The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1916-03-12

The writer Of the following article. loan
Dimis- o. hlou. IL . former Greek officer Of
the Anstolian Volunteers. he volunteered
to serve In the Greek army shortly before
the outbreak Of the first Balkan war and
served through the first and second balkan
MARE. lie wns honorsbly discharged and
was being employed rs . Journalist In the
Isisnd Of Corfu. representing Egyptian and
q ris publications there. when ON jan
uspy 1914 the French landing ON the
Island took place.
loan DimI.. Oghiou about fifteen year,
ago was the American D1gomsn NJ the
port Of Mer~ins. Asia Minor.
In the darkness OF the night French
troops, loaded on four cruisers ana
guided by numerous destroyers and to7-
pedo boats, slipped through the Corfu
Channel and while the $4,000 residents or
the city OF Corfu were sound asleep the
s,ld!ers landed and before sunrise had
put In chains the chief Of the German
spies on the island.
With the exception OF the w official
representatives OF france and Italy. NJ.
Bencgny and NJ. Matiz. no one on the
island knew OF the presence OF the French
in the city not even III" prefer knew
that .oreign troops had already landed
In his little municipality.
Tcuton Agents Srised.
The Frer.ch troops not only landed on
the island bu; proceeded at once 10 the
Hotel Europe and put under "rres' the
secretary OF the German Consulate
While they We're busy rounding up
other prominent Austrian and GERMAN
agents, the German Consul cot word OF
the landing of the French. and fed from
the consulate in "A hathrooe. taxing
refuge with 4 retircd Greek officer IN the
extreme end of the island.
Before sunrise the entire population or
the island awoie 10 activity. ABOUT !
A.. NJ. the bellboys OF my hotel were
rapping al every door. Singing out
The French ave landed"
Within half an hour tho streets or
the hitherto quiet city were filled with
crowds. Men, women and ever Nttle
children Rocked to the landing place to
see the strangers.
The French had landed. arrested the
German agents in the city. put guards
in front Of the Austrian, German and
Turkish consu,ates, and then, ike true
Frenchmen. informed the project that
they were there and chat they Intended
to stay there for some time. and that
they also expected others. Serbians and
Montenegrins VINO would soon arrive.
Like a true Greek. the stately project
OF Corfu protested against IN" landing
Of the French and in the name OF our
King ordered the midnight intruders to
leave. But there were two compelling
circumstances which soon cooled his
ardor, the population OF the city had
already gone wild with joy over the
landing of the French they were cheer
ing the in,ruders and those who did not
know the words of the "Marseillaisc"
ere hunming the martial tune - their
hearts content. Another reason which
compelled our project to yield was, Tine
French commander was so polite and
irresistible"
ThOusR cheer InSadcrs.
With thc sunrise thousands were
either at the landing place cheering and
assisting the Invaders OF their city to
land their provisions and horses or ac-
tually doing the longShorsman work for
the
In the meantime an immense crowd
had escorted n group Of French soldiers
TO the AchilleiOn. the marble palace OF
lche Kaiser.
There were very few people In the
island who had set foot in the place
Thousands of acres of this Greek isl
tf'I W'It w w l"N'''A9 hlh lh' ''S'r
Imperial German territory. Occasion
ally some inhaaitant of Corfu could
steal n glimpse from n distant house'ol
OF the wonderful marble palace of the
German Emperor, but for the average
person ever the approaches TO the gates
were as inaccessible as the seventh
inner gate OF heaven.
When the crowd arrived within view
of the ute gates Of the palace gar,
den they held back by habit. I wac
near the front of the crowd, All a
once we came 10 n standstill. How
ever. this hesitation OF the t!mid die
not last long.
Once within the precincts Of the mys
tcr!ous and beautiful gardens we spreaf
everywhere, sONic to various statlI.
lined avenues, some around spacious
fountains and others to the flower stud,
ded lawn under the well trimmed trees
For about an hour or so more thar
10, 900 Corfeans acted like picnic crowds
Many Of the more soriou inhabitan,
still followed the French detachment
who were hound for the palace proper
! followed this crowd.
AZ we escorted the French ] noticed
that many young and middle aged
mothers had headed US OF. and Will