Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-08-24
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL V.lCOLLINS.

native Greeks, plus the American re
lief of the Red Cross and Near East
Relief (The American relief in Greece
and Armenia amounted to $50 900 90"
within two years, of which 100000
came through the Red Cross. the rest
| through the Near East Relief)
The Greeks had had eight years of
constant fighting, and under Nene-
zelos. and later under Pangalos, they
| had been ruled with rods of iron, with
| little or no voice in making or en-
forcing their laws. They came To
look upon government only as
changing. but never ameliorating,
tyrant of oppression. The refugees
and the million exchanged or repaf
triated Greeks had had no experience
with any government that was really
| benevolent toward their welfare.
| The situation-the burden of Mod
| ern Greece-can be comprehended ny
Americans only by imagining an IN
coming within the boundary of con
tinental United States of people
numbering rs per cent of our present
| 115 900 ,000-i.e. some 3O,OOO,O00 starN-
ing refugees to be housed, clothed ana
fed and their sick to be nursed. With
all our resources intact at the close
of the war-contrasting with the i'm
| poyerished condition of Greece
even then such burden would have
staggered us and demOralized our IN
! stitutions. however firmly established
we assume our Government TO be. III
would be equivalent to sudden In
| vasion by the entire population ol
Mexico and most of South and Cen
! trail America. .
| IT must be recalled that Greece has
had only one century or lndependence
as a nation. From lac Be. UP L"
| 1921 AID, she had been conquered
race. subservient to her conquerors
We think of glorious Ancient Greece.
with her Alexander, her Per1cles ana
her heights of classic culture. but 100
often forget that Rome overturned
her government and enslaved her pee
nle nearly a century and a half before
| Christ was born, and that never IN
til one century ago has she ruleo her
own country. Through century aI.ef
century, she was ruled by the fIo-
mans. the Franks, the British ana the
| Turks. E..
When she awoke and struggled 1or
liberty. Lord Byron reproached her
in bitter words:
mo legend of thine Olden time
| No theme on which the muse might
/ soar,
High as thine own. in days or yofe'
When man was worthy Of thy clime.
&, The hearts. within thy valleys bred.
The fiery souls that might have ie''
| Thy sons to deeds sublime.
Now crawl from cradle to the grave.
Slaves-nay, the bu-1dmen OF sia'e'
4, And callous save to crime
| That was a century ago, and UP
from such a condition of degeneracN
has developed the Greek OF tohaF
whom the world is wont to hold to the
ideals of the ancient Socrates ana
| Pericles. rather than credit tn"
awakening ambitions of men who. in
our grandfather's day, were covering
! slaves.
| True, their innate subtlety was mani
fest in it's influence when Rome moved
| her capital to Byzantium and Grecian
culture tanned her Roman conquerors
again, when the Crusades made Greece
their highway to glory and their re-
treat from defeat. But even then.
Greece could absorb little of the ideals
/ of western civilization while dominated
| by the military power of Rome, and
later Of France and Great Britain
| and in recent centuries again over
whelmed by the orientalism AMI
Mohammedanism OF Turkey.
She rebelled in 1921 and since then
| has been nominally independent, nut
in the early part of the World war.
| her destinies were guided by her
| queen, the sister of the Kaiser, until.
with the aid Of the allies. she over
turned the throne of Constantine and
drove out the Prussian influence.
She gained vast territory and pop
ulation through the victory OF the
allies, and. in ill-advised citation. at
tempted to reconquer Turkey--with
the resulting defeat. Finally came
he assistance Of the League of Nations
in the unprecedented exchange Of pop
lnlations-the million Greeks in Turkey
in exodus far greater than that led by
Moses out Of Egypt-and the hun
ireds Of thousands of exchanged Turks
sent out of Greece. Today New
Greece has four times the population
of Old Greece. and more than double
the territory. 1t Is indeed a New
lGreece-with all the INFESTED solutions
Of most intricate problems
Acspyzasha. lops. By Paul " Gollns.l