The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-03-06
Europe's Risky Situation.


"If the Greek troops were to be with
drawn from Crete there would be the
greatest massacre of modern times.
This is the language credited in pub
lished dispatch to the King of Greece.
1t is a prediction clearly within the
limits of truth The Mohammedan ia
natics have been led to believe by the
action of the powers that their course
meets with Europe's approval, and 1t
would be simply an impossibility for
them to be held in check if they were
to gain the impression that the Chris
tians in Crete We're no longer protected
by Greek soldiers.
1t Is announced that the Greek cabi-
net has considered the joint demand of
the six nations for the evacuation or
Crete and has decided, come what may,
to ignore it, This action was foreshad-
owed when King George on Thursday
said to James Creelman, the American
intervewer:
"The great powers say that they want
peace: but Is every nation to nave peace
| but Greece? We, too, want peace; ana
| the powers have refused to act except
when they fired a few days ago on the
| Christian flag. Think of the situation
| Every year we have thousands OF men,
| women and children flying to our shores
and begging us, with tears in their eyes,
| to save them from starvation and protect
| their helpless relatives in Crete from mu-
! tiation and death. What civilized nation
| would continue year after year to turn
| a deaf ear to these prayers, and to tax
| its people to support mutitudes of inno-
| cent suffering refugees? Greece has
| something like 10000 subjects in Crete,
| and the great powers say that she has no
| right to land troops to protect them, al
| though six nations, which have only a
| handful of subjects on the island have
| landed their forces. The powers are not
cXerting themselves on behalf of justice,
humanity or Christianity. Their sole
| object is to prove that when they have
| given an order, regardless of its merits,
| it must be Obcyed ! cannot fore
tell the future, but the great powers have
| delivered their message to Greece, ana
we shall see what the result is to be.
The powers have taken upon themselves
a great responsibility. They have delib-
erately offered encouragement to the eN-
cited Turks"
The six days of grace allotted tC
Greece by the powers in their Joint in
junction expire on Wednesday next
What measures will be taken by those
nations to enforce their demand? vii
public opinion tolerate a tremendou.
demonstration of force on the part o.
the Christian powers to uphold the
blood-reelling hands of MOhammedar
despot, whose nhuman treatment o
his Christian subjects in Armenia ha!
wrought Europe to a fever of wratl
i1l rllh mir in1
permit the vast armaments of the pow
ers to be employed in the interest o
the Turkish OppressOr, when not a fin
ger was lifted on behalf of his Chris
tian victims? In the name of civiliza
tion and humanity, shall the wronget
receive nothing but lip sympathy, AM
shall brute force be eXerted on the sid
of the wrOng-doer only?
These, in the expressive language o
the Sun are questions of weighty i'm
port The Sun is of the belief tina
= with the first shot fired at a Gree
= war vessel dispatched upon an erran
t of mercy, with the first assault upo
: the Greek eXpeditionary force engage
/ in work of rescue, with the first gath
ering of blockading squadron off tn
historical port of the Piraeus, with tn
first appearance of a Turkish army i
, the plains of Thessaly, the so-calle
concert Of the powers would be shivere
{ like a rope of glass" We trust tina
its surmise is correct. There can Gel
a tainly be among Americans only on
opinion on this Observation-Disclosures G
n sympathy with plucky, upright Greco