CRETE UNDER THE CONCERT,

Otago Witness, Issue 2325, 22 September 1898, Page 27

CRETE UNDER THE CONCERT,

(W. Miller, in " Cosmopolis " for June: article dated from Candia, April, 1898.) Tantum religio potuit suadexe malorum! When I arrived at Canea, after a three days' tossing off the inhospitable coast of the Peloponnesos, my first impression of Crete was that the new Governor, whatever his other qualifications, should at least bo a good sailor. My second feeling, aa I landed on the quay, was that of all towns in the East which I had ever visited' Canea was the most picturesque, and, at the same time, the most cosmopolitan. During my stay in the place I became more and more struck by the extraordinary interest attaching to this quaint little port, which has hean for the last 15 months the pivot of the Jiistern question. On the quay and in the streets of Cauea all nationalities meet, all tongues are spoken, all currencies pass muster. The porters who shoulder your luggage in the drowsy custom house, where ragged Turkish officials doze over their nargileh in blissful indifference to all that is going on around them, are coal-black negroes or dusky Arabs ; side by side with these hewers of wood and drawers of water, who do all the manual work of Canea, stand groups of tall Cretans with their handkerchiefs tied over their heads, and with that other marked characteristic of these strapping islanders, a clear interval of bare leg between their "top-boots and their baggy blue breeches. Then there are Jews in thick mantles, and shabby Turkish soldiers, looking, for all their pluck, a sorry spectacle beside the well-groomed, regularly paid, and smartly-trained detachments of the five Great .Powers, whose sentries pace to and fro along the quay — for on my arrival the Austrians were still in Crete; five flags, besides the Turkish, still waved on the historic mound upon the ramparts, and Germany alone had '* laid down the flute." And, to complete the picture, you had but to pass beneath the old Venetian gateway into the market place to find the crimson-clad Montenegrin gens d'armes sauntering along, head and shoulders over most of the passers by, with their revolvers protruding from tho silaf at their waists, and ever ready to talk of their native mountains. Up in the town the work of clearing away the ruins and rebuilding the houses, destroyed in the fire of February last year, had begun apace, and the noise of the joiners' saws seemed an omen of returning confidence. The Greek archbishop, the despotes, as they call him, was still obliged to reside in a temporary abode, for his palace is as yet unrestored. But the rest of the town was undoubtedly more prosperous than it had been since the Cretan troubles began. An hotel that could fairly be called European was a surprise to a traveller accustomed, like myself, to the filthy accommodation and scanty fare of a Gieek or Bulgarian khan. If the European concert has not done much for Crete, it has, at least, given its name to a restaurant at Caneu, and enabled a swarm of marine cafes to flourish, while under its patronage a variety theatre where Italian operetta is nightly performed exhibits to the scornful Mussulman the amusements of Western civilisation. Even the boot blacks of Canea have learned to swear and beg for bakshish in six European languages, and the barbers have discovered that it is the privilege of Englishmen to pay double for a shove. But the advantages of the present government of Crete are by no means apparent when one comes, to talk to the people. Duriac jot

stay in the island I have had opportunities of interviewing persons of all sorts and conditions — Europeans as well as Cretans, Mussulmans as well as Christian — with regard to the work of the Great Powers, and their unanimous verdict is that the collective wisdom of Europe has made mistakes which any three men of ordinary common sense could easily have avoided. I need not allude to the international jealousies of the Powers, for they have long been patent to all who have studied the history of the Eastern question. But in Crete a further complication has arisen out of the conflicting jurisdictions of the various officials employed by each Power. The naval authorities have come in conflict with the military ; the advice ot the consuls, who have spent years in the island, has, in some cases, been neglected for that of persons who knew little or nothing about it. On one occasion one of these latter showed his ignorance of the situation by issuing a proclamation in Turkish, whereas in Crete the Mussulmans, no less than the Christians, with few exceptions speak Greek as their mother tongue, and know very little Turkish. Our own naval men are excellent fellows, but most of them know hardly anything about Crete, and do not show the least interest in the country or its people. The amount of money that has been spent by Europe in Cretan waters since the disturbances began is calculated to have just exceeded twice the value of the island. Great Britain alone has expended £16,000 on the new huts for her soldiers. She pays the natives £150 a month for keeping the streets clean at Candia — an innovation that simply -astounded the inhabitants, and has nearly starved the street dogs of the place, but which has made it one of the sweetest towns of the East — and provides a special steamer for distilling water for her troops, which before were decimated with typhoid. How Italy can stand the cost of the occupation no one can understand, unless, as some whisper, Great Britain pays < for the coal which her big men-of-war require at Suda. Germany did the whole affair on the cheap from the very first, and Russia has no lack of roubles for the Cretans. At the market outside Candia, which I attended, the Russian representative carried a bag of napoleons, which he distributed to the Cretan chiofs, to the disgust of some of the spectators, and the amusement of others. There can bo_ no doubt that the Russian Foreign Office is maintaining a very active propaganda in Crete, and that the Tsar's zeal on behalf of Prince George is no more disinterested than were his grandfather's efforts on behalf of free Bulgaria. But the action of the Russians in disarming the Mussulmans of Rettimo was generally < praised by the British, and the personal relations between our men and theirs, as, indeed, between the soldiers of all the Powers, have been good. It was amusing to hear the good-natured efforts of Tommy Atkins to make himself understood by the Italians of Canea, with whom the British private was on the best of terms. Even the French and the Italians, despite the Zola case, got on well together, though the Mussulmans do not appreciate the French method of managing them. The disturbance at Canea about the middle of April was due to a quarrel between the French and the Turkish soldiers, and 1 am told that the Russians and the Italians are at present the most popular with the Cretans. It should, however, be mentioned to the credit of the British troops at Candia that, since the sole occupation of that town by them, there has not been a single case in which any outrage has been committed on a Mussulman woman. When' the Italians were there, they sometimes got into trouble for pranks of this kind ; but the British, who are encamped on the rsjwparls and not in the town itself, are kept in perfect order, are not allowed in the streets except in small parties, and aa:e forbidden to drink except at their own canteen. The confidence which Colonel Sir Herbert Chermside enjoys with the Mussulmans, who form the vast majority of that town since the flight of the Christians, is a most important factor in the situation there. But the military cordon round Candia, which is kept by Turkish soldiers, compares unfavourably with that round Canea, which is guarded by international troops. During my stay at Candia, a man was shot and a boy of 11 wounded (on April 14) by the Turkish guardians of the cordon near Arkhanies, though the man, a Christian, was well within Christian territory. Such cases are not uncommon; while I crossed the Canea cordon, at that time policed by Italian bersaglieri, with two ladies, on my way to visit the "insurgents " at Aliakanai, without the least risk. The Christian outposts received our party with the most courteous hospitality, offering us wine and small slices of bakala, or codfish, for which they refused all payment. At the village beyond, not far from the spot where Colonel Vassos pitched his camp last year, a whole band of armed Christians turned out to receive us. Chairs and a table were placed in the street ; coffee and oranges — the bplendid Cretan oranges, which recall those of Jaffa — wore set before us. One of our hosts harangued us in French and another in Italian, upon the woes of their country, and the women and children bade us God-speed, and showered bouquets of orange blossom upon us, amid shouts of "Zeto he 'Anglia — Long live England." Yet no Mussulman dared have visited this spot^ just aa no Christian could cross the cordon in safety and enter the bazaar at Candia. Even an Italian soldier who wore a fez was nearly shot by mistake for a Moslem near this spot where we had quietly sipped our coffee. This isolation of the two parties in hostile camps is a pressing^ difficulty, which results from the concentration of the Mussulmans in the coast towns, and of the Christians in the interior of the island. The former have burned, or occupied, the houses of the latter in the towns ; the latter have ravaged or seized the fields of the former in the country. At Oanea it was exclusively the quarter inhabited by the Greek Orthodox population that suffered from the flames, and it was' noted that the Turkish soldiers, evidently acting on orders, protected the Catholic Church. At Candia, out of a population at present estimated at from 40,000 to 50,000, only from 200 to 500 Christians remain. Not the least thorny problem that awaits the future Governor of Crete is the reinstatement of the respective parties in their previous homes, or the compensation or buying out of the present occupants. The suggestion that the Mussulmans will solve the problem by emigrating, as they have largely done in Bulgaria, is not regarded as probable in tho case of those who have land or money. Much tact, much patience, and much money will be needed for the settlement of this very practical difficulty. At present the household goods of the Christians who have fled from Candia to Greece are piled up in the large cathedral of the town. There I saw higgledy-piggledy, pianos, tables, chairs, even cases of wine, with the names of their owners scrawled roughly upon them. So crammed was the building with these pieces of furniture that it resembled a pantechnicon rather than a church. All service there is impossible, and the tiny chapel beside it has to be used instead; but even it is more than sufficient for the few, Christians who linger in

Candia. At Canea, where the preponderance of the Mussulmans is less marked, I attended worship in the cathedral, the upper part of which is used as an office for the distribution of relief to the starving. But, perhaps, the saddest instance of the fratricidal warfare between the Christians and Mussulmans of the island, both, be it remembered, of the same race and both speaking the same language, is to be found in a village called Mournies, about an hour outside Canea, where the two creeds dwelt side by side in about equal numbers. At this place, which I visited with the Russian vice-consul, not a single house remained intact. The two rival parties had, with fiendish ingenuity, destroyed every vestige of each otherd' homes, save a few charred rafters and a fow rusty old pots and pans ! And this in the midst of one of the most lovely scenes that the human mind can imagine. As we walked through the ruins of what was once a happy village, the air was laden with the scent of the lemon blossom and the song of the nightingale fell upon our ears ; wildflowers covered the ground, and through the foliage we could see in the distance the snow-capped range of the White Mountains rising into the azure blue sky and just reddened by the sun. We had seen, too, in the charming garden of a rich Bey at the adjoining village of Kunara (" the fir-tree ") what the gardener's art could do in this splendid climate, where, indeed, "every prospect pleases." As we passed thiough the fields of what had once been olive trees, and where all that remained were blackened stumps — Sir Alfred Biliotti told me that 2,000,000 olive trees, valued _at £1 a piece, had bc'on destroyed altogether — I recalled that terlible epigram of the Roman poet: " Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum." For, cf Crete, no less than of Bosnia, under the Turks, religious fanaticism has been the curse. Fortunately, there is some light in this dark picture. 1 may instance a case told me by Herr Berinda, the able agent of the AustrianLloyd at Candia, who has had 28 years' experience of Crete. This gentleman had a Mussulman, whose half-brother was a Christian, in his employ. When the disturbances were beginning, the Mussulman went to his brotfier, of whom he was very fond, told him that he could not save him from an outburst of fanaticism if he stayed in the place, and furnished him with money and an opportunity for flight from Crete, and offered him half of everything le possessed. The Cretans are, no doubt, naturally fond of fighting ; an Austrian officor, who know them well, remarked to me " that they were born into the world with a rifle in their hands," and even in Aristotle's time their training was entirely military. (En Krote pros tous polemous syntetaktai schedon lie paideia.) But those who live among them speak with much sympathy of their gentler characteristics, while it is reserved for those who know them slightly to describe them as " liars and cowards, whose idea of battle is to take pot shots at an enemy at long range from behind a rock." There are, too, some germs of culture to be found among them. I know one old Cretan Mussulman of Oandin, whose schoolroom is hung with maps of the United Kingdom and Australia, whose little girl read to me out of a shilling English primer how " a fat cat sat on a mat," and whose son has carried off all the prizes at a French school. 'Jlhis worthy gentleman's one regret is that there is no English clergyman in Candia to teach him and his family our language, and, as he took me over the library of French books which the Alliance Francaise has founded in his town, he complained that the British neglected to spread their language in the Levant. At a luncheon party, which this advanced reformer gave in the garden of a Mohammedan tekkeh, or monastery, I was privileged to see how far he had gone in the direction of manners. There were other guests of like opinions at the picnic, whose views on the position of women in Turkey — that corner stone of the Eastern problem — argued well for the future of their town. No one, too, can fail to be pleased with the bright faces and intelligent looks of the Cretan children, both Christians and Mussulmans, on whom that future will to some extent depend. It was pleasant, too, to see the Christian and Mussulman chiefs sit down to discuss the situation with Sir A. Biliotti and Colonel Sir H. Ohermeide at the open air market at Halmyro, which I visited on April 13, for this is a hopeful sign for peace. Wretched as the government of this fine island has been for centuries, poor as its social life must necessarily be under Turkish rule, one not only finds the most intense love of their country among, the natives, but oven foreigners become attached to the place. A German, whose wife had been sent to her home in the Fatherland for safety during the disturbances, told me that she, no less than he, was devoted to the island, in which for 11 years he had resided. And in two widely different spheres there was peace even during the worst moments of religious fanaticism. The first was the small Greek church of the Monks of Sinai, at Candia, which enjoys a special firman of protection from one of the Sultan's predecessors, and whose priest was able to cultivate his tiny garden with equanimity all the time. The other consisted of two leper villages, one outside Canea, the other beyond the walls of Candia, where the wretched victims of a common misfortune, though of different creed, live at peace with each other. What is at this moment the greatest evil in Crete is the uncertainty of the future. With few exceptions, all parties in the island wish some settlement of the Cretan question. Some of the Christians, who are in possession of the Mussulmans' fields and vineyards, would prefer the present state of things to continue till the harvest and the vintage are over. Some of the low class of Mussulmans, who have nothing to lose, and about 40 Beys, who have been at tho bottom of every agitation, would prefer the prolongation of the present confusion. But most of the well-to-do Cretans of both creeds are sick of this civil war, and would, I am told, welcome any real solution of the difficulty that the Powers might propose. Only let that solution come at once. At the present moment, the candidature of Prince George " holds the field," and it may therefore be of interest to state the opinions of representative persons in the island on this question, which I submitted to everyone whom I considered as likely to know the requirements of the Cretans. So far as the Christians are concerned, there is no doubt whatever that they would welcome the Prince with entlmsiasm. But, like all the Cretans, being intensely insular, they will probably resent in the long run the bestowal of offices upon the little band of continental Greeks who are certain to accompany Prince George from Athens. Place-hunting in Crete, as on the mainland, is a favourite pursuit with the educated, and the cry will soon go up that the natives are being ousted by the new-comers. Moreover, if the Prince attempts, as is likely, to be absolutely impartial to Christians and Mussulmans, he wilJ disappoint the hopes of the former, who expect to have things all their own way. Statistics are very hard to obtain in Crete, but according to the census made under Photiades Pasha in 1881 (the last figures procurable), there were 205,000 Orthodox Greeks and only 73,234 Mussulmans in the island, in spite of the efforts of the Turkish Government to increase the number of the. latter by the enumeration of

the Arabs. Hitherto, thanks to the Turkish Government and the Turkish soldiers, this minority has been able to regard itself as the dominant class; but, with a Greek Prince as Governor, there will be a danger that the majority will endeavour to override the rights of the minority and will resent the well meant efforts of the new ruler to preserve fair treatment for all. The M\iSßulmans, however, with the few exceptions above-mentioned, would probably accept the Prince, provided that he came with the consent of the Sultan, and also providing that the Sultan, having given his consent, did not then intrigue against him. It is well known that this last rising was instigated from Constantinople, whence the usual arguments were applied to the inborn fanaticism of the Cretan Mussulmans and the usual orders issued to the Turkish soldiers. If Prince George be installed in Crete without the consent of the Sultan his life will not be safe, for all the Concert's ships and all its men cannot save him from the dagger of a resolute fanatic. That the Mussulmans will actively resist his appointment, if they are left to themelves, Ido not believe. But all persons whom I have consulted agree that two points are absolutely essential to his appointment. First, the Turkish troops must all be withdrawn before his arrival ; and, secondly, the International forces must remain for at least two, and possibly five, ye&va after it. So long as the Turkish soldiers remain, the Mussulman minority will feel tempted to indulge in its old feud with the Christian majority. On the other hand, there must be some force, and that a considerable one. to preserve, or rather to restore, order in tho island, for the whole of the interior is still in a state of confusion, and Crete is not merely, as the great Powers seem to have imagined when they entrusted authority to the admirals, three or four harbours and a coast line. Moreover, no Government can be really successful in Crete unless it has ample funds at its disposal for the development of the island. During the 229 years that have elapsed since the island surrendered after a 24- years' siege to their troops, the Turks have hardlj constructed one single public work._| •oept barracks and the water supply of CoiKua. the two essentials of a Mussulman Power. Theie is but one carriageable road in the islaiiQ, that which unites Canea and Suda. In Candia, the largest town in the island, there are no carriages, for the two that used to exist were last employed for the conveyance of the admirals on the Queen's Jubilee ' last year, on which occasion the bottoms of j both vehicles fell out, and the distinguished officers had to walk inside the bottomless machines ! During the brief Egyptian occupation attempts were made to improve the means of communication, but the Turks allowed them to deteriorate, and at present the only method of reaching the interior is by horse or mule — sometimes on a wooden saddle, which makes the rider feel every stone on the dry river bed, which here, as in other parts of Turkey, passes for a road. Not a bridge has been constructed since the Venetians left ; agriculture is still as primitive as in the time of the Arab or Roman domination, and the scheme of tramways, which has been advocated by M. Lyghounes, of Canea, has hitherto met with the opposition of the reactionary Beys, who fear, as their fellows did in Macedonia, when the railway was made from Salonica to Milrovica, that their property would suffer fjvjm the new facilities thus afforded. A 'good harbour, too, is badly wanted at Candia; in fact, in Crete everything has to be created, and nothing can be done without money, of which Prince George is not feneraUy supposed to have much at his disposal. For this reason, as well as on account of the Prince's inexperience, his wretched fiasco in the late war, and, above all, in consequence of the difference of creed among the Cretans, whom he would have to rule, not a few think — and I confess that I am one of them — that a Governor who was neither a Greek nor a Turk, but who had had experience in managing Orientals of different religions, would have been a far better choir e. Practically, only two countries could supply such a man — Great Drifcain from her Anglo-Indian officials^ and Austria- Hungary from her staff of administrators in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Great Britain having been excluded by Lord Salisbury's self-denying ordinance "and by the idea, universally prevalent in the Levant, that we want Suda Bay, an idea not shared, I may remark, by our naval officers on the spot, the choice is narrowed to an Austro-Hungarian subject. For ray part, having seen what has been effected in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the last 20 years under conditions very similar to those of Crete, I cannot conceive of any better selection, and have met several AustroHungarian officials who would fulfil all the requirements of the post. For, in Bosnia, as in Crete, there never were many actual Turks outside the few Pashas sent there to govern the country, but the population, Christian and Mussulman alike, were of the same race, being in Bosnia both Serbs, and in Crete both Greeks. Under such circumstances, no one but an outsider could deal out even-handed justice to both parties. Ido not doubt that Prince George will endeavour to do so, but he must rely on advice, either upon the foreign consuls or upon 'extreme partisans of either side — Greek advocates or Mussulman Beys — while an experienced European administrator would be able to judge for himself. Moreover, if the Concert of Europe had any sense of humour, or conducted its affairs on busi-ness-like principles, it would hardly entrust the difficult task of governing Crete to a young man, who had signally failed in the one thing that he has undertaken. Such an arrangement as I have supwested would not prevent the ultimate union of Crete with Greece, should the Cretans desire it. As far back as November 16, 1866, during the Cretan insurrection of that year Prince Gortschakoff wrote to his ' Ambassador in Paris : ' 'Nous ne voyons qu' une issue possible, e'est l'annexion de la Candie au royaume de Grece." But on this last point I venture to express my doubts. Having seen a good deal of the lonian Islands, I know tho immense decline in material prosperity which has resulted from their annexation to the Greek Kingdom and their removal from the British protectorate. They now have to j,ay the high Greek taxes, little or nothing of which is spent on the islands ; while in the British days highly-paid officials expended all their salaries on the spot. Cretans themselves have informed me that if the island could enjoy for a spell of years the blessings of Western government, of which, as yet, the mass of ] the islanders can form no idea whatever, new having experienced it, the natives would hesi tate to purchase union with Greece at the price of high taxes, compulsory military service, and government from the mainland. At present, of course, there is a keen desire for union among most of the Cretan Christians, whose views may be summarised in the remarks which the archbishop made to me: "A daughter loves her mother, however poor she j may be." But at this moment the Cretan j Christians are hardly in a position to judge on this point. They rightly feel that anything would be better than Turkish rule; theycannot compare the relative advantages of Western with Greek administration. At

any rate, a preliminary period of European government would be the best possible preparation from the material standpoint for them, as it was for the lonian Islanders. But anything is preferable to the Turkish rule of this magnificent island. Eight time* this century has Crete risen in insurrection, and, so far as material progress is concerned t the island was better off in the seventeenth century than it is now. The recent Turkish Governors have, with the exception of Photiades and Karatheodory, been either knaves or fools. One of them earned the difficult distinction of being the greatest thief in the empire. Another was so weak that at a crisia he burst into a flood of tear 3, and besought a newspaper correspondent to save him ; whila a third, having scraped together a sufficient income, fled from his post, and is now living abroad. None of them pretend to do anything for public security in the island; in fact, a Turkish Governor, on hearing that a certain European had passed many years in. Crete, naively remarked, "Ah, you must be a very courageous man." Of Turkish justice these two examples will suffice. There used to be an advocate who was brother-in-law of tho judge, and whose practice it was to put up his clients' cases to auction, by agreement with the counsel for the other side and with tho judge. The highest bidder obtained judgment. In another case a landed proprietor, whose sheep had been stolen, found the name of the thief inserted in place of his own on the writ. As the result of this error, he, and not the culprit, was arrested, put in prison for 10 days, and then tried and convicted for the theft of his own sheep ! That the Sultan wovild personally object to the virtual loss of Crete is doubted by those who know how little he gets out of it. The Cretan dues are paid into the douanes at Smyrna, and much of them stick on the way, while the cost of suppressing Cretan insurrections has been enormous. But Abdul Hamid has been bombarded with petitions from some of the local Beys, who have represented it as a question of national honour that the Turks should retain hold of an island which it cost their forefathers so many years to conquer, and the result of the late war has, of course, encouraged their friends at Constantinople. In Crete, at any rate, no one is very sanguine that Prinre George, or indeed any Governor, will arrive in the island for some time to come. Promptitude, above all else, is required in Crete, but how can that be expected from the Concert of Europe?