Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-01-25
KING AND SON ARE IDOLS
Princess Helena Also Praised for
Nursing Wounded Soldiers.
BULGARIAN CRUELTY VERIFIED
Greeks Also Guilty of Outrages in
Campaign-Strange Wounds
inflicted.
BY WOLF Won sCHIERBRAND.
PATRAS Greece. January 6 1912

PATRAS. Greece. January 6, 1919
With the peal Of church bells in treble
and bass, the crack Of hundreds of re-
volvers. the staccato blare from the
ships band playing the Greek national
hymn and the enthusiastic shouting of
the populace densely crowded on the
dock. the Austro-American liner. the
Kaiser Franz Josef I, ran into the smooth
waters OF Patras bay.
Twelve hundred brawny Greeks. the
latest contribution from the United
States to the army Of liberation from
the Turkish yoke, left the vessel at this
point Each man had his card of identiti-
cation with him, giving name, regiment
and company to which he was assigned
and other details. Within few hours Of
their arrival they all were whirled on
wings of steam to swell the thinned
ranks of the besiegers of Janina.
Here in Patras some 1000 are being
dispatched to the mighty semi-ctrcle
gradually strangling that important
stronghold, and 5000 more to Volo. the
full strength of the Greek army again
being brought up TO 10000.
Greek People Mean Business.
News had just reached Patras, the prin-
cipal commercial center of modern
Greese, of series of fierce battles
around Janina, in which the Greeks had
lost $4,000 in dead and wounded. But to
see this town, vibrant with aggressive
patriotism. the spirit of their glorious
ancestors reawakened. was to see that
the Greek people meant business.
On the way up the bay we had passed
Missolonghi, where Lord Byron met
hero's death fighting for Greek indie
pendence. The town. spreading in line
of electric lights along the gulf, looked
alive with martial excitement.
In the town Of Patras itself detach-
ments of troops were patrolling the
streets. bugles sounding, coffee houses
damned. This latest contingent from
America came from the west. Quite a
number were officers of the reserve in the
Greek army. One of them Tin his civilian
capacity kept hotel In Washington,
D. C.; another was foreman in a rolling
mill in Cleveland: some We're merchants,
artisans, lawyers. teachers All were
eager to fight their hereditary oppressor.
the Turk.
During the passage from New York one
of the Greek officers had drilled his COM
patriots in squads. In striking contrast
with this disinterested patriotism of the
Americanized Greeks is the fact that the
Greek nome government liberated the
ablebodied criminals In confinement and
sent them to Janina to combat the Turks
900 of them.
Turkish Prisoners Poorly OFF.
Several thousands of Turkish prisoners
of war are kept in the fort. up on the hill
over Patras. The private soldiers among
them are poorly off-about twenty to each
cell. The classmates are rank with dis
ease and filth. The haggard. hollow
checked Moslems stretch out their bony
hands in supplication through the grating.
begging food and tobacco, especially to-
them were treated better. Each received
10 francs per day for his sustenance.
Nazm Bey, their commander, captured
near Varitza. was allowed to bring his
harem into captivity. They all took their
fate with true oriental stoicism.
Loud was the praise accorded every
where to the king, the crown prince and
the Princess Helena. Eyewitnesses
there We're who maintained that the king
soma The crown prince was the peoples
idol. Princess Helena. clad in the rough
habiliments of sister of mercy. had ex-
posed herself to death and infection in
the camp laZarettos, had nursed and
tended the wounded and sick soldiers with
her own fair hands, had bathed the tired
feet of many an uncouth son of the soil.
had endeared herself to the masses.
Greeks Aim to Keep Spells.
The Greeks want to keep what they
have won and what they aim to win be-
fore the end of the great palaver in Lon
don. They want to keep the Greek is
lands hitherto under Turkish rule .espe-