The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1897-04-29
THE CRETAN QUESTION.
Story Of the lnsurreCtion Retold
From Athens.

ATHENS, March 5. In Sep
TENDER, 1895, the powers forced
Turkey to determine upon GER
tain reforms for the Island of
Crete. 1t is only recently that
any substantial steps have been
taken toward carrying out these
reforms. A commission sent
to Crete for the purpose of or
ganizing the gendarmerie, met
with constant opposition from
the Porte. The Christian popu-
lation became impatient at the
delay; the Moslems, on the
other hand, were exasperated
at the attempt to introduce in
to actual practice the paper re-
forms which they had every
reason to believe would never
be carried into effect. They
were justified in this view by
the attitude of the Sultan, who,
with every means in his power,
endeavored to misinterpret the
proposed changes in the Gre
tan Government and to pre-
vent their, actual application.
In the mean time the island
was left to manage itself with
out any police force to speak
of. Major Borr, who was APP
pointed by the International
Commission, was prevented
from entering on his work of
organizing the gendarmerie
until it was too late to reestab-
lish order. Collected taxes
which should have been turn
ed into the Treasury of the Is
land were divertedto Stamboul.
Still the Ambassadors at
Constantinople kept pressing
matters, and it became evident
that a change was slowly being
brought about in Crete, by
which the Christian majority
of the islanders were to have
their share in the government.
There seems little doubt that
the Moslem population, as was
the case in Armenia, were urg-
ed from Constantinop1e to
make some resistance to the
innovations.
At any rate, early in Janu-
airy of 1897 the Moslems in the
vicinity of Rhetimo and Can
dia moved into these two towns,
as always happens in Crete
when hostilities are in contem-
plation.
The first act of violence was
the killing of a Christian nam
ed Kambouraks just outside of
Canea. This was followed by
the murder of two Turks in re-
prisal at Halepa The Moslem
villagers now flocked into the
town of Canea. On Jan. 25 a
Christian Judge, Markou1akes,
was shot from the window of
a Turkish cafe. Canea was in
a state of panic. Stores were
closed and the small Christian
population of the town barri-
caded themselves in their
houses. Three days later a
riot occurred among the Mos
lens. One whole quarter of
Canea was burned, but owing
to their preparations only about
thirty Christians were killed
and a few Moslems. Under
the protection of marines all
the Christian families of Can
ca was taken on board the Eu-
ropean men-of-war and carried
to the Greek islands. At pres
ent there are only about fifty
Christians in Canea, The
mountaineers rose and came
down to within a short distance
of the town. The Moslem pop
ulation had possession of the
towns, the Christians of the
rest of the Island. Chaos
reigned. The Turkish Govern
ment was either unable or un-
willing to cope with the stu
alton. Engines sent from the
foreign men-ofwar put out the
fire in Canea, but in no other
respect did the European pow
ers make any move to reestab-
lish order.
This state of things continu-
ed from Jan. % to Feb. II, when
Greece pluckily took matters
into her own hands. Amid
great enthusiasm $1,000 troops
were embarked at Piraeus, and
before Europe had time to in
terfere these troops were land
ed in Creee. Then only did
the powers" make up their
minds that it was time to- occu-
py Canea. This they did with
marines from the men-Of-war.