Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-02-22
GREEK BLOCKADE
Is ABSOLUTE
Canned Goods Up 500 Per
Cent; Cold Causes Great
Suffering
Correspondence of the Associated
PTcSS)

PrcSs)
Athens, Jan. 35.-This message is
sent by hand on the first ship carry
ing passengers for America that has
left Greece since the declaration of
the allied blockade of Greece on De-
cember S. The only persons allowed
TO depart to-day were non-Greeks who
had previously obtained permission
from the allied authorities and Neni-
zelists released from prison in com.
pliance with the terms of the allied
ultimatum of January 5. For per-
mission that the Americans so desir-
ing might be allowed to leave Athens,
the American minister made personal
requests of his entente colleagues
which were granted in each instance.
The blockade of Greece is absolute.
The only vessels of any nation allowed
10 make Greek ports are the rare Ital-
ian ones, themselves forbidden TO dis
charge foodstuffs or mails for that
part of Greece which is not Venizelist.
Were the blockade to end tomorrow
no foodstuffs from abroad could reach
Greece under Il fortnight. The price
of ordinary canned goods has gone up
500 per cent. The banks refuse to ac-
cept drafts on fC reign countries as ow-
ing to the stoppage of the mails, there
is no way of forwarding them for col
lection.
All Business
The blockade was officially declared
on December s, but has been in prac-
teal effect since the first of December.
No measures were taken to conserve
the food supply unUl December 90.
Then bread cards were issued, the
bread ordered mixed with cornmeal
flour and barley and seven-tenths of
a pound allotted per person per diem.
To save coal the restaurants were or
dered closed at 10 p. m, the moving
picture theaters closed in the evenings
and the electric street lamps suppress
ed. Shops and stores were shut at six
instead of eight-thirty, as usual 4
sudden cold wave q, week ago produc-
ed great suffering among the poorer
classes throughout Greece, a large ma
pority of whom We're already out of
work owing to the stoppage of ship
ping and the shutting dow nof all busi-
ness for export.
Infants Dying Fast
The prime minister informed the
Associated Press correspondent yester-
day that 29 infants between the ages
of three and ten had died in Athens
alone of intestinal troubles due to the
unfitness of the bread as food for chill
dren. By mid-December the hospitals
of Athens were compelled TO refuse to
accept further patients as they had
no food for them. All the wheat in
private hands in Greece has long since
been confiscated by the government
The store of foodstuffs reserved for
feeding the army has been reduced by
half and the portion thus rendered
available added to the public stock.
On December .. the Hellenic gov
ernment sent a formal protest against
the blockade to the other neutral gov
ernments through their diplomatic
representative in Athens, Mr.. Drop
pers, the American minister, forward
ed the protest to Washington by mail.
on December IL. the Greek govern
ment protested for the second time TO
the entente powers against a continual
tion of a blockade, the conditions of
raising which had not yet been formu-
lated. A copy of this protest also was
sent to the neutral minister at Ath-
ems. No kilograms save official ones,
in cipher, reciting these facts were
permitted to pass the entente censors.
Under these conditions Athens is
and has been, perfectly calm. From
the evening of December 2, following
the withdrawal OF the allied troops
from the capital of Greece, order has
been easily kept by a company of
sailors.