The Daily News MONDAY, AUGUST 16. THE CRISIS IN CRETE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 174, 16 August 1909, Page 2

The Daily News MONDAY, AUGUST 16. THE CRISIS IN CRETE.

Saturday's cables show tnat the position in Crete is creating some concern, aud unless a good deal of lcvel-headedncss and restraint among the Cretans •» shown a serious situation might easily be provoked. While the Cretan Government advise adherence to the recommendations of the Powers, especially in regard to the removal of the Greek Hag fiom the fort at Canea, the inhabitants', imbued with a chauvinistic spirit, declare they will all perish rather than lower the* Hag. The Powers, on the other hand, have intimated that they will re-occupy the island if their wishes arc not acceded to. The intimation has only produced further irritation among the Cretans. The Cretan Government are evidently alive to the seriousness' of the position, and promise "to yield to the wishes of the Powers, but a.sk for a short delay in view of the local ex eitement, 'while Turkey demands that Greece should be more explicit in its declaration regarding Crete. The essential facts of . the case are easily stated. Crete has been under Turkish rule for two hundred and forty years'. Its inhabitants are all Give':- ■ piobably the purest Greek stock k !•■■

found in the Levant. Even the native converts to -the Moslem faith—roughly speaking, one-tenth of the population, some; 30,000 of 300,000 though they side with Turkey and regard themselves as Turks (Crete being one of the many spots on this inexplicable earth of ours where nationality is determined by icligion), are really Gtrceks, and indistinguishable in race aiid language from their fellow islanders. .

The Christian majority have never acquiesced in the Ottoman dominion. They have rise;! in desperate rebellion against it time and again. Their one political desire is union with Greece. They arc a simple, tenacious, iitdaminahlo folk, with a sense of racial nationality that has become at once an instinct, an ideal, and a disease, illclli'iiUm im-n-is move to them than anything else under the sun. It is one of those deep-seated, primitive, unreasoning passions that in the long run breakthrough all the Carriers and artifices of diplomacy. They know that Greece is a chaos of faction and corruption; that her finances ar wholly dis'organised, her army worthless, and her future precarious. They know that union with her entails conscription and heavy taxation. Xevcrtheless, to be part of the Greek kingdom and under the Greek flag is the sum of all their hopes. And Greece reciprocates their longing. To obtain Crete the Greeks have defied Europe and fought Turkey, and would probably do so again. They have won nil but the final victory. Crete to-day is free in nearly everything but the name. After the ffreco-Tuvkish War of twelve years' ago the Powers expelled the Turkish troops from the island and took over its administration themselves, jarrisoning its ports and controlling i f 3 external affairs.

There are no Turkish olfieiuls in the island. The Cretans pay no tribute to their pseudo-Suzerain. For the past eleven years they have lieeu governed, with the sanction and under the supervision of the four Powers, first by a Prince of the Koyal House of Greece, and secondly by an ex-Prime Minister of the kingdom. Greek is the official language; the legal code has been remodelled in conformity with that of the Hellenic kingdom; the Cretan Hag 1., composed of the white and blue" of fireeee; tile Crotttn militia and gendarmerie are under Greek officers; Ihc very postage stamps' used by. the islanders nre those of Greece. Except that Crete like Cyprus, still suffers finaneiallv from having been once a part of the Ottoman system, anil cannot, for instance, alter its import dues without the assent of European bondholders, and except tli.it one-tenth of its population is still Mussulman, there is little or nothing to show that it had ever come jinder Turkish rule. Since its occupation by the Powers the island has prospered, and peace between Moslem and Christian bus been all but unbroken. The Powers fourteen months ago were so satislicd with its progress ns to promise the withdrawal o f the international troops by July, MOO. Xobodv at that time doubted that the withdrawal of the troops «onld be the sijnal for union with fireeee with the tacit consent of the Porte.

But in the last fourteen months much has happened. The old regime in Turkey has disappeared. The first result of it* downfall and of the Austrian and Bulgarian coups that followed it was that the Cretan Chamber voted immediate union with fireeee. t'nder the advice of the Powers fireeee neither accepted the offer jior rejected it. She held her hand, and with equal magnanimity and dis-' erction did nothing to add (o the difficulties of the Young Turks. But the question shelved hist October is now pressing for settlement. The Young Turks, however, are insistent tint, whatever happens, Crete must remain 'i recognised part of the Ottoman do-i minions. They declare that they have no wish or intention whatever to interfere with its present autonomous condition or to restore their vanished authority. They arc content with the status quo. But they are decidedly unwilling that the status quo' should be altered to their own disadvantage and to the advautago of Greece. They have lost Bosnia and Herzegovina; they have lost .their last titular hold over Bulgaria; they cannot afford to lose Crete also. If. a union with fireeee were (h----clared at Candia and a <•;■:■•.! Ed in Athens they would resist the l.k;« to their 1 prestige, if necessary, with force of arms On that point all that is vocal in Turkey is also unanimous. ' i

* Tli,. Cretans, „„ Uici,- f , im (h . l( ♦ then national iisphMLion.v arc perfectly » "'''U 11 (0 tile Towns, have , non . i than owe )„ tlic past ten years been w ioeo«rnised unit l»v tlirm—as. I for wli<>n tlio nomination oil i the governor of the island was entrusted [ tu km# of Orecce—and tliat the' I ° f evacuation, a ii,e not ► jv.tl.diwn even after the Cretan Chamber llatl voted union with Clrccce. is practically a European endorsement of 1 their •manifest .leMinv." Left to the,nsolve.-,', tl.Oy will unquestionably declare for incorporation into the Hellenic kineilojn, and the Greeks as unquestionably wi 1 give them a ready welcome. The risks, therefore, are of (rouWe between Christians and lbs loins in Crete, risks o.f developments that may precipitate a conflict between Turkey and fireeeo. Neither Greece .or 1 iirkoy. one may fairly assume, desires war. (,recce remembers 1807, and Turkey. in the present condition of her ! finances with her political prospect* ! still highly precarious, can have no wish 1 loi any fnrthp r distraction. Her best 1 interests undoubtedly lie in getting- rid f fo >' "» the complications 01 1 the C i clan problems. Hut this she does 0 not. and can hardly be expected to ' rccognfoe „t present. She will not treat with fl.eece; she apparently refects alogcn.or he of financial compensation Ye a solution which proved ad?.quale in the ,far more delicate cases of Bosnia and Herzegovina ought not to "fV Mmrt b tho ciis(! «f : T,lp Powers meanwhile cannot |>ol "lit an armed occupation of the . I'V either Turkey or fireece The widest thing they can do is' to re-occupy h m col, , an ' Tf!' H a* they ' . ™ncluete.l them for the/eleven eai, they were m oconpatioii. To « llio Crelans a free hand at nr<win, 7 manifestly fraught U wo U, ° l ,w " p <*