Evening star., 1916-09-14
MILLION FIGHTING MEN;
ScANT STORES Of FOOD
Greece's Expenditures Exceed Rev.
enues-Two Warships Were
Made in America.

The resources of Greece. with respect
to that country's possible influence on
the outcome of the European war. are
set forth in the following war geogra-
ply bulletin issued by the National
Geographic Society:
Unlike Rumania, Greece will not
prove to be food resource of the en-
terte allies. On the contrary. this the
| most southerly of the Balkan nations
does not produce enough cereals to
feed her own people. Its chief agricul-
| turai products-currants. the vine and
| the olive-are to be classed among the
| luxuries rather than the necessities.
100000 Inhabitants.
Including the territory acquired
through the treaties Of the first and
second Balkan wars, Greece has an area
| about equal to the combined areas of
Belgium. Holland and Denmark With
| the Albanian territory of North Epirus.
which the entente allies permitted her
area now exceeds $4,000 square miles.
being about as large as the state Of
Mississippi. but with a population
(5,000.000) two and three-fourths as
great. nearly approximating that of
Illinois.
Although Greece is in 'straitened
financial circumstances her expendi-
lures in 1914 exceeding her revenues
of $4,000 officers and men in peace times.
It is estimated that. by calling out her
reserves of all classes. she can put
100000 men in the field. Her total
available unorganized strength adds a
half million to that number.
Military service in Greece, as among
practically all her neighbor nations, is
compulsory. and parliament has fixed
upon 25,00O recruits as the annual con-
tingent The period of active service
required in the army is three years for
cavalry and artillery and two years for
infantry.
For twenty-one years after his active
training, which begins in his twentieth
year, the Greek citizen belongs to the
first reserves. and for eight years there
after he is listed among the second
reserves-a total of thirty-one years
liability to military service. The equip
Schonauer rife, similar to the Rumanian
small arms The field artillery is the
French Schneider -Canet quickfirer.
American-Made Warships.
America has an especial sentimental
interest in Greece's small navy. as two
of her strongest fighting units are the
Kilkis and the Lemnos. thirteen thou
Isand-ton warships. which were renamed
after having been purchased from our
own government in 1914 for S12.50O,oo0
Launched as sister ships in 1904, they
were known in the American navy as
the Mississippi and the Idaho.
Another Greek warship with an in
teresting history is the ten-thousand-
ton Averoff. which bears the name OF
a Greek millionaire who, by provision
of his will, left the bulk Of his fortune
to his country for the improvement OF
its navy. The two modern warships are
the George 1 19,500 tons) and the Ad-
miral Coundourietis (5.500 tons), both
launched in 1914. A powerful battle
ship of 1880 tons displacement is now
under construction.
"On the north and northwest Greece
abuts on Bulgaria. Serbia and Albania,
the frontier touching each of these
countries, being about the same length.
In all other directions the peninsula is
waterbound. So indented are its shores
that few places in the country save in
Thessaly and Macedonia. are as much
as fifty miles from the sea. and although
1t has only about one-fifth the area Of
the Spain Portugal peninsula, 1t has
longer coast line.
with the long-range fifteen-inch
rifles of the modern battieship. almost
every part Of the historic nation would
be vulnerable to the bombardment of a
French, English or Italian fleet