CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 70, 22 November 1915, Page 5

CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

I Greece is certainly on the eve of ■being thrown into the maelstrom of ■War on either our side or on that of ■the Centra}, powers.,, Kitchener Bras arrived. ; and iip^edi■Wtely following ririi r\i;;'iyal he had an Binterview. pf jin hour s durBation witji ,King Constantine, who had Impressed a . flqsire to the Great War Chief-1 Pie upshot of this in-, terview is . unknown, , but indications from both, sides per the pr.ess portend that at that interview Kitchener did most of the. talking, The Frankfurter 1 Zeitung. states that it is feared that the visit of Kitchener may bring | about a complete change, in Greece’s policy immediately. That statement, from such a newspaper of semi-official status, is an admission that rarely comes from |the enemy. Two Eng- : lish journals openly discuss the question that as the Entente powers guaranteed the constitution and independ- > effce of Greece' they would hq, quite justified in l dethroning bv -suspending { Constantine, who is undoubtedly (r,nl- . ing unconstitutionally and’ihaa.gaiged his present 1 advantage by ~ a ~c ( oup •• d’etat. I ■' rtr—1 —— ... ..It .was these powers that saved Greece' from extirpation at the hands of the Turks in 1897. Then through • the intervention of Britain, Greece suffered little loss' of territory, and got off with an indemnity of £3,t)00,000, nearly the whole of which sum was supplied by the Powers that intervened. In recent years Britain has Secured several trading monopolies, especially in the currant trade. In 1905 a most-favored commercial treaty with Britain was signed. Therefore, it is easily seen that Greece practically owes her existence to the Entente Powers, Moreover, she has been granted favorable commercial relations with Britain, who alone deals with over a •fourth part of the whole export and import trade of Greece. The argument is, that tlie Powers have guaranteed Greece’s constitution and her independence, and as such are justified in dealing with the Monarch who has defied the Constitution (guaranteed by them) in the manner which to them seems fit. They guaranteed the Constitution, and as that constitution is upset they must make that guarantee good.

But there is the difficulty of dealing with Constantine, who it seems certain has the army at his hack, whose favor and love he won in the recent Balkan wars. Unless Constantine ' is made to comply with the Entente’s wishes peaceably, active measures on the Allies’ part would be a matter requiring very careful and decisive attention. That attention seems to be the whv and wherefor of Kitichener s mission. In any case, he seems to have given the hall a push, and made . the obstinate Monarch come down to reason and realise his unconstitutional proceeding. Constantine must learn • that though the wishes of his German v friends backed by the army are very strong, the wishes of the State as a State and of the Constitution he represents, backed by the Allies insistence . on compliance with the Serbian Treaty, the majority of his Parliament, ie threat of severance of trade with Bn- ’ tain, the presence of a powerful fleet under steam at Malta, and the claims of Conscience and Morality are tie stronger. The odds are that Constantine has fbund that the Entente as «£ resented by a man of “K of K s can ' bre cannot lie trifled with longe However, the next days should unra\el the tangle, and then when sides are called, we will know who our friend^

are. Constantine may stab the Allies in the back,: hut he must not forget his own hack—and head. • ' ■ •;,( : 1 " For some considerable time operations have been going on in Central Africa in Nyasalahd. The campaign is a t ybfy arduous' one, ’and the 1 result of tile fighting is-little known. The object of both forces is the Capture of £lle territory 1 owned by the adversaries around Lakes Tanganyika German),' and Portuguese East Africa and Bptish denral Africa. ( it-has'an area of about lt,oQo'. sqarp miJeg. Kyasa was first visited by Livingstone in 18-59. ~ British and German steamers run on the lake. Lake Tanganyika. lies i south-west of Xyasa and is about 13,000 square miles in area. The shores belong politically, the east) to Germany, the southern to Britain, and the western toi Belgian Congo Tanganyika is remarkable for its floating'islands!' The news to-, day staljesi-that the position on both lakes’ ‘is; ‘ well in hand. Very little is kfibwin of the; actual fighting, - except thrib at times reports come to hand ! of give-and-take fighting. Probably the German possessions in the regions 'are' being attacked from Brit-, ish Central Africa and British East AfricS. As ' a matter of fact Tanganyika is linked up to Dar-es-Salaam by railway.