REFUGEES’ ROMANCE

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 July 1923, Page 5

REFUGEES’ ROMANCE

A “SOB-STUFF” STORY. GREEK COUPLES PRIVATIONS. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, July 23. The "Daily Express’s” Athens correspondent reports that a man and a girl, refugees from Smyrna, are the central figures in a poignant love romance, wliich has moved, all Greece. Aristide Vassilacopoulas was found unconscious in a home-made coffin, with a poison bottle at his side. He was taken to the hospital. An hourlater, a girl, Athena I’antailides, was found unconscious in the same coffin. it has since been revealed that, when Mustapha Kemal Pasha’s troops appeared at Smyrna, Aristide was preparing for his wedding. He ran to Athena’s house, and found her in her wedding dress. He hurried her to the waterfront, and as he was unable to find a place on a ship, he plunged with his sweetheart into the sea. They swam for half-an-hour, until a ship took them aboard. The couple reached Athens penniless. Weeks of privation followed, until Athena found work at weaving. Aristide, broken in spirit, could not find employment. Athena paid the rent of his room, as well as her own. Aristide began drinking heavily, and became very jealous. One night he tried to break the door of Athena’s room. Next day she departed from her lodgings, leaving a letter saying that she still lu\ed him, but only if he honoured and respected her and himself. Aristide, brooding over his troubles, conceived the idea of punishing the girl by making a coffin, and decorating it with a carving, lie spent several days thus. Then he traced the girl to her new home, and took the coilin there ,when she was away at work. He lay down in it to drink bichloride of mercury. When Athena returned, she found her lover. Her cries brought in neighbours, and Aristide was sent to the hospital. Athena was left alone, and she lay down in the coffin, apparently believing that Aristide was dead, and that he expected her to follow him, and that she would die of a broken heart. When her friends returned, she was unconscious. Both are now in the hospital, but the doctors hope they will recover. Thousands of people in Athens arc praying daily for their recovery, when efforts will be made to enable the lovers to get back their lost happiness. A REPUBLICAN REVOLT? PARIS, July 25. “Le Matin” learns from Belgrade that a great Republican movement is afoot in Greece, with headquarters at Salonika. It is reported that M. Venizelos, General Pangalos, and one Admiral arc associated with the movement ; also that Sir Basil Zaharoff, the financier, is supporting it. A collision is imminent between the Royalists and Republicans in Salonika and Thrace.