Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1919-08-16

Se@~ SoS.oAsN0 -
Sundays Delnonstration
Usum Atlantis)
The thanks or Greeks everywheFs
70 out seday 70 the city Of Boston
for its hsarty suppcgt given to thu
Hellenic claims Of Thrace during
the great Greek mass meeting Of
Sunday.
The fifteen thousand Greeks whc
met in Mechanics hall in order to
voice their sentiments in favor Of the
union Of Thrace with IT. Greek
Mother country found themselves IN
IN atmosphere Of sympathy and good
viii which was typical Of the great
American city that rightly claims the
title Of the American Athens.
There was nothing infammatory
about the speeches delivered in
favor Of Thrace's union with Greece:
there was nothing to show that the
participants Of the meeting were
animated by . desire to denounce
the policy Of handing back to Bull
garia q territory essentially Greek
since the EARLIEST historical times
There was however manifest .
warning to ali those who are con-
eerned with the making Of the Bull
gartan treaty in Paris. that should
Greek lose Thrace in favor Of the
arch-enemy Of the Greek race. there
would be no prospect Of lasting
peace in the Balkans.
Thrace 10 TO such an extent .
n.
~; even so an unsympathetic book
to Greece. as the Britannica comes
out to say that the Thracians were
part Of that dark complexioned long
skulled race which had been In the
Balkan peninsula from the Stone
Age closely akin to the Pelasgians,
the aborigines Of Greece. -...-..-.....
Encyclopaedia Britannica Eleventh
Ed. Vol. XVI page $50
It thus goes without saying that
Thrace has been the cradle Of the
Greek race. as every school boy
knows that the Pelasgi were the
forefathers OF the Greeks. The
whole Greek history is one with the
history Of Thrace. In the Persian
wars. Thrace already plays an i'm
portant part. and during the Pelo-
ponnesian campaign Thracian
King by the name Of Sitalces is an
ally Of Athens. During the days
Of the Macedonian Philip another
Thracian ruler Cersobleptes by name
exercises an important influence on
the policy Of Athens. Under the
Romans, Thrace il seen maintaining
an independent sovereignty up to
the time Of vespasian. and for a
thousand years Of the Byzantine En-
pire this country is the bulwark OF
Hellenic Constantinople
Five hundred years Of Turkish
domination nave not succeeded in
changing the character of Thrace.
The Buigarians. to be sure coming
from the North way back in the sixth
century settled just above Thrace.
between the Balkan mountain range
and the Danube. and in a few in
stances swept to the south only to be
sent Keeling back under the Greek
blows.
In the beginning of the 18th CEN
fury Thrace. which. by the way is
bordered by the Balkans on the
North. by the Aegean Sea, the
Hellespont and the Propontisl Of the
South. by the Bosphorous and the
Black Sea on the East and by the
Rhodope range on the west, main
tains her genuinely Greek character
wholly undisturbed by the overload
ship Of the Turk. who has broken
down in the meantime.
THsr -.
than a million Greeks in 1871, in
a total population of a million and
half or so. and they form the only
cultured and intellectual element of
the peninsula spreading their peace
full activities from Odessa to Salo-
MICA and from Vienna to Constan-
tinople.
In 1858 Thraee welcomes the
Ansio-French troops going to the
Crimea, and the hope of liberation
is entertained for a moment BY the
Thracian Greeks; but they soon
learn that England and France go
to- the Crimea to support Turkey
against the Car. and to put their
money on the wrong horse as Lord
Salisbury will presently say.
In 1878 Russia VIGOROUSLY sweeps
south; Roumaaia gives the Car a
helping hand in overwhelming Turk
ish resistance in Plevna and loses
Bessarabia BY way Of reward. It
then comes Thraee's turn, and the
whole country IL turned over to the
Buigars BY the Panslavistic San
Stephano Treaty, which il torn M in
the Congress Of Berlin, by British
diplomacy coming this time to the
assistance Of the Greeks and openly
proclaiming the Greek Character OF
the country thus sacrificed to satisfy
Russian imperialism. Thrace how
ever is only partly saved because
the Berlin diplomats split the coun.
try In two. the, Northern section
oeine turned into a semi-independent
province under the assumed name
OF Eastern Rumelia, under the man
GATE OF Bulgaria Bulgaria in her
turn swallows the province in 1855.
unoer the eyes Of a surprised but
nevertheless approving European
diplomacy. and In 1905. simultane-
ousiy with Bosnia and Herzegovina
ABSORPTION by Austria, Eastern Ru.
meIia becomes Souther Bulgaria and
that Is all there is to it.
The Balkan wars bring at :ast
freedom to Thrace, but no sooner
- the Turkish master out than Bull
garian Prussianiem steps in: the
second Balkan war does away with
province: yet European diplomacy
puuing the wires behind the scenes