Arizona republican., 1915-12-07
ALSO TELLS OF
 NATIONS POLICY
Says Must Not Court De- truction By Being Drawn in Frightful Vortex of Present Conflict Carried on in Europe
(By a Staff Correspondent of the
 Associated Press)

Associated Press.)
 ATHENS, Dec 4.-Wia Malta and London, Dec. 5)-Constantine I, King of the Creeks received the correspondent of the Associated Press toray and gave him a message for America on the attitude which Greece has assumed in the world war and the reasons for the policy which has been followed by the Greek government.
 "I am certainly glad to talk for America said the king. for Am erica will understand GSreece's posi- tion. We both are neutral and are determined, if it is humanly possible, not to court destruction by permit ting ourselves to be drawn into the frightful vortex of the present Euro pean conflict. We are trying by every honorable means to guard our sovereignty, protect our own people and stand up for our national inter ests without sacrificing that neutral ity which we recognize as our only salvation.
 America is protected from fmme- dlate danger by the distance which separates her from the battIefields. We, too, thought that once. But the battlefield shifted and may shift again. What is happening in Greece today may happen in America. HoI- land, or any other neutral country tomorrow, if the precedent now sought to be established in the case of Greece is once fixed"
 The interview with the king took place at noon in the smaller palace which is the kings personal residence and the audience lasted an hour. The king was dressed in the simple uni form of a Greek general and he dis played the good humOred. almost youthful candor of an ideal soldier to whom diplomatic expedients or lack of frankness seemed repugnant or impossible
 From time to time, emphasizing the earnestness and sincerity of what he was saying, he thumped the table with his clenched fists despite the seriousness of the message he was delivering, his gray eyes occasionally wrinkled with raillery.
 "The fundamental cause of the en- tire threatening attitude of the en- tente powers towards Greece today and of the painful situation of my country said the king, lis the en- tente's own assumption. without tHe slightest reason therefor, that Greece is ready to betray the entente to Ger many at the first favorable oppor- tunity. Is it reasonable to suppose such a thing?
 From the very outset of hostili- ities in the near east Greece's neu- trality has been stretched to the ut most to accommodate the entente powers, for whom we have always felt the keenest sympathy and the deepest gratitude. The Dardanelles operations were directed from Greek islands occupied by allied troops. When Serbia was endangered by the combined Austro- German and Bull garian attack the allied troops landed unopposed on Greek soil from which the second city of Greece as q base they prosecuted, not only unmolested, but aided in~ every way consistent with any sort of neutrality, their fruitless and too long delayed cam paign to rescue their ally.
 Finally I myself have given my personal word that Greek troops will never be used to attack the Franco : British forces in Macedonia, merely to allay unjustified suspicious.
 "Yet, despite all these evidences of the good faith of Greece, the entente powers now demand in a form which