The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-05-23

simply one moving mass Of long-ieeced sheep
and lambs, from which there rises a loud
Of boiis, which iSSr is oreSestrSSi IN its erect.
It was partially this noise that caused tho
the neighborhood Of Pentepighadia were driving
their ioeks By night toward the Greek frontier:
Of which frightens the sheep together into com.
pact masses VERY few of the shepherds have
dogsl, and 1t was this fusillade which startled
the Greeks at Pcntepighadia into thinking that
the Turks were upon them. 1t is sad 70 have TO
relate that tho descendants OF the heroes Of
Thermopyln should have run away from a flock
OF sheep; but these are I'm de steele times
Tho Turks. and the Greeks also, for that mat
ter. are armed with all sorts Of modern firearms.
Infantry weapons have been so changed and i'm
proved since the last great war that the old
etorics Of how 1t seems to be under fire arc now
all out OF date. Tho mimic ball and its baneful
cry, so familiar In our civil war, plays no part in
this campaign. The sound made by the four or
Ave kinds of bullets used by tho Turks is thus
described by a Chronicle correspondent, who lay
behind n stone barrier which no had constructed
under n hot fro that continued all day In one Of
by the way, the voice OF a bullet is very va
rious. There is the thin. high whistle, to which
hour. fRSsre IS The prolonged moan. the cry OF
a lost spirit as q novelist might say. There is
tho wolrsh howl. which for some reason always
seems to be taking one on the flank instead OF
fairly in front; and last OF oil there Is tho low,
ill-tcmpered buzz, rs though the nasty thing had
got out OF bed the wrong side, as children say.
1t Is far the most terrifying. especially II 1t sud
denly stops as tho bullet strikes something close
at hand. II was to those bullets only that we
politely wished good morning."
The collapse of Greece and her evacuation of
Creto have apparently made no change in tho
situation in that unhappy island. rs far as the
attitude of its Christian population is concerned.
A correspondent of the Manchester Guardian,
,~ritf,p tp-od IA ys hafnra To1 Uasaoa u-a ro,a1taJ
gives this most interesting statement of the
problem there:
"Crete is still assumed to be q portion of tho
Turkish empire. Tho insurgents or the
Christian PATRIOTS as I should prefer to call
them, have, however. entire possession of the
island. with the exception Of the seaport
towns. into which they have driven the Mo-
hammednn population. There the latter remain
tected by the guns and troops Of the inter
national forces. If 1t had not been for the
Pssse e Of h.t these Sp,t Sso s ips@FsMSp os,M M0Tla most %ms
Of the island. Round Canea the Turkish outposts
are being gradually relieved by the international
measure it is difficult to, say. for as yet there is
no sign Of the Turkish forces being withdrawn
In Col. vassos's camp I had one or two short
conversations with some Cretan gentlemen of
sUose French %fiuentiy. Their views, Which NAV may
be OF interest, were expressed as follows:
1--WE have been struggling for centuries to
M~ohammcdan rule. and now we have come to
the conclusion that we can submit to no form Of
II. however specious may be the title II is given.
We know what autonomy under the suZerainty
of the Sultan means. 1t means that the Mo-
hammedans will remain the dominant class, and
that all the officials will be either Mohamme-
dams or else under Mohammedan influence; We
will have none OF it. The island is ours by in
heritance from our ancestors, and the admins
tration must be in our hands. The Turks began
these troubles. They thought to massacre us rs
tha, bad Naaan1rA fI, r,a q, Na. h"s ,rA a-a
not ArInenians. and II there is to be massacring
we are determined that it shall not all be on one
the Mohammedans. As long as they remain in
the island we shall fight them. We are the more
numerous and are well armed and they must
French, Italians. SC. We are. only fighting
against the Turks for the security OF our lives
daughters. Why. then. do these nations com
allies of the Turksf II 1t had not been for their
presence we should have driven every Moham-
medan in the island into the sea-.
1T must be understood that wherever Islam
ism has spread its conquests all converts to its
creed have. ipso fdcto. become Incorporated in
become completely severed from all ties with
their original stock. More than this. 1t is a no.
ants Of renegades are possessed With even a
greater fanatical hatred Of all 'intidels' than
those OF pure descent. In the
quered by the Turks; the term Turk has be,
come Synonymous with that OF Mohammedan
and thus all are among those
commonly described as Turks 'Greek' is APP
piled exclusively to Christians, and to talk of q
sMohamnedan Greek is as absurd as 1t would
be to talk OF Mohammedan HindoOs.'
The relative positions of tho Mohammedans
and Christians in Crete are. indeed, exactly on a
parallel with those OF tho M~ohammedans and
Hindoo5 in India. The Hindoos conquered by
the Mohammedan COMPRISE as many races as dc
has been said. no well informed person would
Greek ora .Mohammedan Bulgarian or a.Mo,
hammedan Armenian than he would OF
speaking of a 'Mohammedan Rajput' OF
'Mohammedan Sikh The Mohammedans in
Crete constitute a perfectly distinct com
munity from that Of the Cretan
Christians or ;Gre eek ana ndde t Hith ,hese 1--we
as do the M~ohammedans and Hindoos in India
an equally deadly hostility exists between them
which only needs the slightest provocation &c
break out into murder and rapine;. OF the bitter
luminosity existing between the Mohammedans
and Hindoos in India we have had ample evi
dence of late years. and we have only 10 sub
stitute Cretan Greeks for Hindoos to picture &c
ourselves what must be the sentiments enter
tanned toward one another by the Mohammedan:
and Christiansin Crete" IL. r. c.