NOTES ON THE GABLES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16545, 19 November 1915, Page 6

NOTES ON THE GABLES.

THE KING OF GREECE. The news from the Balkans is not much more reassuring to-day than it was yesterday. The attitude of Greece is still peculiar. The peop.o apparently lean towards the Entente, but the King is still hedging. M. Cochin, the French Minister, who is visiting Athens, has received an enthusiastic reception, and this fact excites some curiosity as to the manner of the welcome which I/ord Kitchener will receive when ho visits King Constantino. There is some danger in undertaking such a visit, for some Bulgarian or pro-German assassin may conceive the idea.' of winning renown by attempting the life of the man who is, along with General JofTre, destined to destroy the power of Germany. There can be little doubt that Lord Kitchener will have something to tell King Constantino that will impress that inconstant monarch. Greece has had a slight touch of fright from the sudden application of Great Britain's power in temporarily holding up 90 of heT ships in British ports, and Franco ajid Italy should be able to increase the dose of such medicine. Greece, being the chief maritime country inside the Mediterranean, has much to lose. Her merchants, however favourably disposed towards German methods of trade, cannot view with equanimity the danger of the sudden destruction of the trade of Greece and the possible chance of the bombardment of their quays and warehouses by the fleets of the Allies. The matter, put plainly before them, should be impressive, and they and thoir bankers should in turn bo able to impress the fickle Constantino. GREEK HESITANCY AND ITS CURE. The Salonika correspondent of Le Journal, Paris, is the authority for the statement that the Balkan position is critical. " Our enemies have decided to nip the Balkan offensive in the bud." That means that the Auetro-German and Bulgarian plenipotentiaries and their swarms of spies and other agents arc watching every move of the Greek Council, and are endeavouring to undermine the feelings of the Greek people, who seem, on the whole, »to be favourable to the Entente. The chief attentions of these intriguers and plotters will, however, be directed to the officers of the State, and especially to those of the army. The Greeks are an excitablo and impressionable people, and the agents of the Kaiser are well primed in the methods of suborning the venal individuals who exist in no small numbers in that part of the world. Le Journal, Paris, is entirely pessimistic, and thinks no risks should be taken. It says that when the Austro-German and Bulgarian armies reach the frontier all hesitation will be cast aside, and Greece will throw overboard her attitucle of benevolent neutrality, which seems to be a catchword in the Balkans for watching which way "the cat will jump." The best way to impress Greece is to keep pouring troops into Salonika until the Allies are in the position, with the aid of their fleets, of holding that port, and the coast line towards Kavala, against allcomers. Greece has no rapid means of communication with Salonika, except by sea, and that road would be denied her by the Allied fleets. Her navy, if it came out, would soon bo destroyed. The bombardment of Dedcagatch by an almost obsolete Italian cruiser and the damage done there should make patent to the King of Greece the fate that will await many Greek ports should he act treacherously towards the Entente Powers. If any such act of King Constantino brought .about such a disastrous state of affairs in Greece, his life might not be worth three months' purchase. His recent illness, said to bo pleurisy, was, according to rumour, not due to organic weakness of the lungs, but was the result of a bullet well aimed by a Germanophil. It is asserted that the number of AustroGerman submarines has been quintupled in the JEgaan Sea. The Greeks have undoubtedly been led to assume that these boats would le able to protect their country from the warships of the Allies; but if a statement in an Italian paper that six enemy submarines have been captured by the Allies is worthy of credence, the value of the Austro-German submarine service will already have been greatly discounted. As the Russian Minister at Athens has pointed out, Greece is in the unenviable position of being between the hammer and the anvil. The brother-in-law of the Kaiser will be torn between the ties of family affection and his duty to the unfortunate country over which he rules. Some Italian and French papers express the opinion, that coercion is necessary. Such a proceeding might, however, produce a revulsion of feeling amongst those Greeks who arc favourable to the Entente. All that is needed is a sufficient show of power and the determination to act. Swiftness of action against Bulgaria, which cannot stand a long campaign, is all that is wanted. If the Russians intend to act, they should do so quickly, and the French, British, and Italians should land forces in the south ot Bulgaria as soon as possible, in order to cut the communications between Bulgaria and Turkey. Once those are cut, there would be a chance of Rumania seizing the opportunity of throwing ofll the Teutonic incubus. DR DILLON'S OPINION. Dr Dillon holds out no hopes that King Constantino will " play the game." He says he has first-hand knowledge that -,he Kaiser established a league of kings before the war broke out. It really required no man on the spot nor any man who has had the run of the Chancelleries of those States to. furnish such news. The relationships with the Hohonzollern States were there long before the war, and it was natural that the Kaiser should get " the inside running." Dr Dillon's opinions, however, are not completely overshadowed with gloom. When he says that the peoples of the Balkan States are "slippery," he implies that those "nations may yet throw off the royal coils that repres-5 the natural inclinations of the Greeks and Rumanians to throw in their lot with the Allies. THE OTHER THEATRES. A message from a Petrograd correspondent is somewhat disappointing. It suggests that there will bo no strong offensive on the part of the Russians before next spring, and says that the enemy has dug its claws deep into Russian territory. The idea conveyed in the cable is that the Russians will not be able to shift either the Germans in the north or the Austro-Gormans in the south. If so, they should hold them where they are and despatch what forces they can spare to the Black Sea. If the Germans have dug themselves into winter quarters, it moans that they too will make no heavy attacks before next spring. Russia should now bo able to arm the reserves she has been drilling. Heavy supplies are steadily arriving from Japan and America by way of the Siberian railway, and the new road from Ekaterina should enable her to augment her supplies from the markets of Britain and France. It seems that General Ruszky's pressure is compelling the abandonment of Mitau, and that the battle near Chartorysk, on the Stiyr, is going in favour of the Russians. In the western theatre the bombardment of the Gorman lines continues. It is evidently intended to demand from Germany that she shall require all her war material to defend herself in France instead of dissipating it in the direction of Turkey.