WOMAN'S WORLD
SOPHIA OF GREECE.
THE ROYAL ARCH-PLOTTER
(By Temple Moore, in the New York Tribune). If one were to ask a European to name the one. woman who has done the greatest injury to the cause of the Allies he -.vould name, nine times out of ten, Queen .Sophia of Greece. Despite the expulsion of this Prussian princess from Greece, with her husband, King Constantine, and* all her children cept Alexander, now King • of the Hellenes, she is not by any means regarded as 'it tho end of her career. Aa ft trouble-maker Sophia's name has become a household word, has indeed passed into proverb, in most countries in Rti ope. "K'uir altlia regina Sophia" ("She is a second Queen Sophia") the Italians say when speaking of a woman who is a trouble-maker.
In France' the Queen's name is used for invidious comparisons, ahd even in Greece it is used slurringlv. An editor in Athens has just ended a three months l ?ao! sentence for referring to some of her well-known characteristics, When the Teuton allies broke through the Carnic Alps and swept down into the plains of Italy the exiled Queen Sophia was with them. It was announced in the Italian Press that the Greek flag had been hoisted beside the flags of Austria, Germany, Bulgaria, and Turkey. first, in the recaptured Austrian city of Gorizia, and then in the Italian eitv of IJdine. Surprise was expressed at this use of ihe Greek flag, but now it is known that Queen Sophia had followed the armies into Italy. RECRKANT GEKF.KS ACCOMPANY HER. Wherever she went on Teuton soil, or on territory occupied by them, she insisted on being treated with royal honors and on being accompanied by a guard of honor from the Greek army corps which went over to thj Germans more than a year ago at Kavala. The Greek flag joes with her. She remained at Udine during a visit there of Kmperor Charles Francis of Austria, and at his departure she returned to Gorizia, which has sometimes been called the Austrian Nice, for the beauty of its location and the mildness of its winter climate. The city is situated in an amphitheatre on the Isonzo Rizer where the famous plateaus running southward from Tolmino have sunk down to the Carso, and where flip sheltered river approaches sea level before it enters the Adriatic. Gorizio, though warridden and afflicted for more than two years, is a quaint Old World city, and is the best place one would ex-pect the restless, chafing spirit of the exiled Queen to find herself at ease. It is believed in Italy that Sonhia. has special motives for remaining in Gorizia, and, Indeed, outlines of her plans and of the scone of her .activities have been published although whether on accurate information or not does not appear. With almost demoniacal fury this daujjMer of the Hohenzollerns struggled in behalf of the Kaiser's cause since the war began. For long months, running finally into rears, she pitted heTself against the ministers of the Allies in Greece.
Tl;e diplomacy of the Allies in Athens was a conspicuous failure. The expedient was tried of sending serial envoys to the Greek capital. One after another they returned home, usually with a loss of prestige. Queen Sophia had outwitted them. Excuses of r!1 kinds were offered to account for the,failure. The favorite one was that Russia was behind King Constantino: that Greece. being an Orthodox Greek country by religion, the Tsar the (lead and patron of Orthodox Greeks, and Constantine, the son of a Russian princess. Russia could not afford to permit harsh measures being adopted against him. One envoy came hack and told the truth. This was Mr. Denys Cochin, the French Cabinet Minister, who, after a visit to Greece, declared that Queen Sophia single-handed was a match for all the envoys representing the other side in Greece. He had met the King, but had excused himself from meeting the Queen. Frankly he admitted that he was afraid she. would turn some trick on him, as she had done on so many others.
SARRAIL ESCAPES FROM SOPHIA'S TRAP.
When General Sarrail went to Greece to take command of the Franco-British troons, which later were expanded to the great expeditionary forces of the Allies nt Salonica, Queen Sophia determined to match her wits with the brilliant general. who was one of the French leaders who had stopped the Germans at the Marne. An invitation to Court was sent to him, and it was announced that a reception was to bo held in his honor. Preparations were made on an elaborate ■*cale, and when the hour approached for the coming of the Frenchman Queen Sophia, it is stated on good authority, placed herself at the head of the stairway. dressed in the historic garb of Queen Louise of Prussia, with the chin band, head snstrf, and flowing rnbies wlrch the latter wore when she made her famous theush futile attempt, to reach (he heart, of the great Napoleon. The Frenchmen who preceded General Sarrail to the interview with King Constantine wore amazed at. this vision on the stairs, but they recovered promptly from their astonishment and nuiftlv warned the genor.il, who. like all brilliant Frenchmen, has a keen sense of the ridiculous. As his hiah position in Or <ce forbade him to risk any inconjrruous scene, he quickly withdrew from the royal palace. He was already some miles off in his automobile before Queen Sonhia, still in the dramatic pose at the head of the stairs, was apprised of his departure. Her "Teat-grandmother. Queen T.onise. had failed in her att.pjnnt to fascinate the French conqueror, and she herself had not even had the satisfaction of being permitted to maV" the attempt. Her rage was unbounded. Among the copies of the daily despatches which Queen Sophia was accustomed to send to her brother, the Kaiser, in Berlin, some of which lulve been published, were several in which bitter allusion was mnde to the conduct nf General Sarrail. "General Sarrail," she telegraphed, "refused an audience with me. 'J'liis French officer seems to think himself our equal, if not ' ir superior. You will make good note of that, please." TORIiCTET) CAMPAIGN IN TWO NEWSPAPERS.
The power of the Press was freely 'Mi.gnisod by Queen Sophia. Personally
6 A , e - ** irecte< * tlie campaign against the Allies in two newspapers in Athens-and in papers in Corinth, Saloniea, and other places, these papers being subsidised by Baron Stern, the German "fiscal agent," or official briber, in the Greek capital. For bitterness and vituperation these sheets have rarely been surpassed in modern times. No calumny against the Allies was too villainous to publish, and for sheer scurrility nothing in the worst days of, the pamphlets of the eighteenth century equalled this present-day journalism, directed by the sister of an Emperor and the wife of a King. The Allies generally paid but little attention to these publications, but as there are many Italians in Greece the scurrilous articles vere translated daily anil sent to Italy for republication, and the whole Italian people raged over them. The evil which Queen Sophia did to the cauEp of the Allies was incalculably great. For nearly three years she upset all their plans. She forced her husband to violate the Greek Constitution, she overrode the will of the people as expressed by their suffrages, and she drove Greece's greatest statesman, Eleuthevios Venizelos, into exile. She toyed with the allied diplomats while
PLANNING TO BETRAY SERBIA.
and to bring Greece after Bulgaria into the war on the Teuton side. The Greek Army Corps which wont over to the Bulgarians, and was sent to Berlin to be incorporated in the German array, was commanded by one of her appointees, a former officer of her suite. There are many who believe that the war would have been over in the spring of 1015. with victory for the Allies, but for Queen Sophia of Greece. Without her clever work neither Bulgaria nor Turkey would have joined the Teutons. Princess Sophia of Prussia was born .Tune 14. 1870, and married on October 27, 1889, to Prince Constant'ine. heir to the throne of Greece. Two years later she abjured her Lutheran creed and embraced the Orthodox Greek religion, that of the majority of me Greek people. Her brother-in-law. the Datii-1' Prince William, who adopted the name of George when he was chosen for the throne of Greece, had similarly become a convert to the Greek religion, and 'Prince Constantine, as well as his other children, were baptised in that faith. King George never became a whole-hearted Hellene. Ceasing to be a Pane, be came something of a cosmopolitan. and passed many months each year in quiet residence'in Paris. Similarly, Queen Sophia has never been a Greek, e.vcept for political purposes, and the interests of the people of Greece have' never been considered bv her except in so far as thev coincided, or seemed to her to coincide, with the interests of Prussia.
Queen Sophia is chief of the Thirrl Prussian Grenadier Guard Regiment, anA her joy is to don the regimentals and accoutrements of the guard and to ride at the head of her men nn the parade grounds at Potsdam. Her husband. Kins. Constantino, received the baton of field marshal of the German armv. If Greece lias suffered in prestige, a, |Prussian Queen of Greece is responsible. Bui little, however, did the injury she was inflicting on Greece concern her while Rhe was laboring for the cause of Prussian world domination. Sophia of Prussia considers herself still Queen of Greece. Hor exile she regards as only temporary. Her imperial brother saw to it that all his allies treated her still as the actual occupant of a throne, and indeed her throne is at present in the keeping of one of her own children. Tt happens that this aunt of the ex-Kniscr and of Queen Sophia is also the mother of Queen Victoria of Sweden, and the lessons taught to the niece were not forgotten in the case of the daughter. The consequence has been that the Queen of Sweden ranked second in the list of the trouble-making queens of /Europe. All Scandinavia was in a turmoil as a result of the pernicious activitiei of this woman, and, indeed, all the neutral nations of Northern Enroue suffered from the penalties which the Allies had been forced to impose for her misdeeds. The court party and the higher army command in Sweden were dominated by her, and she had been their leader in the effort to throw Sweden into the war on the side of Germany.
PROPOSED ECONOMIC ALLIANCE WITH SWEDEN.
Norway, like Denmark, was in favor of the cause of the Allies. > Queen Victoria pointed out to her army friends that an alliance with Germany would result in forcing back Norway under the Swedish Crown. Finland she promised to Sweden, on the part of the ex-Kaiser. There was no good, at. least for the moment, Bhe told her of active military co-operation by Sweden. All that was asked was an "economic alliance" with Germany, the supplying of the latter country vvit.ii her requirements in the way of foodstuffs and of material for war supplies. The consequence of the policy she preached was that, the Allies had to blacklist Sweden. The diplomat* of Sweden abroad and some even of the ministerial bureaus at home had been lending themselves to the cause of the spy system and secret communications of Germany Swedish agents or. the American continent had been cooperating with German officials in services which led to the ruthless sinking of neutral ships and to the destruction of neutral property.
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Taranaki Daily News, 17 May 1919, Page 9
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1,953WOMAN'S WORLD Taranaki Daily News, 17 May 1919, Page 9
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