Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-11-24
FORMER IDAHO AND
 MISSISSIPPI ARE
 IN CONSTANTINIPLE
Sold to Greece Before The Outbreak Of The War Against Turkish
 Invasion.

enthusiasm by all Greeks every
 where, but more so here in the Uni l ted States, from where the two yes
 sels originally left early in the spring
 of 1914, and just q few months before
 the outbreak of the great war.
 It was then that rGeece in order to forestall the Turkish naval suprema-
 cy, which was threatening the very 1 existence of Hellas came to America ! with the demand that the two vessels l be given her. and it was President Wilson himself who sanctioned the
 sale of the Mississippi and the "Ida- | ho' as the boats were then called to the Hellenic Government
 It was early in 1914 that the Young Turkish gang of Enver, furious at the decision of the European powers allotting the islands of Chios and My tilene to Greece, began theri cam paign of extermination of the Greek
 element of the Turkish empire, which resulted in the deportation of nearly
 half a million Greeks from Thrace
 and Asia Minor, and the depth of no one knows how many of those lln- happy martyrs of the Hellenic cause We say no one knows, because for almost five years no reliable news as to the fate of whole Greek communi- ties ill the Ottoman Empire. has reached the outside world. The
 Enver Government has been careful enough to conceal from the Dplo-
 matic Corps of Constantinople the de-
 tails of the Greek persecution, and the story of that tragedy is still to
 be written.
 What could Greece do when Fur
 key began the deportation of the Greeks in the tragic Easter of 1914?
 General Savoff, the Bulgarian gener-
 alissimo, had concluded Turko-
 Bulgarian alliance late in October,
 1913, two whole months before the
 Athens Treaty was signed between
 Turkey and Greece. To attack Tur-
 key in 1914, Greece was risking war
 With Bulgaria, at a time when Serbia
 could not afford to be of any assist
 ance to her ally. There was only
 one way out and that was to appeal
 to the European powers, who turned
 a deaf ca rto the Greek protest
 Turkey had a French loan in her
 pockets, and she was busy building a
 fleet in England, France and Eng
 land at the same time offered Greece
 a loan of One hundred million dollars
 part of which was covered here. The
 main question however for Greece was
 not that of money, but that fhaving
 fleet superior to Turkeys in case of
 having to fight her single handed. At this critical moment of rGeece's
 gave permission to sell the two old &~ oil :, Government The Turkish Govern
 ment protested, lest the act of the
 United States might encourage Greece to attack Turkey sono as the battleships had reached Greek waters. Again the President assured Tur- key that Greece was arming only in self-defense. Shortly afterwards the great war was declared, rGeat Britain took over the warships building in
 British shipyards for Turkey, and thus, thanks to the two American batt1eships Greece remained the mas ter of the situation in the Aegean. Four years have passed since, and the White Cross of Hellas, with the Blue and White stripes, flies under the breezes of Bosphorous before the
 hallowed mosque of Aghia Sofia. Turkey, after having thrown herself into the arms of the Teuton and Bull
 gar coalition, was destroyed as a power to be reckoned with in the
 matters of the Near East. Three
 million Greeks all over the remnants of the Ottoman Empire, are today seeing their hopes of liberation come true. And, although ignoring what the future has in store for the ancient city of the Byzantine Empirefi they nevertheless feel that whatever the
 outcome of the future peace, the Turk will no more be their master and boss.
 America which four years ago has
 helped Hellas to defy the fury of the Turk, is today framing the terms of just peace such as the Greek peo- pie demand: The Idaho" and the
 Mississippi or in their Greek nam. es, tho Lemnos, and Kilkis. stand to- | day before the Golden Horn. not only as symbols of the redemption of the holy city of the Greeks, but also as emblems of the American policy to do the right thing at the right time. One can never imagine that the United States sold her old battleships l to Greece simply in order to get the
 money to build new ones in their l stead. Had Greece been in the wrong l in her altercation with the Turks, 1t l is more than certain that all the
 money in the world could not in duce America to hand over her boats to the wrong party.
 Had Turkey asked to buy the ships | it is certain that her request would not be granted, as it was explained i to her representatives here in those | days. The American battleships were l sold to Greece because it was right that small nation who was bullied | by barbarous state should be ade- quately armed to meet any menace.
 Today the Turkey we used to. know
 is no more; where the old Ottoman
 Empire stood there have sprung
 forth a number of small and op- pressed nationalities. eager for free I dom, hopeful in the future, and en- 1 tiraly confident in the justice of the great alliance that freed them from tho Turkish yoke