Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 198, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1914 — GREECE AND TURKEY ON THE VERGE OF ANOTHER SANGUINARY CONFLICT [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GREECE AND TURKEY ON THE VERGE OF ANOTHER SANGUINARY CONFLICT

Ottoman Empire Since the Second Balkan War Has Driven 150,000 Greeks From Asia Minorin a Most Cruel Manner— If This Movement Is Continued Hostilities Are Almost Sure to Follow.

Athens. —Turkey, since- the second Balkan -war, has driven 150,000 Greeks from Asia Minor in a most cruel manner. If she persists in her determination «jf expelling the 2,500,000 Greeks-gtill within her borders another sanguinary conflict is probably unavoidable. While the Greeks are leavihg their homes in Turkish territory against their will and are seeing their possessions confiscated until they are reduced to penury, a similar large exodus of Turks is taking place in Macedonia §nd other northern sections now under the rule of King Constantine. But the Turks are leaving of their own free will in anticipation of a triumphant return under the guard of Turkish bayonets. Meanwhile on both sides war preparations go on feverishly. Despite her impoverished condition, Turkey is carrying out a great naval program. Messrs. Vickers of Barrow, England, who are now completing the Reshadieh to the order of the Ottoman government, have just received an order for a second battleship to be laid down at once. The new craft is to be larger than the Reshadieh. The latter is 625 feet long, has a displacement of 23,000 tons and carries guns with a smaller battery. Another vessel designed for the Turkish navy Mi being completed on the Tyne. It is the Sultan Osman I, which was launched on behalf of Brazil under the name of Rio de Janeiro, but has since been purchased by Turkey for more than $12,000,000. Or-, ders have also been given for the hulls of two scouts to be built on the Tyne and the machinery, at Barrow. So anxious is the Turkish marine minister*to obtain his dreadnaughts that he is willing to accept them without trial, without cabins, without the final coating of paint, and even with one gnn wanting. By waiving these conditions he will gain nearly two months and receive the battleships on August 1 or earlier. The Turks are concentrating their strength in the navy rather than the army. The way to this was pointed ' out by the American in the -Turkish

Service, Capt. Ransford D. Bucknam, who with ft single vessel, the Hamadleh, made several celebrated raids In the course of the recent wars, appearing suddenly at unprotected points and doing a great amount of damage to the Turks' enemies. It is expected that this capable officer, who is known as Bucknam Pasha In Constantinople, will figure largely in the struggle that threatens. Greece is making desperate efforts to put herself in a posture Of defense, but her means, even taking into account the effects on Turkey of the two Balkan ware, are very small compared to Turkey’s resources. Undoubtedly her shrewdest move was the purchase from the United States of the battleships' Mississippi and Idaho, vessels in commission. These two large craft will soon be in Grecian waters and ready to face the . new Turkish navy. That they will be able to meet the three Turkish dreadnaughts on anything like" equal grounds is doubtful, but their presence Is giving some reassurance to Greece, Greece is most anxious to keep the peace. But it is believed generally here that Turkey is resolved to enforce her claims to the islands of the Aegean sea the moment her dreadnaughts arrive. This moment is hot far off. f,;v TV’ The Hellenic government has pushed forbearance to extreme limits. The houses vacated by the Moslem emigrants from Macedonia were left, unoccupied until the influx of Greek refugees from Turkish territory obliged the authorities to quarter the homeless families there, and even this was only a provisional measure. In the fortnight ending July 11 no fewer than 50,000 Hellenes have been driven from their homes in Asia Mtnor, their movable property plundered, their houses and lands handed over to Moslem emigrants and themselves driven to the sea coast without means of subsistence. In the two previous months about SO,OOO had been subjected to similar treatment and in all 110*900 have beep turned adrift, many

injured, others stricken with illness, and all penniless. ~ These people sue among the cultured elements of the Ottoman empire. They are not aliens who wandered into Turkey, but were old inhabitants agqs before the Turks appeared in Europe. Public opinion here is convinced this is part of a deliberate plan conceived by the Young Turks to purge the forces of Islam from the Greek element which weakened them so ostensibly in . Macedonia in the recent wars. It is part of the Young Turkish scheme, too, to recall Moslems from Greek territory and put in the places of the expelled Greeks those who can be relied upon to take up arms for Islam when the trumpet

again calls the Mohammedan nations to battle. It Is computed that the Ottoman empire still number 2,500,000 Hellenes among Its subjects and fears are entertained that these will all come under 'the proscription, the opportune moment, being chosen to suit the convenience of the ministers of war and marine. The only ray of hope is the action of Talaat Bey, the Turkish minister of the interior, who has promised to check-she expulsions and has even made a journey to the scene of the outrages with the object of protecting the Orthodox Greeks in person. But Talaat is a single figure and his overthrow in face of Young Turk opinion may come soon. Meanwhile the representatives of the powers in Constantinople have not been idle. Their notes to sublime porte have brought a half-hearted promise from Mehmet V’s representatives that the offenses will cease. Roumania and Servia are also both employing strenuous efforts to induce the Ottoman statesmen to meet the Greeks half way. It is to be noted that the exodus of Moslems 1b not from Greek territory only, but also from New Bulgaria, New Servia and New Montenegro. Public opinion in Greece, heated to the fever point by the sight of thousands of unoffending people, who, yesterday prosperous, are today homeless, penniless and perishing of hunger, and stung by their stories of cold-blooded barbarity, now calls loudly for a cessation of the persecution and amends for the material'wrongs Inflicted. Even, more acute incidents are being reported. The Athens newspapers

publish dispatches from Chios, as Island in the Aegean sea, saying a Turkish destroyer has bombarded and captured a Greek sailing ship which was transporting refugees to Chios. The earns destroyer, it is stab ed, proceeded to Gouni islet and bom barded and destroyed a monastery. Fishermen at Tcbesme, a seaport of Asia Minor, opposite Chios, declare they saw the captured transport, bat without passengers, whom they al< leged the Turks drowned. The Turkish army has been reorganized since the close of the last war. Its efficient fighting strength Is hard to estimate, bat fifty German of 4 fleers are whipping the soldiers Into shape. Of their recent antagonists Turkish officers rate the Bulgarians first and after them the Servians. On the other hand, they seem to hold the Greek army in contempt. There Ib a large war party and, this is noW in control at Constantinople. A large amount of tonnage under the Hellenic flag has been withdrawn from service and war insurance premiums have lgtely increased to 35 per cent.

King Constantine of Greece.

Mehmet V, Sultan of Turkey.