NO FOOD, NO FIGHT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10479, 26 June 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

NO FOOD, NO FIGHT.

HOW TUp GREEK TEOOPS WERE STARVED.

A letter from a war correspondent with the Greek western army, dated Arta, April 25, shows how the weakness of the Greek commissariat and transport service caused the complete failure of the campaign in Epirua,

On Friday last, he writes, the sixth regiment was at Phiiippiade, and early in the morning the men had a meal of bread and water. They then left Phiiippiade, and marched by easy stages to a spot near Pentepigadia, which wae reached about six in the evening. No provisions of any kind were brought up for the men that night, The next morning there was still nothing for them to eat, and they were ordered to march back to Phiiippiade. Tired out, and in a famished condition, tlio poor fellows commenced the retreat. Many ol them were unable to keep their places in the ranks, and the sides of the road were lined with hundreds of men who had fallen out from hunger and fatigue. ][ the division of the Turkish army which was n few miles behind had advanced, it could simply have annihilated the Greek force a3 it crawled back to Phiiippiade. Arrived there, the soldiers still had no provisions served out, and when I left them on Saturday afternoon they were still waiting to be fed. They bad been thirty hours without food. It may be urged that the difficulties gf conveying provisions forward »long a bad road in a mountainous district are very great, but the same state of affaire actually exists in Arta itself, the base of military operations at this end of the frontier. This afternoon, in the main street of Arta, I found a crowd of soldiers who were

ALMOST 3IAD WITH HUNGER. They had assembled before a provision store, and were battering the door with the butt ends of their rifles. When it was broken open a wild rush was made to secure the spoil, when a colonel rode up and endeavoured to disperse them. In a moment he was surrounded by a mob of starving men, who, utterly regardless of discipline, crowded round hie horse, seized the reins and stirrups, and loudly clamoured for bread. Later in the day I witnessed a similar scene in the open space immediately opposite the Commander-in-Chief'e headquarters. A small sack of tobacco was. lying in the middle of the square, and 200 or 300 men were fighting to obtain a portion wherewith to appease thepangs of hunger. Finally, the Coiniuahderin-Chief came down and made a speech, in which he'appealed to the inen to maintain order. This speech he repeated in another part of the town, where a mob of soldiers had assumed a threatening attitude. An army is in a bad way when its general has to resort to street, corner oratory to maintain discipline, and when hunger has driven its members to desperation. When, on the fourth day of war, the Turkish Army retreated belter, 'skelter towards Janina the Greeks had a .'grand, opportunity, but bad leadership and worse organisation seem to havo thrown that opportunity away again.