Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-05-16
Greece Today
BY rrederic J. Haskin

WASHINGTON. May ia country
which has beer at war continuously for
nine years, which has been industrially
ruined by war and Is heartily sick OF
war TO the last peasant, and yet de-
termined to go on flghting--that Is the
strange case of Greece today. accord
ing to American observers who have
recently returned from there.
Crops in the rich central valleys of
Greece are rotting on the ground for
lack of men to gather them. Industry
is In chaos. Boys are growing UP into
manhood without knowing any occu-
patton except war. and each new gem
Grafton. as ii reaches military age, is
drafted to fiji the ranks. The finances
OF the country are in tanglc which it
will take a century to sraighten out.
And yet Greece fights on, not IN self
defense but in the effort to consolidate
an empire.
Greece. the observers say, is the
purcst survival of the spirit of national
ism. which formed the present Euro
pean states out of chaos and is slowly
giving way to the world spirit the
sense of international solidarity, the
feeling that all nations together have
d common responsibility for the human
race.
Allied diplomacy has played its part
I'm the Greek situation. The Allies
wanted a consolidated Greece And
sloubtless strong groups within Greece
have fomented war because they ex-
pected commercial advantage both from
it's continuance and from its ultimate
success. But, i'm addition TO these diplo-
matte and commercial ingredients which
80 into the making of all wars, Greece
is said to be sustained by a genuine
popular faith in a great Greek empire.
Although there are undercurrents Of
popular opposition TO the war. the typi-
cal Greek, who has been starved and
ruined by war, is still willing to go on
lighting for his dream of a greater
Greece, He has not shared the great
disillusionment which was brought to
the western world.
The Allied Policy.
To understand the part played by the
Allies in bringing about the present
situation in Greece one must glance
back to the 10Th century history. Since
i'm 1854 Great Britain and France fought
with Turkey against Russia they have
remained united on one principle in
the Balkan question. Neither power
would allow either Russia or Germany
10 get command of Constantinople and
the Dardanelles. because these places
exercise strategic command over. the
routes to Asia Minor. India and the
Far East. Russia and Germany now
being disposed Of, the Allied statesmen
feel the need of a stable Balkan country
to prevent any new attempts at inter
ference. BY the Treaty OF Sevres.
Greece has annexed almost all of Eu-
ropean Turkey and has her eastern
frontier ON the Black Sea, completely
cutting off Constantinople from the
North. Also, through the efforts OF
Venizelos,' she has been given a large
slice OF Asia Minor around Smyrna.
For the consolidation of gains which
doubled her area; financial and moral
support were voucbsafed from England
and France. Then last December came
the political change in Greece, Veni-
zelos, of whom the Allies were sure,
was overthrown to permit the return of
Constantine, suspected of pro-German
laanings throughout the war The
Turkish nationalists movement then
showed unexpected recuperative power,
and in March inflicted crushing de-
feat or the Greek armies in Asia Minor.
Greece consequently finds herself up
against a stiff war to retain her new
territory in Asia Minor at the very time
when Allied support is withdrawn be-
cause of the defeat of VenizeIos.
This is where the feeling of national
ity comes in. After century of aspira-
tons for national ACKNOWLEDGMENT the
Greeks are now determined to fight on
for the Greek Empire. which for the
first time seems within their grasp. 1t
is this determination to pursue a war for
Greater Greece in spite of its ruinous
effects on Little Greece, in spite of the
discomfort and suffering at home, that
strikes the westerner as incongruous.
Greece has been at war continuously
since 1912. Men who We're boys of 90
in that war are now nearing 80 without
having done a stroke of productive
work. In the central region of the
mainland. that region famous for its
green valleys and fertile olive groves,
the most prosperous seceon of a Greece
that is by no means all so fertile, the
olives fall unpicked to rot upon the
ground. The ceaseless drain of men
by war has been responsible. From the
little villages go forth reluctantly the
peasants, casting a backward melan-
choly eye upon the deserted farms.
A Financial Mystery.
Nor is the financing of the present
war any less desperate than it's draft
of men. No one appears to know just
how it is being done.s and rumors fly
of underground loans from a variety of
European powers who might be inter
ested in having the Greeks in the ILL.,
settled part of Asia Minor that comes
between Berlin and Bagdad. A more
likely hypothesis offered in a discussion
at the American consulate was that the
money is simply borrowed from the
National treasury without hope Of re-
payment.
The treasury is already unable TO
meet pressing domestic obligations
Thirty thousand Georgian peasants that
Venizelos had brought over to colonfze
an undeveloped portion of Northern
Greece were absolutely dropped by Con-
stantine. who felt perhaps that he could
not pay. They are starving with a
death rate of from so to 100 a day and
naturally the country which they had
started to cultivate will remain unpro-
ductive and waste.
And what use is being made of an
this as political weapon by the yeni-
zelists? None at all. They are against
Constantine, but not against the war.
of