The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-09-22
CREEKS EAGER TO Get
AT TURKISH ENEMIES

Deum atoned to one VINO WdtCneu
the service for the obvious poverty
Of the church or the somewhat dis
concerning if inevitable speeches and
cheers for NJ Venizelos get mixed up
with the religious service.
Well Behaved Troops.
The Greek troops who pervaded the
town were we'll behaved and good
tempered, and after a while the Mos
l1em villagers from the interior began
to bring their goods in to market and
chatter with the invaders over the
price of marrOwS and cucumberS, egg
plants and tomatoes. From time to
time Populations of GREEK or Amen
ian school children sang patriotic
songs outside the Greek headquarters,
or werc taken round the ships of the
Greek squadron by a tug Singings
Justify in spite of a distinctly heavy
swell.
saw no evidence Of any partic-
u1ar racial bitterness as between
Greek and Turk. The Greek popu-
lation disliked Turkish government
| and said so quite plainly, but it had
no quarrel with the Turk as such, and
no monopoly of the trades or profess
sions such as might have embittered
the Turkish population.
| With the Armenians it was very
different Before the great war there
had been, perhaps 5000 Armenians
in Panderma. They were a quit. re-
| spectacle community who rubbed
| along well enough with their neigh
bors and were unaffected to any
extent by Nationalist ambitions. Home
rule for Armenia did not interest
| these outliers who lived hundreds of
/ miles away from the real Armenian
country. But none the less the Ar
/ menianS of Pand erma had to go. A
many of these did not return. Some
had been murdered, many died of
| typhus, of sunstroke, of every kind
of disease. There are now less than
x n
Perhaps the most striking incident
that I saw at Paderma was the arriv-
al of the 18th of the -th regiment
from the south; A few blasts upon
down to the sea front and then
marched toward the Turkish barracks
above the Panderma port railway sta
tion. 1t had marched in hot sun all
but eighty miles ip three days, and
it had marched and fought during tn g
preceding four days from south of
Soma to Balikesri.
Sturdy Peasant Stock.
The men looked hot and dusty,
but all were in hard condition and
u marched excellently at attention over
i'll paved streets and Through mar
row lanes. The equipment was good,
the animals in good condition, and
not 1 per cent. of the men in the
600 rifles strong, were walking lame
or looked really tired.
The facial types were curiously
mixed. Some of the men, indeed,
might have been Turks from Europe
or the Anatolian coast there were a
certain number whose heavy peasant
faces suggested an infusion of Slav
blood, and others who looked like
Albanians and probably were; but
the majority were obvious Greeks OF
Helias and the Isles, young fellows
!, with well-cut faces, less burly and
heavy than Turk or Bulgar, but
, wilier and more active, and for the
most part very we'll set up men.
| They had done their seven days or
bread and cheese with occasional
olives and onions; they looked SUI
, premely fit and se1f-confdent, and
one wondered whether the old schoo
Turcophils who still write to the
press concerning the 'tLevantine
Greeks" and their lack of "virility'
had ever seen the Greek peasant
and islander at home. Has not the
historically recent Turkish domina-
ton in the Near East made many o.
US forget that for three centuries the
Greco Macedon infantrymen dom
: mated the ancient world and tina
, the Byzantine army held off Persian
and Saracen, Russian. Avar and Bull
: gar from the Roman Empire of the
East from the days of Justinian til
: the mound horsemen from Contra
Asia and the Crusaders from tn,
West destroyed it's military power
after 700 years of successful de
fence?