history, to be
sure. but neither more ancient nor
more varied than that Of every other
foot Of land In Eastern Europe. 1t
is only as a battlefield between the
Asiatic and the American political
systems. between the MOhammedan
and the Christian faiths, between
brutal conservatism ard enlightened
progress, between immemorial barba-
rism and modern civilization, that it
claims cur sympathy and our as
sistance. For nearly two years
the Greeks of this little island
off the Morea have CALAMITY cO8teud-
ed against the forces of the Turkish
Empire, led by the ablest Of the Mos.
lem generals. Army after army has
been sent against them; their fertile
plains have been laid waste; their
villages have been given to the torch,
and their olive trees cut down; but
with a valOr and persistency that
would have done honor to their an
cestors In the palmiesC days Of old
L.~-o Aror,A fhn Euhf
never yielding, never offering to COM
promise, but disdainfully rejecting
every proposition of peace that has
been rendered by the Turks. They
know too we'll that the Mohammedan
regards his plighted word as valueless
when it is given to the Intidels. They
remember Scio, which IN the long,
long struggle between the Greeks and
the Turks bears the same relation to
them that Fort Pillow does to our
civil war. Scio, in 1921. was a pros
porous and fertile island, with a pop
ulation of one and fifty thousand.
A battalion of Greeks landed and
captured the Turkish fortresses, upon
which the Moslem authorities let
loose an army Of twenty thousand
men, who put to the sword one hun
dred and nine thousand souls, sold
forty thousand women and children
into slavery and for horrible uses, and
left only nine hundred persons alive
on the island This gigantic crime
has been repeated in detail wherever
Greeks and Turks have fought-and
they have fought wherever the Mo-
hammedans have exercised d0mina-
ton over the Christian populations of
the old classic land on the isles OF
| Greece. 1t is idle to talk Of cOmprO-
mise between foes so IrrecOneilable.
| The religion of the Turk makes 1t
/ impossible for him to regard Chris
| tan as a being entitled to any rights
| whatever. 1t teaches him that he is
an outlaw, whom it is neither Grimm
al to kill nor expedient to endow
with civil rights. The Christian, IN
! the eyes of the Turk, Is only tolerated
/ as a beast of burden is tolerated-be-
/ cause lie can be taxed to support the
4 MOslem power; but with no higher
rights. Turks In independent Greece
have all the rights of native citizens ;
they are neither molested Ia their
property nor persons; but under
. Turkish domination the case Is en-
/ tirely reversed. The genius of the
two faiths is strikingly exhibited in
these facts.
Diplomacy alone has kept Crete
under the power of Turkey. The
Cretans won their independence as
bravely as the Greeks whose indie
/ pendence was recognized 10 1929
/ But they were mercilessly handed
over to Egypt by the great powers for
purely political reasons; aud ever
since, as before, they, have been sub
iected to the most intolerable oppres'
sions Again they have appealed t.
arms, and are likely now to gain then
independence. We are not asked to
help the fighting meu-they are con
fident Of their ability to achieve their
great object; we are asked only t
feed the furnishing women and child
rem who have fed In terror of Turk
ish outrage from Crete to the mair
land, and are now dependent on the
charity of Christendom. Their sac
plea has a double claim on every
Christian American; tor both a:
needy and helpless poor, and as The
families Of the soldiers Of the eros:
against the Crescent, they have 9
| right to expect that we shall hear aud
/ aid them. Boston never yet has hearc
such a plea with Indifference, and il
is not likely to do so in Easter week
Boston Journal