KAVALA.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 November 1915, Page 9 (Supplement)

KAVALA.

WUEKE BRITISH HAVE LAXDE'D. A .DEBATABLE LAND. A cable message retoiit.lv slated that ft British force was reported to hare Unded at Kavala, which lias been a source of contention between Greece and Bulgaria. "The Greco-Bulgarian di-pule hinges upon the rich tobacco country in and around Kavala." So Dr. Dillon wrote in August, ]!)].'!. when the negotiations preceding the treaty of Bucharest had reached a critical stage. By the unstable settlement which followed Greece secured what she claimed. The frontier between the two countries became the river and Mesla. so far as it runs north a prolongation of the same line. A year and a-half later, in January, l!)l"i, when M. Venizelos was working for (he reconstitution of the Balkan League and its intervention on the side of the Allies, he was ready to secure the adhesion of Bulgaria by proposing the surrender to her of some part of the territory which he had demanded in 1'913. It has been officially stated that the cession under consideration involved Kavala itself, some 2fif)ll square kilometres in the vicinity (77-.! square miles), and a Greek population of not less than 30,000 people. These facts are sufficient to show lb*;, Kavala and Hie plains about ii are a region to which both Creek and (Bulgarian can make a plausible, claim. The district is, in fact, essenti;:'ly a debatable land. Theie is i\> natural frontier line between Slav and Hellene, no mountain range, no river following a racial cleavage. The welter of races which makes the division of Macedonia everywhere difficult is here inextricable. Greeks are probably in' the majority, but the Bulgarian element is numerous. It follows that any frontier be artificial, and, therefore, if it is to be permanent a compromise which leaves neither race with sufficient motive for a war of revenge and liberation.

THE TOWN OF KAVALA. Kavala itself is a town of importance. The Messageries Maritime* boats from Marseilles to Constantinople make it a port of call. The traveller approaching from tlie sea looks upon a bold headland, with a small harbor on either side. Above the busy quays rises a long line of Oriental domes, and above that again a bluff line of roek cutting the town in half; on the sides of this scarp you see terraces of white houses studded with minarets. High over all stands a massive castle. As the steamer draws closer in you can make out a long aqueduct on two tiers of arches, which brings water to the city from Mount Pangaous. The mountain looms dark in the distance, and from it two (sheer cliffs approach the sea. The town has a good deal of hisioric interest. When it was called Xeapolis St. Paul landed there on bin way to Philippi. It was a place of importance in the days of the Byzantine Kmperors, who built for it the great aqueduct. Even the Turks added something to its treasures, for in the great age of the Ottoman Empire a benevolent pasha presented Kavala with a vast and picturesque caravanserai. The town was the birthplace of that extraordinary adventurer Mchemct Ali, who began life as a smuggler, made himself sovereign of Egypt, an dthenee defied half Europe. It was he who built the line of domes, which you see from the steamer, and which house is a charitable institution. With something of a shock you discover in Mehemet Ali a philanthropist. The present population of the town is difficult to estimate. The provisional census of 11)13 returns it at -15,000, but this is probably exaggerated. A large influx takes place during the summer months, when the tobacco harvest has to be dealt with and prepared for export. During the last complete year before the Balkan Wars more than 12,000,000 kilogrammes of tobacco, that is more than £3,000,000 worth, passed through the warehouses and quays of Kavala. The economic importance of the place needs no further illustration.

The best of what we still call Turkish tobacco is grown in the district round Kavala. The country consists of plain backed by hill and mountain, and both the level country and the lower slopes of the upland are well watered and of extreme fertility. Before the break-up of the Turkish dominions it was estimated that the tobacco of Eastern Macedonia brought the exchequer of Constantinople a direct revenue of more than £400,000 a year. The value of the crop exported was more than £4,7:20.000.