Norwich bulletin., 1916-02-12
GREEK INTERESTS
 IN THE LEVANT
Leading and Lucrative Part in Ex ploitation of Turkish Islands.
Especial to The Bulletin. )

Especial to The Bulletin.)
 Washington, Feb. 11.-First among | the reasons offered ir expIanation C1 the tenacious neutrality of Greece is that of the widely scattered Hellenic populations and business interests in the Ottoman Empire. An important part of the wealth of Greece is earned by the enterprises of her people with out her borders, and her sons, as cap tains of Near Eastern industry and commerce, have taken a leading and lucrati tive part in the explorations of Turkish lands. In illustration of this phase of the problem confronting the statesmen at Athens, study prepared
 by the National Geographic society on the Greek interests in the I.evnnt is timely. It reads:
 From Damascus to Adrianople, and from Smyrna to Trabizond, Grek capac- ity for buying and selling, and for
 banking, has quickened commercil life in spite of the heavy odds of the
 OutWOrn forms of Turkish administra-
 tion. Throughout this vast territCr!,
 where western capital and leaders are
 not to the fore, Big Business is in the
 hands of the Greeks, to such an eX-
 tent that plutocracy in the Levant has
 almost become a matter of nationality.
 Equipped with the best training that
 the commercial schools of France and
 Germany can give, with practical eX-
 perience in the big firms, of London,
 Paris, Berlin and Ninnea, and with q
 native business acumen equal, to that
 of the Jew, the modern Greek has
 been able to carry everything before
 him in those lands neighboring his
 country where business methods have been at a standstin ever since the days
 of Joseph. Beirut, Smyrna, AIexandretta, Con- stantinople. and Trebizond,' all great ports of the Levant and Middle East,
 number among their most fortunate citizens the wealthy Greek merchants, bankers and shippers. Navigation on the eastern Mediterranean and on the Agean sea is largely in the hands of the Greeks, and on the Black sea they successfully dicide business with the Russians. Even the interior trade of Turkey in Europe and or Asia Minor is largely upheld by the vigor of Greek enterprise.
 Greek colonists have followed in the | wake of Greek business, and the larg CT commercial cities of the Ports have acquired a considerable number of | Hellenic residents since the days of Greek independence. Moreover, there have always been large native pOpula- tions and settlements of Greeks in the | realm of the sultan, out side of the | Grecian peninsula The whole coast country of Asia Minor, from the Oar danelles to the Gulf of Adalia, is dot ! ted with innumerable Greek villages, | many of the inhabitants of which are | the descendants of the proud Greek | cities that first felt the wrath or the Persians in classic times. The Greek language is preserved in these settle
 ments, and they in their importance | and the number of their people, have | made Greek one of the important ian guages of western Asia Minor, rank | ing with or higher than the other four | idioms of the land, Turkish, Armenian, | Kurdish, Syriac.
 ''The Turk is the least businessIike \ of all the elements In his empire. His
 role from his appearance in histnry