The New York herald., 1921-08-17
The New Greek Advance.

The Greek advance in Asia Minor
has entered it's second and most criti-
cal phase. The armies of Greece have
recovered the ground lost to the Turk
ish Nationalists; they are in posses
sion of Eskishehr and the line of the
Bagdad railway from Ismid to be-
yond the Taurus Mountains, and they
are moving eastward along the
branch road to Angora. The Ma
tionalists are strongly intrenched on
the banks Of the Sakaria, the one
large stream between Eskishehr and
the Nationalist capital. They will
make a determined stand, for a
Greek victory here means an almost
open way to Angora, and the carry
ing OF the war into the heart of
Anatolia.
The amazing, puzzling thing is that
the Greeks show such dogged deter
mination in clinging to Asia Minor,
that pushed back to the seacoast with
heavy loss they recovered so quickly
and that opposed by the councils OF
Europe and refused support and as
sistance by the Allies they rejected
every proposal to abandon their cam
paign and TO accept a nominal sover.
eighty over a narrow strip of the
Egean coastline. But the problem
which confronts the Greek to-day Is
the one which began just one hun
dred years ago with their war of
liberation. The anniversary of the
beginning of that heroic struggle to
throw off the yoke of Turkey is the
inspiration to bring relief to those
of their race who became, as BYRON
expressed it, hereditary bondsmen"
when Constantinople passed into the
hands OF MoHAMMED III. four cen
turies ago.
1t is not alone the Greek culture
OF the time of PERTCLEs to which
modern Greece reverts in setting
1 forth her claims to Asia Minor but
also the fact that at the beginning
of the Christian era and in the days
OF Byzantium the Greek people were
the guardians OF civilization in Asia
Minor and it's coastal islands. The
first evidence that Greek spirit,
though crushed by Ottoman power,
was not destroyed came when the
handful Of peasants of Peloponnesus
in April, 1921, arose in revolt.
There is magic in the memory of
that year which the Greek leaders
know. The world may have forgot
ten that it was then Europe faced a
living Greece. 1t may not remember
the tragedy of the Greek Patriarch
hanged in his priestly robes at his
church door and his body left to the
fury OF Constantinople mob, or that
\ 81, 900 Greeks OF the Island of Chios
were put to the sword and $4,000
I sold into slavery. Then II was that
BYRON became q Greek hero and
Missolonghi achieved undying fame
for its glorious defence. These facts
are living things to the Greek Of to-
day as they were to the Greek of
\ one hundred years ago.
Greece faces political factors in Eu-
rope now similar to those she found
4 in her struggle for independence.
I MErTEgNIcH would yield her few
points in her demands; ALEXANDER
OF Russia let his policies OF state
override his protestations of Chris.
tianlty, and Greece emerged from her
war with narrow boundaries. Crete
came to her only nine years ago,
Thessaly and Ionia only after des
perate efforts That Europe should
restrict her territory and that she
should be left always longing for
what she claimed as her own is no
new experience. But her experience
and her hundred years of history
have melted her to struggle on to
the end.
CONSTANTINE says that he win de