The Hastings Standard Published Daily SATURDAY, MAY 1, 1897. THE PLIGHT OF THE GREEKS.

Hastings Standard, Issue 311, 1 May 1897, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily

SATURDAY, MAY 1, 1897. THE PLIGHT OF THE GREEKS.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrongs that need resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

The Greeks are being driven to desperation. They embarked upon a war the probabilities of which they apparently underestimated. The Turks are fighting with their accustomed bravery and are being well officered. At the very outset it was reported that German officers had placed their services at the disposal of Edhem Pasha, and it is perhaps due to German military tactics that the Turkish army is now victorious. The unfortunate Greets while •securing the sympathy of many nations have not been able to stay the victorious march of their enemy. It is abundantly clear from the testimony of the Turks that the generals in command of the Greeks are incompetent. The absurdity of sending Royal scions who have but a smattering of the arts of warfare, is being once more exhibited in the total collapse of the Greeks. The generalship is bad, and with incompetent leaders the best soldiers in the world become useless. The Greek soldiers are certainly not so unequal to their enemies as their many defeats would indicate. The evacuation and recapture of Pentepigadia is quite dramatic, and proves that with good leaders the Greeks can hold their own. The venerable King George has by this time discovered the mistakes that have been made, and the revolutionary attitude of the Athenians seems not unwarranted when the exasperating

blunders at the front are taken into account. A revolution, however, just now will be the worst thing for the Greek nation. In the face of the common foe, the unity of all sections of the peopled desirable ; that unity is not improbable, and, with enthusiasm to buoy them up and determinffßSfi to retrieve the past, the Greeks may yet change the aspect of the game. It is something remarkable to be told of the exemplary conduct of the Turks. It is too good to last. The Moslem at bottom is a ferocious fanatic, and although he may take his victories quietly, his defeats, if he suffers any, will bring out the black side of his nature. That has already been shown during the present war. When the Greek fleet in the Gulf of Arta bombarded the forts and silenced them the revengeful Turks turned upon the hospitals and fired into them, nbtwithstanding that the significant red-cross flag indicated the nature of the structure. Let the Greeks but secure a victory or two then the bloodletting Turks will show themselves in their true character. And perhaps it would be best for the Greeks if their foes would let themselves out in all those unspeakable horrors that Turks alone can be guilty of. The sympathy of England, France, and Italy, now of a benevolent character, will then become a whole-soul support. As it is, the foreign levies aiding Greece just now are composed of adventurers and sympathisers from the three nations named. So long as Turkey continues to be victorious the good policy of punishing pillagers and horror promoters enforced by Edhem Pasha, will be maintained, and with revei ses that policy will be changed. The Greeks, though they talk about a supreme effort, may find that the moment for making that effort has passed beyond recall. The only hope for Greece under such circumstances is for a revolution in Macedonia or Albania to break out, such a revolution as will force the intervention of Russia and Austria, and therefore of the other Great Powers. The Greeks in Constantinople, whose fortnight's notice to quit must be now about terminating, and they may create a diversion in the Turkish capital that might have far-reaching effects. The chances for Greece are by no means exhausted ; but, so far as pure fighting goes, she has not, to use a colloquialism, the ghost of a show. She threw away her best chance at the panic and flight from Larissa. The interest in the gSune will from now increase in intensity, and the changing scenes may result in that greater cataclysm, the mere thought of which gives the statesmen of Europe the cold-shivers.