Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1915-12-16
Saloniki is a Place For All
Kinds of People Since Theatre
OfWar Shifted To Near East

SALONIKI, Greece, Dec. l6.-It i.
one of the daily lessons of the war il
the Balkans that the character of nj
city or district is so definitely fxet
that it cannot be altered almost over.
night. Few things have become more
wearisome to students of Balkan poll
tics than the historical monographs
charts of race migrations, Theological
maps in several colors (the maps, MOI
the races. constantly being issued oy
one Balkan state or another to prove
that virtually all the Balkans as we'll
as considerable share of the rest
of the world is and has for centuries
been inhabited almost exclusively by
Greeks, Serbs, Bulgars or Austrians
as the case may be.
The Greeks are probably the worst
offenders, at least in respect to the
extent of their claims. According to
them, certainly all of the litoral and
all of the Islands of the Aegean, and
probably a very large part of the
eastern Mediterranean basin as well,
including by all means Alexandria,
should be Greek. Towards the north,
more than half of Albania is claimed
and a goodish bit of has already been
seized. Old Serbia, including even
Uskub; Roumelia, out of Bulgaria;
and as for Turkey in Europe, the
Greeks laugh at the idea that the lit
tie that if left of the western Otto
man Empire should fall to anyone but
the Greeks from Kirk K5lisse nd
Adrianople to and including Constan-
tinople. For in the Greek mind, any
other disposition of Constantinople
than to place the Moslem city under
Greek rule would be the rankest in =
Justice under which Greece would
never cease to complain until prop
-erly compensated.
In view of the extravaganza Of
these national claims, it is most in
teresting to watch the change worked
in Saloniki in the course of COMPARE
lively few weeks since the Allied
troops have begun to land there. 1t is
true that Greeks, also, have poured
in in even greater numbers than the
Allies; but the original population
stood at 100000 inhabitants, of which
number $4,000 are Jews Of Portuguese
and Spanish descent, still speaking II
sort of bastard Spanish, in which sew
ceral newspapers are printed, and
strangely enough Hebrew characters
are employed to spell out these Iber-
ian words. Next in number came the
Greek themselves, totalling with Off
cials, garrison and everything, only
10000 or less, while the Turks ran
them a close second with between 3D.
900 and 10000. The remaining popu-
lation of normal times was that of
cosmopolitan mixture so characteristic
of every port, but especially of a port
like Saloniki or Rotterdam, where
the territory served by the port. and
the port itself are in different coun-
tries. Here, however, instead of sim
1ly having one other country as him
terland, as Rotterdam has Germany
;Saloniki has two; Serbia and Bulga-
ria. There were always, therefore,
manay Serbs and not few Bulgars
to be found in Saloniki. For the same
reason Austrians were frequent in
normal times though less so since the
war has cut Austria Hungary off from
Saloniki as a port of outlet
To population so divided there was
first suddenly added about 100000
Greek, Macedonian and Tracian refu-
gees-more than double the norma
population of the city itself. A ne"
citv was built in the shape OF brlcf
barracks out at the edge of town