New Britain herald., 1915-12-17
CHARACTER OFCITIES
 ALTERED OVER NIGHT
One of Daily Lessons Of the War
 in the Balkans


 saloniki, Greece, Nov. 3O.-It is one l of tn daily lessons of the war in the ] Balkans that the character of no city l or district is so definitely fixed that 1t cannot be altered almost over night ! Few things have become more weari- | some to students of Balkan politics | than the historical monographs, | charts of race migrations, ethnologi- | cal maps in several colors (the maps. ] not the races), constantly being issued | by one Balkan state or another to | prove that virtually all the Balkans | as well as considerable share of the | rest of the world is and has for cen- turies been inhabitated almost ex- clusively by Greeks, Serbs, Bulgars or 1 Austrians, as the case may be-
 The Greeks are probably the worst l offenders at least in respect of the ex- tent of their claims. According to | them, certainly all of the litoral and | all of the Islands of the Aegean. and | probably very large part of the | Eastern Mediterranean basin as we'll, l including by all means Alexandria, should be Greek. Towards the north, more than half of Albania is claimed and goodish bit has al- ready been seized. Old Serbia, in cluding even Uskub. Roumelia, out of Bulgaria; and as for Turkey in Eu- rope, the Greeks laugh at the idea that the little that is left of the Western Ottoman empire should fall to any one but the Greeks, from Kirk -Kilisse and Adrianople to and including Con- stant1nople. For in the Greek mind any other disposition of Constantino- pie than to place the Moslem city un- der Greek rule would be the rankiest injustice under which Greece would never cease to complain-until prop erly compensated.
 Hebrews in Majority.
 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 compara- lively few weeks since the allied troops have begun to land there. It is true that Greeks, also have poured in in even greater numbers than the allies; but the original population stood at about 16O,O0O inhabitants, of which number S0,G0O are Jews of Portuguese and Spanish descent still speaking a sort of bastard Spanish, in which several characters are em- ployed to spell out these Iberian $. Greeks themselves, totalling with off, cials, garrison and everything. only 10000 or less, while the Turks ran them a close second with between 30,- 900 and 10000. The remaining popu- lation of normal times was that cos mOpOlitan mixture so characteristic of every port, but especially of a port like SalOniki or Rotterdam, where the ter ritOry served by the port and the port itself are in different countries. Here, however, instead of simply having one other country as hinterland, as Rot terdam has Germany, Salonik1 has two: Serbia and Bulgaria. There were always, therefore. many Serbs and not a few Bulgars to be found in Saloniki. For the same reason Aus trians were frequent in normal times, thuogh less so since the war has cut Austria Hungary off from Saloniki as a port of outlet.
 To a population so divided there was first suddenly added about 300,- 900 Greek, Macedonia and Tracian refugees more than double the nor mai population of the city itself! A new city was built in the shape of brick barracks out at the edge of the town, where the refugees are housed in the utmost squalor and the most incredible conditions of crowding. Nat urally, they prefer to spend most of their time trying to pick up a few pennies around the streets of the city to sitting idle in the stench and filth of the barracks all day
 Greek Mobilization Ordered.
 Scarcely had the population of Sa- lonik in a way disposed of this sud- den influx of strangers. when the Greek mobilization was ordered and soldiers from all over Greece began ! to arrive at the appointed trysting place-none other than Saloniki. Fol- 1 lowing the last two Balkan wars, Greece had increased here population by territorial acquisitions, over 50 per cent. It is doubtful if even the Greeks quite realized what this in crease would mean in the shape of the increased number of troops mo- | bilized. In few weeks-almost in a few days-the population of Saloniki which had been first 16O,000 then 36O,OOO suddenly became 70O,00O. As many as possible of the newcomers ! were quartered on the inhabitants of the city:the remainder erected a tent city at the edge of the town-but all spent their time in the narrow. ill., paved streets of Saloniki which be- gan to resemble a county seat during fair week.
 And then, out of a clear sky, French and British troops began to join the throng. At first the number was small; now it has passed hundred thousand. It is true that most of these have gone on up into Serbia; but i all the necessary commissary service must be directed from Saloniki; all the work of debarking not only the newly arrived troops but the supplies, l must be handled there and in dupli-