South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1918-06-30
Black Currents
and the War
BY Hamilton Miller


stormed the first Struma positions.
When viii she be at full strength?
Not till all her currents have been
gathered and boxed.
And this isn't any mere uDtimeIv
Joking. For the black currant. of
mince pie and Christmas pudding,
is for Greece the great national
product and source of income. 1t
corresponds TO all our wheat and
coal and steel. To lose a crop
would, economically, lie the great
est loss imaginable. When, a few
weeks since. the famous Spartan
divisions demanded TO be called to
the line Premier Venizelos. the
man who always sees the farthest."
told them in effect TO get their cur
rants in first, and he would see 20
II that, with equal certainty, they
would get the BuIgarians later on
The two divisions which struck
on May 81, carrying a mountain
5000 feet high and capturing al
most its entire garrison, were from
Crete and other parts of Greece
where few currants grow How
many other divisions are already in
line the Germans would be glad to
know. Enough that with new
equipment. supplied by France and
England. they will soon all be there
What kind OF account should we be
able TO expect them TO give OF them
selves?
Pro- German at Corsica
A very good one. Greece had its
two years of German propaganda.
And it gave US to believe that. when
Constantine made his choice, most
of his higher officers at any rate
were with him. a belief clearly un-
founded For when NJ. Venizelos.
who would hardly be likely TO make
any mistakes in that regard went
TO work to give Greece a reconsti-
tuted army he found the need OF
removing only Gen. Dousmanis, the
chief of staff. He, with a happy
reversal of NapOleonic fortunes. is
now reposing in Corsica. Gen. Dang
lis, the generalissimO, retains his
command. and with him are almost
all his fellow veterans of the two
Balkan wars. IL was one of them.
Gen. Zimbrakakis. who a few DAYS
ago delivered the first smash on the
Struma.
Among the rank and file and
throughout the country observers
report the same feeling that there
was when Greece had TO fight first
Turkey and then Bulgaria. In the
coming campaigns the Greek forces
will not fight as a single army unit.
Like our troops. they are being bril-
gaded. though in large blocks with
the French and English. you will
see the effects Of emulation" says
Gen. Guillaumat, who is in supreme
command.
But we shall probably see much
more than that. 1t is now known
throughout Greece that the 5000
Greek soldiers who were treacher-
ously handed over to Germany with
Fort Rupel have been put at work
on the German roads. And national
pride will have its answer for that.
As for Bulgaria, she is now even
more the national enemy of Greece
than she was five years ago; since
then she has seized Greek territory.
And it is a good time for Us to re-
member what happened then. In a
few summer weeks of 1913 and in
battle after battle the Greeks sim
ply overwhelmed the Bulgarians.
Then, too. the latter didn't doubt
their own superiority. In fact, il
was one of the cleanest. briefest,
and most decisive campaigns on
record. Greece can now put nearly
100000 men in line We can rest
assured that while the French and
English are doing their part in
Macedonia, the Greeks viii be do
ing theirs.
Old Friends with New Names.
We should also hear of them on
the sea. Their large ships, like
those OF the allies, have had little
But in the incessant submarine
warfare in the eastern Mediter-
ranean Greek destroyers have been
in action again and again. 4 few
weeks ago one of them sank a sub
marine by gunfire. When for the
last time the two big German Turk
ish cruisers emerged from the Oar
danelIes two Greek warships. the
Lennos and the kukis-once the
Mississippi and the Idaho of a navy
We are better acquainted with
came near 10 getting a share in the
action then. The Greek sailors, the
best in the Levant, viii give an ac-
count OF themselves anywhere.
At present their destroyers are
constantly engaged in convoy work.
At the mouth OF the Suez canal the
big food carrying boats from India,
Java. and farther east transship 10
smaller craft. which do not offer as
good targets for torpedo practice.
And the destroyers from the Piraeus
do their share in escorting them and
their cargoes 10 their final ports.
In this way too. Greece's food
problem has been solved. You may
have noticed that she alone, Of all
the allies, has asked nothing OF that
sort from as She wants cur ma