TOPICS OF THE TIMES

Southland Times, Issue 19653, 2 October 1922, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE TIMES

Constantine, popularly known as “Tino,” was born at Athens in 1868, and in 1913, at the end of the Balkan War, succeeded his father, King George, on the assassination of the old King at Salonika on the sth March, 1913. He achieved great popularity, during the war against Turkey in 1913 by the capture of Jamina, anti became king at the height of his fame. He married in 1899 Sophia, Princess of Prussia, sister of the then Kaiser William 11., and the Crown Prince George, who succeeds him, is the eldest son, born in 1890. Constantine’s natural leaning to Germany, where he received his military training, was enhanced by the influence of the Queen, with the result that during the Great War Greece deserted Serbia, her former ally, and was a constant thorn in the side of the Allies at Salonika. Constantine even went so far as to surrender Fort Ruppel and other important military positions to the Bulgarians, thus enabling them for nearly three years to bar the way to Salonika. The Allies took action against the nest of intrigue at Athens in 1917, and Constantine had to quit. His second son, Alexander, became King, and Venizelos, who had been banished by Constantine, returned. The Greeks threw themselves heartily into the war on the side of the Allies. They were mainly instrumental in bringing about the Bulgarian debacle in September, 1918. Under Venizelos again, Greece gained more than, any other nation out of the war for the effort she had expended, but the fickle Greeks, when Alexander died, through the bite of a pet monkey, in 1920, by a plebiscite brought back Constantine, and Venizelos went once more into exile. How Const amine in less than two years undid the great work of Venizelos has been quite clear to the world through recent events. He must be regarded as mainly responsible for the Greek disasters in Asia Minor. His abdication was almost inevitable, and the Greeks will once more turn to Venizelos, perhaps too late. Not much is known about the new King, except that he is generally believed to hold the views of his father, whom he followed into exile after the abdication of 1917. On account of his pro-German proclivities, he was passed over by the Allies in favour of his younger brother, the late King Alexander, a more passive character. Prince George married last year at Bucharest Elizabeth, Princess of Rumania, so that at least by royal alliance Greece is still linked with the Little Entente.

In an explanatory statement to representatives of the press the other day, Mr Lloyd George said if the war spread to Thrace, where national rivalries existed, there might be a conilagrarian, not easily extinguishable. Racial conditions justify the grim picture. The existing rivalries touch the varying interests of Turks, Greeks, Bulgarians, Jews, Armenians, Serbs and descendants of desert tribes, now settled amidst Europeans, but neither absorbed nor absorbable into European stability. They are Arabs, Kurds, and other Mohammedans, whose only bond of unity, is centred in the Caliph. The Sevres Treaty boundaries extended west of Adrianople, and thus deprived both Turkey and Bulgaria, not only of that busy town, but also the important Kazas, adjacent to it. The geographical changes in Thrace alone affected the local interests of 348,000 Greeks, 442,000 Turks, 70,000 Bulgarians, 9500 Jews, and 3500 Armenians. In Asia Minor the racial disparities on a population basis were even more pronounced. It should Ire noted, however, that, as admitted at the Paris Conference, it is almost impossible to obtain exact returns of racial populations in the former Ottoman Empire. Religion and politics play dominant pcrts in the taking of a census. Jn Western Thrace, for example, Bulgaria, with a desire to ju.st.ify an outlet to the .-Egeaia Sea, has always overstated her territorial population. A Turkish census is fantastic at its best since the computators sympathise with the Turk’s love of evading taxation as much as possible, and throwing the make-weight upon the infidel. It is recognised, however, that apart from unreliable statistics there arc sufficient different populations to create in Thrace, under wellmanaged provocation, seven Irelands at Ireland’s worst.