WAVERING—OR TREACHEROUS?-GREECE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIX, Issue 285, 2 December 1915, Page 4

WAVERING—OR TREACHER-OUS?-GREECE.

Greece is a longtime making up her mind, and both at Paris and at Rome—the Latins * understand th« sinuous and subtle Greek mind much better, we fear, than it is understood in Lohdon^-there is clearly no small suspicion that King Constantine, "egged on" to mischief by his German wife, is still plotting some act of treachery at Salonika and elsewhere. Dr Dillon, whose is probably the acutest mind that has ever been brought to bear upon the interminable complications and entanglement of Near Eastern diplomacy, politics, and intrigue, continues to issue gravely-worded warnings against any dependence being, placed by the Allies upon the Greek- word, however solemnly it may be" plighted. "Bankrupt of honor' 5 is .a. hard phrase to j apply to a civilised country; but -Greece, unfortunately, has shown by her treacherous desertion of Serbia that it applies just "as correctly to her •as it does to the country of liars and ( assassins whose rulers so cynically ! and callously broke: faith with poor little Belgium. It is to be hoped [■•that the Franco-British fleet .is still conveniently handy to Piraeus, for we should never be surprised were."a bombardment of the Greek capital and its port to prove the only decisive means by wheh Greece may be brought to her senses. Meanwhile it is welcome news that the Allies have 45,000 additional men en route to Salonika, and that 4000 were landing, there daily two" or three days ago. These, added to the 125,000 already in Macedonia, make up a force of not very far from 200,000.. In the opinion of some of the so-called military experts nothing-.short-of 400,000 will be sufficient to prove- to Greece—and, indirectly, to Rouuiania—that the Allies are- taking the Balkan campaign as seriously as it should betaken. The fact that Lord Kitchener has asked Greece . to permit the landing of Allied troops at ports other than Salonika would seem to imply that the campaign is to be conducted in future on a much more comprehensive scale. But so far we have no news as to whether the Greek consent will be forthcoming from the pro-German Government at Athens. In'"" the'-long run we quite expect that na^aF action will alone secure the desired permission, and the equally important demobilisation of the Greek ai'mytf'tvfcich, so long as it remains ready, for war, must be -regarded as offering, a grave menace to the safety of the Allied forces already in Macedonia. :.\