The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 25, April 29, 1897 A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls

Excerpt

The troubles between Greece and Turkey are still unsettled, and though the war clouds look lower and more threatening, the storm has not as yet broken.

Several matters have, however, been made clearer to us.

The first and most important is that there is no such thing as a Concert of the Powers.

It has been hinted for some time past that the Powers were not agreed as to the course they should take with Greece, but it is now openly known that there is no prospect of their agreeing at all.

This was found out when Greece refused to obey the Ultimatum of the Powers and withdraw her troops from Crete. The Powers threatened to blockade the Piræus and the ports of Greece. The reply of Greece was to charter every possible ship, and send men and arms to the frontier, and to tell the Powers that she would declare war on Turkey the moment her ports were blockaded.

Then the world waited to see what the Powers would do. But the Powers did nothing. There was no blockade of Greece, and according to the latest accounts there is no chance of one for the present.

It gradually came out that the Powers had had a serious disagreement—England, France, and Italy standing out against the proposed forcing of obedience from Greece.

It was even said that the Admiral of the Italian Fleet had asked to be exchanged from duty in Crete, because by reason of his having served longer in the navy than any other officer of the various fleets, he had been made Admiral of the Allied Fleets, and it was his duty to give the orders for any action that was taken against the Cretans or Greeks. He liked his work so little that he asked his Government to recall him, and send some one else in his place.

It would seem that the trouble with the Powers is that they cannot all be brought to see that the Turkish Empire is really in such a state of decay that nothing can keep it from falling to pieces.

Germany, Russia, and Austria believe that the Empire is still strong, and can be held together by the powerful arm of Europe. To do this they are willing to crush and sacrifice noble little Greece.

England, France, and Italy, on the other hand, do not believe in the saving of Turkey. They refuse to allow a brave Christian people to be martyred for the sole purpose of shoring up an Empire that is a disgrace to civilization, and had much better be pulled down, so that a new and more creditable sovereignty may be built upon its ruins.

The work of the Powers has failed in every direction.

The Admirals of the Allied Fleets which are blockading Crete, received orders from their governments to spread the news through the island that the Powers offered Crete home rule under a European Prince, and to assure the Cretans that the blockade would be removed the moment the Greek troops were withdrawn from the island.

The Cretans would not listen to this. They sent replies, signed by nearly forty thousand men, representing the entire Cretan population, declaring that they wanted no such arrangement.

Not one of the signers approved of the idea of home rule. The Cretans are determined to be reunited to Greece, their own mother-country, and they intend to fight until they gain their point....