The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-08-15

to nelp III the attaCk on the DaTuan- elles. Now Venizelos has secured an | overwhelming majority in Parliament and his return to power seems assured. The King has been at deaths door
 and it not yet out of danger and noth-
 ing will be done until he either re-
 covers or dies When either happens. my informant predicts, Greece will l Interesting feature of the Greek situa- | tion is the fate of the dynasty. Many leading men in Athens declare quite | openly that if King Constantine dies,
 his son will not succeed him.
 1 Want English Prince
 | We cannot affor dto have boy who | is half German and whose mother is altogether German on the Greek
 throne" they say. "and at any rate,
 we want an English prince"
 | The English prince whom these men want is Prince Arthur of Connaught,
 but it is extremely doubtful whether he would take on the job. He married re-
 gently an immensely rich wife in the per- son of his cousin, the Duchess of Fife. and he might very readily prefer the comfortable and assured position of an English royal duke to a possibly insecure 1 seat on Balkan throne. It is possible. of course, that in the present circum- stances he might be persuaded that it | is his duty to accept the offer, should 1t
 be made to him. The offer, if it comes. will be a remarkable instance of loyalty | to an idea, for the Greek throne was of fered over 50 years ago to Prince Arthur's l father, the Duke of Connaught and re-
 fused by him for the same reasons which
 may influence his son should the offer be made to him.
 l Greece is in a difficult position with re- ward to the great war She is practical | ly forced to join in it or see many of | ha " 70 bad for generations disappear forever. She l is the claimant to a large slice of the Turks estate but she realizes that if l she fails to help in the present owners l elimination from Europe, others, who have helped, will have a stronger claim. Italy, for instance, would like some of the islands, and parts of Asia Minor. that are claimed by Greece and would probably receive them if Greece fails to take part in wrestling them from the Turk. The Greek people. too, are in- sistent on war but the Greek govern ment is without funds and will have to
 be financed by England and France when 1t does come in. One of the missions which took my friend to Athens was to try to collect large sums owing for SUD- plies bought by Greece during the first Balkan war and all that he could get was very little cash and an uncom- monly large number of promises. These
 
 ton of help from the allies when the Greek troops are ready to march. It is significant that the present government in Athens refused to deal with this mat ter, or with fresh orders which were placed for war material. They referred all seekers after money or business to Venizelos or members of his group, and a number of orders were placed in this way, subject, of course, to confirmatio after Venzelos' return to power This | however, is considered so certain that the orders have been accepted and the work put in hand
 Now for the situation in Roumania which is probably the most interesting of all. We all know here that Roumania has been ready for war for some months | but We also know that il is by no means certain that Roumania is going to war
 If she does it will probably be not long before the close, when the issue is per fectly clear and when Roumania has
 made every penny that is to be made out of the belligerents Public sympathy in this country is overwhelmingly with the allies, but it does not interfere with | the due prosecution of business, although must admit that the Roumanians. with | remarkable skill. have managed to lay their hands on a large quantity of Aus trlan and German money without render Ing in return much service that would hurt Germany's enemies. Roumania has taken advantage in this remarkable busi- ness transaction, or rather series of transactions, of the situation created by the entire breakdown of international credit in this part of the world. One simply cannot transmit money abroad. The banks ask a premium of 40 per cent for drafts on London, Berlin or Vienna and even then decline to accept any re- sponsibility. Roumanian merchants de- cline to ship any goods abroad until the or1S oP fire; ;eI,< Is paid in advance in gold, and in this way they have managed to secure con siderable quantities of gold for very small quantities of goods. Austria and Ger many bought practically the whole of last years Roumanian grain crop and paid gold in advance for it, at three or
 four times and in some cases even six
 and seven times, the normal rate. Then began the Roumanian merchants game of delay. First a partial mobilization was ordered and there was a shortage of
 labor which made it impossible to move
 the grain from the country to the ship
 ping points, Thats served for some
 months and then there came a mysterious
 shortage of freight cars. When the buy CTS became too pressing few carloads
 would be sent forward, and then there
 would be more congestion on the railways and another stop in delivery. Finally Germany becoming desperate. sent hun dreds of freight cars to Roumania to bring home grain. but in some mysterious way these cars became lost after cross ing the Roumanian frontier and were rext heard of in Russia, where they were | used to ship fish to Roumania. Fish is | the staple food of the Roumanian har- l vesters and immense quantities are i'm | ported from southern Russia every sum- | mer When they came back a few were loaded with grain and sent back to Ger many, but one can imagine the condition of wheat shipped in cars which had inst been used for carrying fish. I myself have seen scores of these trucks, marked Leipzig" Munich" 'Berlin.'' etc in the freight yards here and at Braila and other grain shipping centers.
 Trying to Buy New Crop
 The need for foodstuffs in Germany and Austria is proved by the fact that even after this treatment, German ano Austrian agents are here now trying toi buy the new crop and to secure delivery of as much of the old crop as possible. and are even, offering additional ore. miums for delivery.
 Of course the economic conditions all over the Balkans are disturbed The com mon people in Greece are suffering less than anywhere else because Greece ia practically self7supporting and the sea Is open for whatever imports she needs. Servia, of course. is economically out of t. A~.