The record-union., 1897-05-18
MOSLEM CLAIM TO THESSALY.

The demands of the Porte as terms
of peace with Greece have now been
advanced to a financial aggregate of
$40, COO, 900, payable in specified INSTALL
ments, as war indemnity, and the COM
plete cession of the State of Thessaly
to Turkey. The former demand for
possession of the Grecian fleet appears
to have been abandoned. The demand
for delivery of Thessaly TO the tender
1nercies of the Porte is fortified by
the claim that it was once a Turkish
province and was ceded TO Greece upon
terms which have not been observed
or carried out on the part Of the Hell
lenic Government.
While it may be that $4,000 600 is
not in excess of the cost of the war on
the part OF Turkey to this date, that
payment would, if acceded to, cripple
Greece financially so that She would not
recover her credit for the next twenty
years. 1t is therefore in excess of just
demand as indemnity and would tend
Turk more than it would replenish his
treasury. It is, however, probable that
the Powers Will stand behind the Porte
in this matter, STIMULATING only for such
easy installment payments as will give
Greece least discomfort. It is not like
" that the additional demand of the
Sultan, that he be given charge Of the
revenues of Greece until the payments
are made. will be granted. That would
mean a domination that would be in
tolerable. and would paralyze the bust
ness and industries Of the conquered
nation.
Concerning the claim laid to Thes-
sally, the history of that matter does
not justify it. The territory was the
largest of the political divisions of an
Gent Greece. 1t was Grecian before
the Moslem crossed the gut of water
between Europe and Asia, and by con-
quest made himself possessor Of that
to which he had no natural right It
was and IS the most fertile region of
Greece. and the most largely productive
State OF the kingdom. Originally. after
the expulsion of the AeOlians, it was
divided into four districts-Thessalio
Hestiaeotis. PelasgiOtis and Phthiotis.
These divisions continued down to a
comparatively recent time. The Thes-
salonians originally came from Thes-
protia in Epirus, who conquered the
Pelasgian inhabitants of the plains Of
Peneus. Three classes occupied the land
and flourished in it: the first a group of
aristocrauc Greek families of renOwn;
the second tribesmen of three orders
who retained their tribal order but
We're subjects of Greece, and in fact
Grecian: and the third the serfs or
cultivators of the soil, but who could
not be sold out of the land or severed
from it, possessing certain rights that
not even the privileged classes could
trespass upon.
From the earliest time Greek was the
tongue of Thessaly. The State main
tanned a sort of independence, but was
all the while a Grecian unit. until
Iycophron rose and reduced Thessaly
to his tyrannical rule, and whose sue
cessors from Jason grew so powerful
as to threaten Greece itself and contem-
plate the conquest OF Persia. Later the
country fell 10 Philip of Macedon. and
was a part of the Macedonian kingdom
until Rome conquered the world" and
put Greece (B. c. 147) under subsection
as a tribute payer. It fell to the Vene-
tians, A. D. 1904, but how Turkey be-
came its possessor next, and how she
lost it, IS too well known to be recited
here.
Thessaly was Grecian from the time
of the earliest civilization in it worthy
of recognition by cultured nations. 1t
has never ceased to be Greeian by at
tachment and sentiment Even when
under conquest its people remained
Grecian in thought and desire. How
ever viewed, its history gives no war
rant whatever for the claim of Turkey
to it. If 1t is handed over to the Sultan