The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 1913.

Evening Star, Issue 15137, 19 March 1913, Page 4

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 1913.

The news received early this morning of the of the Assassination King of the Hellenes had of not been confirmed at late King George midday. The authority Of Greece, for the report, Reuter's agent at Salonica, is, however, not to be lightly brushed aside, and until later and contradiotory advices we received it must unhappily he accepted as authentic. Why so foul a deed should have been wrought is, however, harder to fathom than the deed itself. It is doubtless trtie that Salonica has many fanatics in her midst who are smarting under dofeat, and ripe for the extreme of violence, but we imagine that the moTe- obvious of the tragic possibilities involved could and would be guarded against. In the absence-of all details, and assuming the news to be true, the conclusion would reem to bo that King George, like King Umberto of Italy, the Empress of Austria, the French President Carnot, and President M'Kinley, of the United States, - has fallen * victim to the insane delusions of some crack-brained lunatic, who has taken upon himself the double duty of judge and executioner. The chance of assassination, King Umberto, himself a victim, is reported to have said, "is part of "the risk tahen by tho, l * who are in the "Ringbusiness": and not the least among the causes for righteous anger and fierce indignation in these painfully frequent and cold-blooded infamies is that the man or woman stricken down (as in the case of the Tsar Alexander and President Lincoln) is the one person of all others most necessary for solving the particular crisis which may in some tortuous way have worked upon the distorted minds of their assassins. Prince Georgo of Denmark was elected King of the Hellenos by the National Assembly at Athens fifty years ago, the- day of his reported murder being the anniversary of the day on which he, a youth of eighteen, was proclaimed King. How startling, both in their joy and their honor, these national coincidences are! It was fifty years ago this month that King George's sister, the beloved and beautiful Prircess Alexandra, landed on the shores of England to become the bride of the then Prince of Wales, and it is to the Queen Mother of England and the-Dowager Empress of Russia and to .all who are united to them by ties of blood, including our own King George V., that the news of this dastard deed will come as the cruellest of blows. What is known of King Georgo of Greece is to his credit. He filled a most onerous and thmnklegs throne—it became his chiefly through the instigation of the British Government, and with no special enthusiasm on the part of the Greek people—with tact, loyalty to his adopted land, and. without thought of personal aggrandisement. Writing a. few years since during one of the constantly recurring crises in Greek politics over the Cretan problem, 'The Times' editorially said :

Were all those responsible for resolving the problems of the Near East gifted with as much prudence as the King of the Hellenes, there should be less cause for international anxieties. His Speech from the Throne was eloquent of understanding statesmanship—-eloquent cs)xicially in what it left, unsaid. The King referred to the qualities of " patriotism, political experience, and knowledge of the needs, .sentiments, characters, and wishes of the Hellenic people." That King George himself possesses such qualities he has amply proved in the .course of his long and exceptionally difficult reign. . . . Fortunate, is it for

Greece that she is still ruled by King George.

Since those words were written the Cretan problem has solved itself. The island is now an integral part of the Hellenic kingdom. For this and much more the people of Greece have their murdered King largely to thank. The Greek has vindicated his right to rule in his own house free from the presence of the Turk, on the field of battle, where alone such rights as those for which the Balkan Allies have been contending can be settled. Diplomacy had tried its hand through many heart-break-ing years, and everywhere had proved a ghastly failure. The arbitrament of the sword was the only way. A few short months ago King George entered Salonica in triumph ; within the last two weeks his troops, under his son and heir, took possession of Yanina, and gathered in 100,000 prisoners of war: to-day the King is no more. At an hour when his wisdom and experience were most needed he has been cut off by the shot of the assassin. In the presence of a tragedy like this civilised mankind can 'but look on in indignant horror, and bow its head, abased with the knowledge of an overwhelming sense of its own impotence.

[Since the above was in type- a late cable has confirmed the appalling story.]