The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-03-26
Decided the Course of the Greek
Government.
PRINCE CONSTANTINE
Has Been Ordered to the Front
at Once
To Take Command of the Gree
ian Army.

Athens, March 26.-The news of the
dynamiting of the Malaxa block house
at o'clock last night, as the culmina-
ton of a day of fierce fighting and a
prolonged siege, has made a tremend-
Gus sensat ton here. 1t is regarded as
an event of far reaching Importance,
both in its effect upon the insurgents
themselves and upon the Greek mind at
this stage of the crisis. 1t confirms the
belief generally entertained here in Off
cial circles, as we'll as by the people at
large, that the Christians in Crete are
not in the least deferred by the block
ade and not in the least beguiled by the
appeals of the admiralS or the implied
arguments of the autonomy proclama-
ton.
Advices from Canea as to the details
of the days fighting show that the in
Surgents displayed the most desperate
valor and left the Turkish garrison of
the block house no choice but flight
Evacua ton by the Moslems was follow
ed Immediately by occupation by the
insurgents who were close upon the
block house in the face of a rain Of
shells from the Turkish warships in
Suda Bay was impossible. The COM
mander of the insurgents having resolv-
ed that as they could not keep it, Meth
er should the MOslems, blew the whole
structure into fragments, with success
siVe heavy charges of dynamite. At
o'clock the long fought for block house
was a mass of burning debris and the
flames lighting up the blockaded waters
of the bay.
Delyannis and the minister of war
drove rapidly together to the royal pal
ace, where they had an audience with
the king What happened there can
only be guessed at. but one thing is sig
nificant, King George and the cabinet
have given the consent they had with
held for the last four days to the formal
gazetting of Crown Prince Constantine
as commander-in-chief of the Greek
army in Thessaly. 1t is understood the
crown prince will not wait for the act
ual appearance of his commission in
print, but will start for the frontier to-
day departure of the crown prince
with the full approval of the king and
the cabinet to take supreme command
of the army, can have but one meaning.
The Greek government is determined
not to accept the terms offered by the
powers for a peaceful settlement of the
Cretan difficulties. His presence among
the troops is certain to have the most
exhilarating effect upon them and it is
notice to Turkey that If a conflict comes
the Greek troops will enter it under the
leadership of their own choice. The
step thus taken is momentous.
Contracts are being placed abroad for
blankets and cloth for uniforms, as well
as other equipments.
An agitation has begun for the return
of the cars donation for the benefit of
the Cretan refugees. More than this,
the people now demand that the clergy
shall cease to pray for the car. Thous-
ands of signatures are appended to a
protest by CretanS against the block
ade, which protest runs in part as fol-
lows: I'VE, Cretans, sojourning in
Greece, protest before God and man
against the unjust and inhuman death
which some of the great pOtentateS of
the earth seek to impose by famine up
on our fellow countrymen, whose only
crime is that they are seeking for free
dom. as those potentates themselves
have formerly done.