CRUELTIES AND ATROCITIES.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15407, 12 October 1915, Page 7

CRUELTIES AND ATROCITIES.

GREEKS ILL-TREATED. MORE ABOUT THE ARMENIAN MASSACRES. ("Times" and "Sydney Sun" Service*.) LONDON. October 10. Tho Saloniea correspondent of the "Temps" «tate6 that sinco tho TurcoBulgarian agreement was signed] tho persecution of the Greeks in Turkish. territory has been interallied, and there have been many assassinations. Bashi-Bazouks murdered lour priests ut Ji-onia. The Mnracian Greelis aro tho greatest sufferers. Exiles aro driven into Asia .Minor, where death, awaits them. •j tin halonica correspondent of '"The Times ' says that tno Armenian massacres oegau when Enver Pasha's army invaded Russian teiritory. bonus then mittod Jaorribie crimes. Men were thrown ifter cliff?, women violated and abducted, and cnildren forcibly eonverted to Islamisni. In tho invasion of Azerbaijan there wore similar excesses, and when tho Sarykamish deleat ojc.ured, it. infuriated Jwiver s ruthless temper, and he began a systematic massacre of twenty-tiro thousand at Bash Kala. following the principle of massncre as applied in Anatolia, Ci!cia, and tho anti-Taurus region. In .sonic of the districts resistance was oflered, and this exasperated the troops, who gave themselves up to the most wanton and Moodiest, erin l:y. slaughtering indiscriminately. Knver Pasha and Talaat jj ov undoubtedly approved of their actions.

GERMANY'S RESPONSIBILITY. • SUGGESTION BY MR BALFOUR. (Received October lltb. 8.-j n.m.) LONDON, October 10. Mr Balfour, in a letter to Mr. T. P. O'Connor, .says: —"Amidst all the horrors of war. nothing is more horrible than the treatment, of the Armenians. Tho Germans could surely end this disgraceful condition of affair*. I would suggest that German-Americans uso ttieir inSucuco to chock these barbarities.'' Tho ' Daily Telegraph" mjs that F.nver Pasha has acted to avenge his defeats iu the Caucasus, and recalls Court Iloventlow's unscrupulous and callous judgment that German public opinion holds that this is a matter concerning Turkey alone. STRONG AMERICAN COMMENT. THE TURK COPYING THE GUP. MAN. (Reccivci] October 11th, B."> p.m.) NEW YORK, October 10. The newspaper? publish articles denouncing the Armenian massacre.*, many declaring that the Turk is following in tho Teuton footst-ens. Th 0 "Tribune" remarks:—"America hn.s no* yet fully grouped the truth. The Allies are protecting, not onlv themselves, but the whole worb] from ! more Armeuias aud other Bclgiutns/' I

IS IT BLUFF ?

THE RESIGNATION OF M. YENIZELOS. SUGGESTION BY NEW" ZEALAND GREEKS. (srECIAI. TO "THE rRESS.") AUCKLAND, October 11A reporter got into conversation with several Greek residents of Auckland, this morning, on the subject of tho recent political changes in Greece, and tho attitude of tho country generally towards the Allies. Many Greeks living abroad keep in fairly close touch with home affairs, by subscribing regularly to leading Greek newspapers. Although they had kept themselves very well posted in recent happenings in their native land, the Greeks spoken to were at a loss to explain tho sudden |H)litical change which resulted in the downfall of M. Veni/.elos. They immediately repudiated the idea that King Constantino was actuated in any sense by pro-German motives, and tho best explanation they could offer was that the whole affair was a piece of '"bluff," organised by the Kinc fl nd tho ex-Premier, with, tiie object of providing a 6ori of excuse for permitting tho troops <-■( the Allies to land at, Saloniea. By making M. Venir.elos a frcapegoat, the King strengthened hi& own position, while the ex-Premier could remain in the background, and Mill give the benefit of his advice to tho Coalition Government, of which his former lieutenant, M. Zuitnis, was now leader. All tho Greeks spoke in the highest terms of the King, whom they considered to ho working for his country first and foremost, exactly as ho had done during tho first and second Balkan wars, in which ho kept his place with the army in tho field from tho beginning to tho end of hostilities. All of them expressed the greatest distrust, not to say hatred, of the Bulgarians, and spoke with indignation of tno Bulgarian conquest of part of Macedonia and tho JKgean port of Dedeagatch. In this territory, they stated, the Greeks numbered about per cent, of tho population, and the Bulgarians about 1} per cent only.. They appeared to regard this part of Bulgaria as a sort of "Graecia Irredenta,'' and Bpoko with indignation of the way in which the Bulgarians had driven hundreds of thousands of GroeJc s across the frontier, and confiscated all tho property they possessed. At the present time, they said. Greece was looking after her own interests, but the people a» a whole would be glad to get to grips again with their old enemies of Bulgaria.