TURKISH PERSECUTION OF GREEKS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXIII, Issue 8870, 22 June 1914, Page 5

TURKISH PERSECUTION OF GREEKS.

A touch of grim irony appears, m Turkey's preparations for the expected' war with Greece over the Islands. Money must be raised, ;to buy and equip a fleet, and as many wealthy Greek merchants are living i=i -Turkey, they are being made to contribute. heavily for the war on their homeland.!' In the case of the poorer Greeks, we read, a simpler course is followed, the Turks taking everything they have and advising them to, go home. A few' months ago Turkey bought a Dreadnought that was building for Brazil. Greece followed "by acquiring a cruiser . building for. China, and a few days ago ordered a 24,000-ton battleship of a French cpnipany, to be delivered in' 1916. These preparations show "what eventualities the two Governments have in view. Our information regarding the persecution of Greeks nr:Turkey 1 1says the " Literary' Digest V) ig taken from the " Ekklesiastike Aletheia,' 3 a Greek .organ published 1 in Constantinople 1, which says: — ' "The news arriving from the provinces of <;Asia Minor and ' Thrace continues to paint in darkest .colours the 'status of our compatriots, the destruc-* tion and almost the radical extermiria- ' t?on 'of. whom 'forms the fair, ,goal' of. the■ endeavours of {certain patriots in, these latter days, who wish to show their patriotic zeal. Their aim is olear;: it is to weaken the .Greek Orthodox element.^ and compel the Greeks to emigrate. ■ The means used differ in Asia and Europe according to the situation. In ' Asia-Minor, where the Greek population holds the 'threads of economic life and grows by trading, they are "trying to strike at tho very source of its. social existence by claiming against' it a most inhuman boycott and . compelling it to furnish contributions far beyond its means for the Ottoman fleet. - The, bigoted outcry against our commercial- class is heard everywhere; and the Press sounds the tocsin against those who are represented as plotting against their Moslem neighbours. Persons of the lowest sort ■ are gathered and set' against Greek shop», and these insult the guileless Moslems who trade with them, threatening them with all sorts of evils if they do riot cut off all relations with. the Greeks. And the astonishing thing v is that the local authorities in some places look on heedless at what is done or content themselves with platonic assurances that things will quieten down, or with saying they are not suitable; while in many others they take a share in this business and even head the movement." '

The position of things is even worse in Thrace, where the war made its saddest havoc. The Greek editor in the Turkish capital gives a touching and pathetic account of the scenes through, which he'passed, and the following details help us td realise how terrible were the ravages of the late struggle, whose-spoils the Turk is now trying to seize;. — ' ' ■ " In Eastern Thrace; where, because of the catastrophes of the war, there is no business life, the .destructive contest is carried on in a brief ', fashion by the simpler method of merely stealing the belongings of the Greeks, who are bluntly told without- circumlocution.that their only hope of safety lies in ■ leaving their home*. Moslem. refugees . are being settled in Greek Orthodox villages; they drive out the "owners from their houses and fields, and take possession of these, steal their belongings, and strip them hi every possible way. {Furthermore, thio compulsory collections for the .fleet, carried on beyond all limit —for from ono poor village of 30 houses they gathered 60 liras —the beatings, ill-treatment of every sort, fft(se- accusations, and imprisonments ,of the i leading mon so •na to frighten'''the rest, and the altogether ■ atrocious action of the lesser ccovernmont officials are all signs of this same situation; and there is also the chronic ■ question of amnesty, with ita accompanying daily imprisonments -and releases find second imprisonments and transfers from prison to prison."