The Portland daily press., 1897-03-01
The PEACE OF EUROPE.
Kaiser Williams Desire to Preserve
Same.
MOTIVE FOR POLICY RELATIVE
TO TROUBLES IN CRETE.

TO TROUBLES IN CRETE.
Has Information Tending to Show That
King George Could Not Successfully
Cope Against Porte-Family Affairs
Could Not Have Influenced Him.
Berlin, February 27.-Whatever may be
thought and said outside Of Germany as
| to the Kaiser's line Of action on the
If not the unanimous opinion In der
many IL that 1t has been consistent with
his whole eastern policy and inspired by
desire TO maintain the European peace.
The home papers which insinuate, ana
foreign papers. which openly affirm that
family affairs have been an element In
influencing the Kaiser, choose to ignore
facts which ought by this time to be
open to the world. There Is NO fsud or Ill
will now existing between the Kaiser
and his sister, the Duchess Of Sparta.
wife of the Greek heir apparent. The
disfavor with which he treated her con-
version from the Lutheran to the Greek
church Is matter of past history. The
Empress his mother was the medium of
the earlysreoonoilation and harmony and
affection between the Kaiser and his
favorite sister have long since been re-
/ stored.
That the Kaiser sought, first of all, the
support of Russia for his proposal to
| blockade the Piraeus, should dispose Of
the report that family considerations
| weighed largely W ith the Czar.
The actual truth is that SO far as the
Kaiser has taken any lead upon the
Cretan difficulty. his aim has been to
prevent, or postpone the breakup on
Turkey and stop Greece from entering
apon 4 war which, unless accompanied
by general condagration in the Balkan
peninsula, might involve the devastation
Of Greece and the overthrow Of King
George.
The Kaiser has been in consultation
with German officers who have served in
the reorganization Of the Turkish army
and obtained during the present crisis
reports from the German staff still con-
rected with the Sultan's forces. Their
reports concur in stating that the position
of Greece. if assailed by land. is abso-
lutely hopeless. The Turks are immeas-
ureably better prepared for immediate
campaign on the Thessalian frontier.
The. Porte seems to have anticipated a
possible outbreak of war with Greece
and got ready for 1t.
Early in the current month the Porte
had 20. 600 troops around the base OF
| Olympus and was prepared to direct that
force In two columns from the Olympus
and sElassano districts up on Larissa.
This army has been reinforced to 5000
men. Againststhem the Greeks have but
q feeble force between Larissa and
Pharsalia, and only began when the war
storm seemed gathered to throw up some
works around Larissa, which ha1 long
been projected, but persiste.,tly neglected
These Turkish frontier troops are we'll
supplied with artillery, and infantry are
armed with the Peabody Martini rifles
They are we'll led and altogether are in
good trim. According to the opinion OF
the German officers who are bsst able to
| calculate the course of the campaign. the
| Turkish force By itself would suffice to
overrun the Greek mainland.
OF course, prolonged war, in which
the Powers would stand aloof and let
| Turkey once more conquer Greece, is not
to be thought of. The total war strength
of Greece would count for something
only II Turkey had simultaneously to
suppress an insufrection iii Macedonia
and meet in the field the combined forces
of Servia, Bulgaria and Montenegro.
Even then, if none Of the great Powers
intervened the military opinion here
quoted believes the Turks would hold
their own.
The defenoelesss condition of Greece
and the awful conseq uences of unchang-
ing the tremendous forces of war and
rapine in European Turkey were I'M
doubtedly the weightiest conditions with
the Kaiser.
| The creation of autonomous Crete I'M
der Greek prince with the Sultan as
suzerain, or with Prince Mavrocoocor-
datos as governor, has had backing from
German diplomacy. 1t ought, to be
frankly stated that the union OF the
island to Greece has not the entire ap-
proval of Germany. 1t is feared and be-
lieved, that Crete under Greek rule
would continue to be a seat OF chronic
insurrectlon and disorder. The foreign
office received telegram last evening
from Lord Salisbury, conveying the pur-
port of the ultimatum to Greece proposed
by the Powers and will be presented by
them Jointly to the Hellenic government.
The text of the note shows that the pro-
posals made by Russia to proceed at once
upon the application of rigid coercive
measures against Greece lave been modi-