THE FUTURE OF GREECE

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14842, 6 December 1913, Page 4

THE FUTURE OF GREECE

MB PESIBER REBVES'S HOBBY. A VIGOROUS NATIONALITY. (ntOU OUK OWN CORREIFOIfBZNX.) LONDON, October 29: New Zealanders in London have sometimes expressed their curiosity as to why Mr Pember Reeves, who is so ■well known in entirely different studies, should have appeared in print so often lately as the champion of "the claims of Greece in the partition of the territory conquered from the Turks. Mr Reeves has been writing regularly throughout the period of Balkan unrest, and has been accepted as an au- ,, thoritative voice on the subject. In conversation this, week Mr Reeves told mc that the future of Greece wae not at all a new study with him. Ho happened to be in England, when little more than a lad, in 1875, when the revolt of Herzegovina against the suzerainty of Turkey was the talk of the day, and he remembers Lord John Russell, as one of the last acts of his life, writing to '-'The Times" and offering to head, with £50, a subscription list for the assistance of the. Herzegovinians. From that time onwards ho has followed closely every development of the young nations in the Balkans, and the gradual pushing of the Turk out of Europe.. "Many years ago," said Mr Reeves. "I wrote my first article on behalf of the claims of the Greeks for territorial expansion and union with Crete; in fact, it was in New Zealand a quarter of a century ago. My friend Sir Charles Dilke was a very strong supporter of their claims. Then I have had many Greek friends here, including my neighbour Mr Geunadiuß, the Greek Minister, at whose house I have met many interesting and loarned men. Mr Gennadius, by the way, possesses one of the most beautiful libraries of Greek bonks that there are in private hands, beautiful both on of the books themselves and their bindings." Last January Mr Reeves joined the JEgeari Islands Committee, a body of Phil-Hellenes formed for the purpose of working for the deliverance of the /Egean Islands from the Turks. He was also elected a member of the Balkan Committee in London f and at the suggestion of his friends ' began writing to the papers in the interests of the Balkan Christians, particularly the Greeks. ' 1

Questioned as to the present prospects in the Balkans, Mr Reeves said, naturally one would only prophesy with great reservations, but, personally, he was more optimistic than most people seemed to be. Hβ was one of the not largo body of people who from the rery outset, in October, 1912, believed that the Allies must win. He was aware that the organisation of the Allies, particularly the Bulgarians and the Greeks, was very much better than people commonly'supposed. As for the Greeks, what he judged by most was the reorganisation of the country under M. Venizclos, whose "extraordinary eu=cess was on© of the most remarkable things in the way of revivals that any country had ever experienced. Though the Greeks are a race of extraordinary intelligence, great prominence in trade and the best friends of education in the whole of the East, yet their governmental administration was bad. The saving clause was that the people were intelligent enough to be ashamed of their government and determined that it should be improved if they could find the man to do it. Thero was the raxco feeling abroad in Greece five years agOv that last year in America brought President Wilson into office." After the first Balkan war, when the Turk was on his knees and tho Allies showed tho first symptoms of dissension, Mr Reeves was one of those interested in this country who made earnest so-

peals to Jthe Balkan a rupture, \but all efforts were unavailing. M. Venlzelos was almost tno only loader amongst the Allies , who was.at all responsive. "The Bulgarian war party went mad and attacked their Allies." The only consolation for the loss of the Bulgarian conquests is that the territory which has gone back to Turkey is not, and never has' been, Bulgarian in sentiment. "The Greeks and Armenians," continued Mr, Reeves, "were on the whole quite prepared to welcome the Bulgarians as their deliverers,' but they have been so frightfully exasperated and terrorised that they will now prefer Turkish rule if they get anything like decent treatment. J . Mr Reeves considers the hopes of a settlement now are not really bad. The Servian element in Macedonia has fallen largely to # Servia, and Servia is likely to conciliate the Albanian and Bulgarian elements as time goes on. Montenegro, again, gets territory mainly peopled by her own race, and the largo territorial gains of the Greeks are almost entirely peopled by their - own race, with a Mussulman minority which prefers the Greek to any other Christian sovereignty. The Greeks, says Mr Reeves, whatever their faults may have been, are tolerant, and Jews and Turks have lived and will continue to live in perfect security under Greek rule.

Mr Reeves mentions, as an example of the intense patriotism of the Greeks,, the fact that during the late war about one-third of the army in the field, i.e., 70,000 out of 200,000 men, had come voluntarily from oversea, chiefly, from America, to fight for their country. Ho believes there is no historical parallel for such enthusiasm. , The British Consul at Patras, where the travellers from the Weet land, states that about 50,000 returning Greeks must have landed there during the war. The position of Greece to-day is largely due to the extraordinary resolution" of character and administrative skill of M. Venizelos. He is not a great speaker, but his character and abilities appeal to the people and point him out as the man for the needs of Greece.