The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-05-17
Frederic Haslr IN, Letter
Grssce Today.

ous effects on Little Greece. n
spite of the discomfort and spffer-
ing It home, that strikes the ~,
ernsr b inconsruous.
Greece has been At war contin.
uopsly since 1912. Men who ver.
boys of 20 In that war are nov
nearing 80 without having done !,
stroke Of productive work. I'm ths
central region Of the mainland
that region famous for its rfses
valleys And fertile olive groves. fhs
most prosperous section Of a Greece
that IL BY no means all SO fertils
the olives fall unpicked to rot unos
the ground. The csaseless drain N
men by war has been responsible
From the little villages 20 forth n.
!uctantly the peasants. casting :.
backward melancholy eye upon The
deserted farms.
A Financial Mystery.
Nor Is the financing the present
war any less desperate than its
draft 6f men. No one appear to
know just how it is being done, and
rumors hy or underground loans
from . variety Of European power,
who might be interested In hayin,
the Greeks in the ill-settled part q
Asia Minor that comes between Ber.
lin and Bagdad. A more likelv
hypothesis offered in a discussion, Al
the American consulate was that thu
money is simply borrowed from The
national treasury without hope Of
repayment.
The treasury is already unable IN
meet pressing domestic obligations
Thirty thousand Georgian peasants
that venizelos had brought over to
colontze an undeveloped portion Of
northern Greece were absolutely
dropped by Constantine, who fell
perhaps that he could not pay. They
are starving with a death rate Of
from so to 10@ a day and naturally
the country which they had started
to cultivate will remain unproduc.
tive and waste.
And what use is being made OF all
this as a political weapon hy the
Venizelists? None at all. They are
against Constantine, but not against
the war. The return of Constantine
was the signal for a new and ire
mendous effort to crush the Turks.
The reason was simple. He desired
great victories to consolidate him
on the throne. He called out three
more classes OF reserves and drew
on the treasury with the results
sketcAed above. For these burdens
the Venizelist might be expected to
blame Constantine, might be e1-
pected to use every effort to have
the fighting stopped. Added to the
bitter party hatred, a hatred accen-
tuated by every glance at Venizelos'
bullet riddIed house and every
thought OF the patriot in exile, one
would expect Constantine's misfor-
tunes in Asia Minor to be used As a
political weapon.
After the great. defeat in March,
Venizelos left Paris for Italy. In
spite Of his denia1s it is common
belief that the great Greek states
man is prepared at any moment 10
return il Constantine is overthrow.
His return would not mean a repub-
lican form OF government but an
other monarch subordinate and con-
trclled by the Venizelos policy. Yet
Constantine holds on, and Venizel-
lists whom you meet in the uniform
OF the king whom they despite, all
tell you the same story. They are
heart and soul against the king in
Athens. but heart and soul behind
his work in Asia Minor. And they
explain it by saying There We fight
not for the king, but for Greece, for
Greece"
For Greece" It is a cry of ram
pant nationalism mistaking its own
ends. Far better for the soldiers to
return and build up the shattered
olive business by modern methods
and hard work. Far better for the
emcient financiers 70 straighten
OUT their tangles. Far better to
save what are left of the Georgian
peasants and set them tilling the
SOIL. So would think the westerner.
perhaps impatiently. But the
westerner undertakes the feeling Of
nationality that desires greater
Greece. that desires all that Greece
once had. that exaggerated racial
FEELING which has not yet expended
itself In the Balkans. Not only has
1t not expended itself, but it keeps
on growing, and any solution will
have to take account of that fact.