CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY m vj®, Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028256174 GREECE-AND TOMORROW By Z. D. FERRIMAN . Author of "Some English Philhellenes," "Home Life in Hellas," "Turkey and the Turk," etc. To which is added An Account of THE BANQUET tendered to His Excellency GEORGE ROUSSOS, the Minister of Greece to the United States EDITED BY CARROLL N. BROWN, Ph.D. The College of the City of New York ) PUBLISHED FOR THE AMERICAN-HELLENIC SOCIETY 105 WKST 40th STREET, NEW YOEK, N. T. BT OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS AMERICAN BRANCH 35 WEST S2nd STREET, NEW YORK 1918. w-'- 1>^ '.-^-ttE-'B GREECE— AND TOMORROW* By Z. D. Feeriman The inhabitants of the kingdom of Greece are only a fraction of the Greek people. This is a truism for all who are famihar with the Near East. Sir Rennell Rodd says : " The Greeks of today form a nation of consider- able homogeneity from the Ionian Islands to the Black Sea, speaking a common language." t A traveler starting from Northern Epirus, at the gate of the Adriatic, and following the coast round to the Euxine, is bound to find himself in agreement with that statement. But the area of Greek population far exceeds these limits. Perhaps the readiest way of demonstrating this is to take a map of the Eastern basin of the Mediterra- nean and extend the itinerary. The Migean is Greek on both its shores and all its islands. The Sea of Marmora is ringed round with Greeks. From the Bosphorus east- ward, along the Black Sea littoral, there is a Greek fringe extending to Trebizond. On the western coast of Asia Minor the Greek population is much more than a fringe. It spreads far on the plain of the Hermes northeast, and up the valleys of the Mseander, the Cayster, and the Lycus, southeast. North of Smyrna it is continuous along the coast to the Dardanelles, whence it stretches across the country through ApoUonia, Broussa and Nicsea to the Gulf of Nicomedia. From that city (Ismid today) it is unbroken on the gulf shore to Constantinople. South of Smyrna it is scattered * Reprinted through the courtesy of the Anglo-Hellenic League of London, from Publication No. 23 (1915). t Customs and Lore of Modern Greece, 1892. 1 2 GREECE— AND TOMORROW through Lycia to the southern coast of Asia Minor, which is aknost harborless; consequently the Greek element is thinner here; but it thickens notably at Adaha, and fur- ther on in Cilicia, from whose shores we can descry the peaks of Cyprus, where, out of a population of 237,000 there are 182,737 Orthodox Greeks, and some thousands more of other creeds who are largely Greek in blood, and wholly so in language and tradition. Far north, across the Cilician plain and beyond the snowy Taurus, we shall find Greeks at Nigdeh,* and in many a village until we reach Caesarea in Cappadocia. From this remote but vigorous center, Greeks in various walks of life spread far and wide. So we may follow the thread westward to the high central plateau, still meriting — for it is tree- less — the name of Axylon, given to it by the Greeks of old. It is the heart of Asia Minor, and of the Turkish race — yet there are 73,000 Greeks in the province and 7,000 in the capital, Konia (Iconium).t On the way we have found Greeks at Eragli (Heraclea Cybistra) and Karaman, whose Greek inhabitants still call it by its ancient name, Laranda. Westward from Konia we do not lose touch with them — there, is a considerable com- munity on Lake Egerdir — until they join hands with those of the Maeander Valley, a population which grows in density as it approaches the ^gean. It is impossible, in view of the recent wholesale trans- migrations, to estimate the Greek population of what was once Turkey in Europe. M. EKsee Reclus estimated it at 1,200,000 of what he terms " pure Greeks," meaning Greek in blood as well as orthodox in religion. Since he wrote-, Greeks have been driven from what was at the time (1906) Eastern Roumeha by the Bulgarians, and from Thrace (1913-14) by the Turks. These are now dispersed through Greek Macedonia. Tlie former sought *Cuinet! La Turquie d'Asie gives 18,000 as the Greek population of Nigdeii, and S5,449 as that of Caesarea and district — probably understated 1894. t The figures are from Cuinet. 1894. GREECE— AND TOMORROW 3 refuge in Thessaly. The writer remembers seeing some thousands of them on the quay at Volo, on their way to found a new Anchialos. The Greek population on the coast lands of the iEgean, now possessed by Bulgaria, has been considerably reduced. Nevertheless, from the Dardanelles to Cavalla the tongue is still Greek. And from Cavalla, whether we strike inland through Doxato, Drama and Serres, or follow the coast skirting the base of the Trident of Chalcidice on to Salonica, the Greeks are with us all the way. Beyond Salonica, through Naussa, Verria and Edessa, across the plain to the snows of Olympus, or by Fiorina and Korytza, and south to Kozani, it is the same, until we cross the Pindus into Epirus, our starting point. The fact that one can travel from Corfu to Trebizond with the Greek language is not the point. For that matter, we find Greek traders in all the towns on the Syrian coast until we come to the great Greek community in Egypt and beyond. Gordon found Greeks at Khartoum, and Livingstone discovered one in the region of the Equatorial Lakes. But in the area we are considering the Greek is indigenous. It is his ancestral home. The -^gean is the fount of the Hel- lenic race — the center from which it radiates to South- eastern Europe and Western Asia. It spread much further in times past. The settlements in Africa, in the Tauric Chersonese, in Italy, Sicily, and Gaul have been absorbed. But in the Eastern Mediterranean the Greek is permanent. The territory now included in the modern kingdom of Greece was called, rightly, the Eye of Hellas. But it was not all Hellas, nor is it today. The Greeks of Constantinople and Smyrna are not emigrant colonists like those of New York and San Francisco. They were colonists when they came to Constantinople from Megara in 658 B.C., and to Smyrna from Cyme in 1100 B.C. Maroneia, now in Bulgarian territory, has been Greek since Xerxes passed by it " on the left hand," * and since ♦ Herod. VII., 109. 4 GREECE— AND TOMORROW Homer sang its wine.* Sinope, the city of Diogenes, has never lacked Greeks since it was colonized by Mi- lesians and later by Athenians sent by Pericles. Sam- soun, largely peopled by Greeks today, was the flourish- ing city, Amisus. The Greeks of Ordu, farther along the coast, do not forget that it is the Cotyara where the ten thousand of Xenophon embarked on their re- turn. The Greeks of Trebizond are the descendants of those who guarded the last shred of empire down to 1460 A.D. The iEgean and its isles, with the adjacent extremities of Europe and Asia, are the domain of the Greek, bound up in the history of the race, steeped in its traditions. Names which current events bring to our lips daily, sound strangely familiar to us, linked as they are with imperishable legends; Lemnos, scene of the deeds of gods and heroes; Tenedos over against the Trojan shore, the plain of Ilion, and rugged Ida; the Dardanelles recalling Dardanus; the Hellespont and Cape Helle, enshrining the story of the eponymic an- cestor of the Hellenes; the Bosphorus, that of lo. The narrow seas are fraught with legends of the Argonauts. Erdek on the Propontis was Cyzicus ; Ghemlek was Cius, breathing for all time the melancholy tale of Hylas. Therapia, on the Bosphorus, familiar to our day as the abode of diplomacy, was the Pharmakia where Medea strewed her poisons, its designation changed by that euphemism beloved of the Greeks, which led them to substitute an auspicious name for one of evil omen. Beyond, on the opposite side, Anadoli Kavak was the Hieron where Jason sacrificed to the gods within view of the Symplegades, the dreaded rocks, on which still stands one of the many votive altars which for ages studded these shores, reared by the piety of mariners ere affronting the perils of the Euxine. Leaving the twilight of myth for the daylight of his- tory, volumes might be filled with the memories from the * Odyssey IX., 196-201. GREECE— AND TOMORROW 5 expeditions of a Darius and Xerxes downward. Take two only. One clings to the Thracian Chersonese, once again the theater of desperate strife. A short way above the narrows of the Dardanelles an insignificant stream falls into a httle bay. Its local name is Kara Ova Chai, but as iEgospotamos, the site of the battle which ended the Peloponnesian War, its fame will endure so long as the world reads history. Just beyond the Straits on the Asiatic shore, a more considerable stream, descending from a spur of Ida, falls into the Propontis. A Turkish peasant will tell you it is the Hojah Chai, and the name leaves you indifferent. Ask a Greek schoolboy from Lampsacus or any of the neighboring villages, and you will learn that it is the Granicus, where Alexander gained the victory which led him to the banks of the Indus, the first stepping-stone to the penetration of Asia by Europeans. It may be asked what is the good of raking up old fables of the world's youth, of citing historical events of an epoch dead and gone? What bearing has it all on present conditions and the actual situation? The answer is that the fables are Greek fables, and the history is Greek history, and the Greeks are not dead. We are coming to the consideration of the actual conditions, but in the meantime it is well to define the Greek position, in view- of the fact that of late years, in England, there has been a tendency to ignore it, and to minimize Greek claims. From what precedes, it will be admitted that the Greek nation, as at present constituted within the kingdom of Greece, is a term which does not connote the Greek people, considerably less than half of which is included in the kingdom. Apart from this, the Greek element, as a moral, intel- lectual, and political factor in the Near East, cannot be measured by the mere counting of heads. A writer * of the mid-nineteenth century says : " The role of Greece in the contemporary East closely resembles its role in * H. M. Bahd: Modem Greece. 18S6. 6 GREECE— AND TOMORROW antiquity. It is a motive power in the Ottoman Empire, as twenty-two centuries ago it was in Persian Asia." The question of the continuity of the Greek race from classic times to the present cannot be entered on here. The dogmatic assertion of Fallmerayer * that it is ex- tinct, was long ago disposed of by a German of far greater authority, Karl Hopf.f Scholars whose emi- nence entitles their opinions to profound respect are em- phatic on the point. Sir Richard Jebb attests his belief in the undying Greek people, " bound to the old Greeks by ties of race and character and language. The Greek has never been able to strip himself of his Hellenic character, whether the influence was wielded by Roman or Ottoman, Venice or Russia, France or Great Britain, and it will be so to the end." J Professor Mahaffy was told by Athenians that his " Social Life in Greece " was based on studies of the moderns, though the book was written long ere he had set foot in the country. M. Edmond About, § a Saul among the prophets, in his diatribe, was fain to recognize that " these tall youths of supple gait, oval face, bright eye, and lively spirit, with whom the streets of Athens swarm, are undoubtedly of the same family from which Phidias took his models." There can be no doubt of a common language and tradition. The continuity of Hellenism is an indispu- table fact. Dr. Hogarth, who regards the subject from a dispassionate scientific standpoint, is positive on this: " The Hellenic type of civilization, preserved by the agency of the Orthodox Church, has assimilated by its superiority all others, and given to Slav or Toskh, to Vlach and half-bred Italian and Turk, community of language and creed, and one character as a nation." || *J. p. Fallmerayer: Oeschichte der Halbinsel Morea wdhrend des Mittel- alters. 1830-36. Fallmerayer was Magyar, but he wrote and published in German. tKarlHopf: 01 T^Upot h ''EndSi. 1872. t Jebb: Modern Greece. 1902. § La Or^ce Oontemporaine. 1854. II The Nearer East, p. 149. GREECE— AND TOMORROW 7 Though he argues against purity of descent, he admits the persistency of the Greek type: "fine drawn in body and mind." Travelers in the region all testify to the superiority of the Hellenic character. Pouqueville,* in 1817, wrote: "This people, for thirty centuries on the stage of history, is still the most vital element in the East." Lenormant t found in Greeks the most intelli- gent of the races inhabiting Turkey. Their family life, united and pure, was closer than that of others to the social ideal of the West. AUard J says: " It has been a passing fashion to disparage the Greeks; yet, in the East, wherever we found signs of a revival of commerce, industry, and civihzation, we also found Greeks, and Greeks only." Sir Rennell Rodd § calls the Hellenes " an obstinate nationality, which, several times extin- guished in its hereditary seat, has succeeded in reassert- ing itself, and overshadowing and absorbing the various elements which had threatened to overwhelm it." As it was under the Turks, so it had been under the Roman domination. But Roman sagacity did not at- tempt to repress the irrepressible. They welcomed the Hellenic genius as an ally. They adopted Greek man- ners, and the government recognized the Greek tongue. Sir William Ramsay, || in the fascinating volumes sum- ming up his researches in Asia Minor, tells us that every- one who wrote or read, wrote or read Greek. It was the language of all the moderately educated. The most iUiterate, if they desired to put an epitaph on a grave, did so in barbarous (sometimes unintelligible) Greek. The desire for an epitaph was the first sign of desire for education and for Greek. The rustics who knew only the aboriginal tongues clung longest to Paganism.l * Peuqueville: Voyage dans la Orhce. 1820. t Lenormant, Fr.: Orande Or^ce fay sages et histoires. 1881. ;}: Dr. G. C. AUard : Souvenir d'Orient. La Bulgarie Orientale. 1863. § The Customs and Lore of Modern Greece. 1892. II Sir Wm. Ramsay: Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia. i Sir Wm. Ramsay: St. Paul the Traveler — passim. 8 GREECE— AND TOMORROW The Greek-speaking city folks adopted Christianity, and were expected to read the Scriptures in Greek — Greco- Roman civilization was the type aimed at by Rome.* Even in the Roman colonies of Galatia, Latin soon ceased to be used except on State occasions. In his treatise on St. Luke the Evangelist, Sir William t bears emphatic testimony to the continuity of Hellenic racial characteristics. " In Luke everyone who knows the Greek people will recognize the true Greek. He was the Greek of his own age, when Greece had been for centuries a power in Asia, when Macedonia had long been the leading Greek country. To appreciate Luke we must study the modern Greek as well as the Greek of the Great Age." The same thing happened at a later epoch in Constan- tinople. As the seat of Roman power, it was reconsti- tuted a Latin city, but it became a Greek one, as it had been at the beginning. New Rome yielded to old Byzan- tium. Hellenic vitality proved invincible, and it has remained so to this day. A few months ago the writer discovered a little Turkish boy in a shop, busied with a book. Asked what it was, the boy replied, " Alpha- Beta." He was going through the same process as those old Phrygians over two thousand years ago. His Greek primer took the place of their epitaph. This was at Edessa, the ancient capital of the Macedonian kings, and their burial place long after Philip had transferred the seat of government to Pella. The same leaven was working at Argyrocastro. Greece, and Greece alone in the Balkans has never interfered with the schools of other races, so there is no compulsion in the case. And there is certainly none in that of European children brought up in Constantinople, whose mother tongue is Greek. Their national language is relegated to the school or to conversation with their parents, but among • Sir Wm. Ramsay: The Church in the Boman Em/pire. t Sir Wm. Ramsay; Luke the Physician. GREECE— AND TOMORROW 9 themselves and with children .of other nationahties Greek is invariably the medium of intercourse. The western stranger in Pera finds Greek the vernacular, notwith- standing the cosmopohtan character of the place. He will have no need of Turkish; as a matter of fact not a few people Uve all their hves in Constantinople without acquiring it. But Greek he constantly hears in street and mart, and he must perforce use it in speaking to tradespeople and servants. In finance, commerce and the professions, Greeks predominate. With them French will serve him, but not with the people. Some may not be aware of the extent of the Greek population of Con- stantinople and its environs. Cross the Golden Horn to Stamboul where Europeans do not dwell, and you find the dense Greek area of Phanar clustering round the Patriarchate. Away on the seaward face is the thickly- peopled district of Psammatia. Along the base of the triangular city, from the Propontis to the Golden Horn, there is a ribbon of Greeks chnging to the walls where fell the last Constantine. There are few points where the visitor is not reminded that he is in Byzantium. The writer was startled once at seeing the name Com- nenos over a druggist's shop in a remote quarter in the heart of Stamboul. Outside the walls, down the Mar- mora shore, through San Stefano to Lake Chekmedji and the Chatalja lines, one hears Greek all the way. Up the Bosphorus it is the same. Arnaoutkeuy, Yeni- keuy, Therapia, Buyuk-Dere, the four greatest centers of population, are Greek. Chalcedon — Kadikeuy today — is largely inhabited by merchants who transact their business in Europe and sleep in Asia, but it is over- whelmingly Greek. The Princes Islands, Proti, Anti- gone, Chalkis and Prinkipos, are Greek in population as in name. Even Scutari, held in pecuhar sanctity by the Turks, has a Greek population numbering many thousands. In the waters that lave these shores Greek fishermen cast their nets. On the Hippodrome, imder 10 GREECE— AND TOMORROW the shadow of Justinian's mighty dome, there is a monu- ment known as the twisted column — coiled serpents in bronze. The three heads which once supported the golden tripod of the oracle at Delphi are broken off, but on the coils are inscribed the names of the states which furnished soldiers at the battle of Platsea when the Asiatic invasion of Europe was repulsed.* An Asiatic invader has held Constantinople for some centuries, but for all that it is the city of Constantine. The Turkish designation, Stamboul, is itself only a corruption of a Greek locution meaning " to the city." Greeks every- where refer to it affectionately as 7 nokn — the city 'par excellence. It may be called Czargrad tomorrow — some among us would have it so — but in heart and soul it will still be Constantinople: t] noXi?. " No cause can be more just than that of a nation which demands back its property. . . . As the Greeks on the day of the occupation of Constantinople by the Turks had the right to expel the victorious Sultan from their capital, so have they to the present hour that right undiminished." These words occur in a pamphlet t translated from German. There is bitter irony in them, considering their source; but they show that, whatever may be the case in 1915, a German could think sanely in 1821. It might seem unnecessary to assert that ancient Greek is not a dead language. Yet people holding University degrees have expressed surprise when the writer has told them that when he was in Cyprus a boy, calhng his at- tention to an eagle, exclaimed aetos as Homer would have done; that the peasant of Attica talking of the weather calls the clouds nephelai, hke Aristophanes; that when he invites you to sit down he says Kathize as Socrates did * Rawlinson's Herodotus, Vol. IV., App. 1. t The Cause of Greece the Cause of Europe, translated from the German James Ridgway, 169, Piccadilly. 1821. GREECE— AND TOMORROW 11 to Strepsiades. Byron discovered this when he began to learn " Romaic " at Athens in 1811. The traveler Douglas * wrote from the same place in the same year that the Greeks of the Classic Age would have less diflS- culty in understanding the moderns than the contem- poraries of Wilham of Malmesbury and Froissart in comprehending the English and French of their descend- ants. Finlay,t the historian, says there is hardly more difference between the language of Homer and that of the New Testament than there is between the New Testa- ment and a modern Greek review. He cites the tenacity with which the modern tongue has preserved the Hellenic accentuation. As a proof that it is a lineal descendant of the classical language — scholars recognize this as a matter of course — Professor Blackie, who insisted on the study of the modern tongue, said : " It is a mere dialectic variety of ancient Greek, differing not more from the language of Xenophon than Attic prose generally dif- fers from the dialect of Herodotus or Theocritus. . . . Of all European languages Greek is that which has maintained itself for the longest period with the least amoimt of change. . . . Honor Thucydides by all means, but be ashamed to be ignorant of Tricoupis." | Sir Richard Jebb maintained that the Greek language had an unbroken life from prehistoric times. As a mat- ter of fact the tongue of today contains forms more ancient than the Attic, conventionally called Classical, which was but a phase in its development. The pres- ervation of the language and the traditions enshrined in it kept Hellenism ahve. It inspired that thirst for knowledge which has always been a passion with^the Greeks. In the words of Finlay: "Education became •Hon. Fred Sylvester North Douglas: Essay on Points of Resemblance Between Ancient and Modern Greeks. 1813. t Finlay: History of Greece, ^'ol. I., p. 187. t Prof. J. S. Blackie: Introductory lecture at the University of Edinburgh, 1853: The Living Language of Greece and Its Utility to Classical Scholars. 12 GREECE— AND TOMORROW the purest and most powerful instrument of national centralization." * It has been said that wherever there are five English- men to form a quorum, they constitute themselves into a committee. In the case of Greeks that committee would certainly set about establishing a school. That is the primary consideration in every community, and it was the first thing they thought about in the work of re- generation. There were schools in the latter part of the 17th century. In the 18th century the number had largely increased, and included notable centers of learning at Bucarest, Janina, and Aivali, to say noth- ing of Odessa, Jassy, Smyrna, Chios and Ambelachia. In 1785 Lenormant discovered in the Isle of Patmos a school in which were read Homer and the great Trage- dians. By the end of the first decade of the 19th century, schools were broadcast wherever there were Greeks. With the advent of liberty the flame leapt up and spread. Gordon, who took part in the war, says : " In general the march of information is slow, but amongst this peo- ple it resembled a sudden explosion." f Rhizos, a Greek professor, said: "Those who saw, Greece one year could hardly recognize her the next." | The intellectual re- generation of Greece must forever be linked with the name of George Gennadios,§ in whose personality it centered. Scholar, man of letters, patriot, he played a glorious part in the armed struggle for liberty; but he never ceased to strive for what lay nearest his heart, — the education of his countrymen and the restoration of his country to a place in that world of letters, art, and science where once she had reigned supreme. Freedom won, he refused all inducements to occupy the promi- nent position to which his services to the State entitled * Finlay: History of Greece, Vol. V., p. 284. t T. Gordon : History of the Greek Revolution. 1832. Vol. I., p. 37. j Jakobos Rhizos Neroulos: Cours de la Littirature Grecque Moderne donni A GenHe. 1827. § See Prof. Thiersch In Ausland. 1854. J. J. Ampfere; La Science et lea Lettres en Orient 1865. GREECE— AND TOMORROW 13 him. Turning from the glare of pohtical place and power, he resumed his lahors as an educator. He .founded and directed the Central School at ^gina, and eventually, in 1837, had the joy of seeing Athens once more endowed with her Academy. He was not only one of the foimders of the University, but one of its first professors, and the creator of the Faculty of Philology. And he watched tenderly over the infancy of the seat of learning, where his memory is still cherished. His death, in 1854, was an irreparable loss to Greece. A passage from a farewell oration pronounced over his grave by M. A. Rhangabe throws a light on his char- acter : " Nauplia was crowded by refugees from Missolonghi, who were growing desperate and dangerous. But no one had the courage to act. No one had a plan to pro- pose. Then Gennadios, emerging from the crowd, sprang upon the roots of the plane-tree which grew in the middle of the square, and then, turning his flashing eyes upon the multitude, cried : ' The fatherland is being destroyed. There is need of immediate help. Money there is none. Let each man give what he has and what he can. Here is my poor mite. Let him copy me who win,' and he turned out on the earth the slender purse of a scholar. ' But no,' after a pause. ' This is a worthless contribution. Not another obolus have I got. But I have myself, and offer myself to the highest bidder. ,Who wants a teacher for his children for four years? Let him throw the price down there ! ' These noble words," continued M. Rhangabe, " kindled a flame of ir- repressible emotion." Certainly they had a share in turn- ing the tide of the war. It is impossible here to do more than touch upon the moving story of the revival of education among the Greeks, in the face of difficulties which only served to augment the zeal and the spirit of sacrifice through which the task was accomplished. Difficulties did not end with 14 GREECE— AND TOMORROW the overthrow of the Turkish domination. The Uni- versity of Athens was founded in the unhappy period of the Bavarian Regency. The German officials, the magnitude of whose pay was in marked contrast to the trifling nature of their services, looked coldly upon it.* King Otho never showed any love for learning. " The Court," says Finlay, " yielded slowly and sullenly to the force of pubhc opinion." But the latter triumphed and the University became a rallying point for unredeemed Greece, to which more than half of those who matricu- lated belonged. Monuments to Greek munificence in the shape of school, college, library, gymnasium, exist in every center. The only learned society in Turkish territory is the Syllogos of Constantinople, which is recognized by aca- demic bodies throughout Europe. Athens is more richly endowed with the means of education than any city of its size in the world. But these are matters of common knowledge to all who are in the least familiar with the country. The spirit animating the people will be better illustrated by taking a region where the Greeks do not predominate in numbers as at Smyrna, or as an intel- lectual force as at Constantinople. The westernmost corner of the Asiatic continent is known to Turkish ad- ministration as the Sanjak of Bigha.f It has an area of 2,250 square miles, and abuts on the ^gean, the Darda- nelles, and the southwest corner of the Sea of Marmora. The population is estimated at 129,438 souls, of whom 106,583 are Turks, 17,585 Greeks, and the residue of 5,270 is composed of Armenians, Jews and Levantines. For the 106,583 Turks there are twelve schools, with 681 pupils, of whom 42 are girls. For the 17,585 Greeks (16,413 natives, 1,172 Hellenes) there are ten schools with 910 pupils, of whom 350 are girls. The Caza of Ezineh is, a department of the province, a district ex- * Finlay: History of Oreece, Vol. V., p. 132. fCuinet! La Turquie d'Asie. 1894. GREECE— AND TOMORROW 15 tending from Mount Ida to the sea, including the Plain of Troy, and watered by the Scamander. The popula- tion is 34,358, consisting of 29,210 Turks, 4,458 Greeks, 450 Armenians, and 240 Jews, the latter mainly inhabit- ing the town of Eski Stamboul, the ancient Alexandria Troas. For the 29,210 Turks there are three schools, with 109 pupils; for the 4,458 Greeks there are two schools, with 170 pupils. These figures are all the more eloquent when we remember that the Turkish schools receive government aid and protection, while those of the Greeks are due to their own initiative and efforts. Moreover, these are Turkish official statistics, and there- fore are not likely to be exaggerated in favor of the Greeks. The region has not been chosen as exhibiting peculiar conditions, but from the fact of the Greeks being a small minority of the population. A similar, or even more striking, disparity might have been shown to exist elsewhere. At Alasheir, for example, where they form about one in four of the population, they count 525 school children against 250 of the Turks. It is signifi- cant that whereas the Turkish scholars are all boys, there are 210 girls among the 525 Greeks, who still call the place by its ancient name — Philadelphia. After all, need we wonder at eagerness for knowledge in the heirs of the race which some 2,400 years ago pro- duced Anaximander of Miletus, who engraved on bronze tablets the first charts of which the world has any rec- ords? In a later age, Roman Emperors brought teach- ers from distant Tarsus,* where the Greeks had estab- lished a seat of learning, while Pergamon had a library which long rivaled that of Alexandria, and eventually augmented it. Here one cannot forbear to mention Aivali (Cydonia), near the site of Elea, the ancient port of Pergamon — scene of that remarkable revival ia the 18th century, which came to a tragic end in the 19th. * Athenodorus of Tarsus was tutor to Augustus : Nestor to Tiberius. 16 GREECE— AND TOMORROW Pouqueville * spent two months at the college in 1817. Teaching and lodging were free to those who had no means. He conveys an idea of the spirit pervading the place; of the zeal and devotion of the teachers Gregory, Eustratios and Theophilus; of the almost religious re- spect in which they were held by the 300 scholars; of the promise made to him by a certain set, and written on the walls of the classroom, to speak only ancient Greek, which they kept. Four years afterwards Raffenel wrote: " Today Aivali is nothing but a heap of ashes." t The college was rebuilt long ago, and Cydonia is still Greek, although its inhabitants are either refugees or in durance. The streets, houses, the demeanor of the people, and the whole atmosphere of the pretty town on its land-locked lake-hke bay, speak of the 80 years (1740-1821) when it was a httle republic, governed by its elected councilors and elders. There are no trustworthy statistics of the population of the Vilayet of Aidin, now more generally known as the Province of Smyrna, which covers an area of 25,801 square miles. M. Cuinet's elaborate work J is based en- tirely on Turkish data. He gives the total population as 1,396,477, out of which 208,283 are Greeks. The last item is manifestly absurd. The refugees seen by the writer on the islands and in Macedonia alone ex- ceeded that figure. The Statesman's Year Book for 1915 gives the popu- lation of the province as 2,500,000, and that of the city of Smyrna as 375,000, but it does not subdivide it into nationalities. The Encyclopcedia Britannica (1911) gives the population of the city as 250,000, " fully one- half Greek." M. Cuinet has 200,000, of whom 77,000 are Greeks (including 25,000 Hellenes) and 89,000 * Pouqueville : Voyage dans la Orkce. 1821. T. v. p. 137-9. t C. D. Raffenel: Histoire des T^vinements de la Orice. 1823. p. 193. j;:La Turquie d'Asie. 1894.-1900. • GREECE— AND TOMORROW 17 Turks, thus making the Turkish population superior in numbers. This is all the more remarkable since in 1868 M. Slaars,* in a painstaking and conscientious work, computed the Greeks at 75,000 and the Turks at 40,000. But M. Cuinet's figures are self-condemned since in the subdivision of nationahties they fall short of his total by 7,708, in spite of the improbable estimate of 6,400 Italian inhabitants of Smyrna. As a vital element of the population the Greeks are predominant. The German ethnologist, Phillipson, pre- sumably not inclined to favor them, says: "In towns and villages the Greeks occupy a considerable place both as regards numbers as well as wealth and industry, even where, as sometimes, the Turks outnumber them." On the intellectual side their position is more marked. In fact, they stand alone. Attached to the principal Greek school at Smyrna is a library t of 20,000 volumes and 145 manuscripts, as well as a museum holding 500 pieces of statuary, and more than thrice the number of ceramic objects. No other nationality in the province would ac- complish this, or even dream of it — least of all the lords of the soil, the Turks. Is it needful to say that there is much Greek blood in this region unaccounted for by the most careful statistics? Dr. Hogarth says that seven-tenths of the " Turks " of Asia Minor have no Turkish blood. J He is speaking generally. In this western district the proportion would be greater. Dr. Hogarth makes a further statement with reference to the Ottoman population : — " The type of civilization and the fundamental cult beliefs are not those of the true Turk. They come from the immemorial culture of the .^gean." This is an opinion based on expert knowledge. But the ordinary observer who knows the country and its inhabitants cannot fail to remark the * Bonaventure F. Slaars, notes and appendices to the ^tude >ur Smyrne. 1868. t See D. Georgiades: Smyrne. This was in 1885. % The Nearer East. IdU. p. 174. 18 GREECE— AND TOMORROW similarity of type in the Greek and Turkish peasants of the interior. M. Cuinet could not establish a difference. He notes this especially in the descendants of the old feudal families round Aidin, one at least of which has preserved its Greek name — Saganos. He sees in the Zeibeks a remnant of the Thracians who colonized Tralles. Texier thought he traced in them a vestige of the Lydians.* Phillipson f found in the Turks of Budrum (Hahcarnassus) a type manifestly Greek. Of another Turkish area he concludes that the people are of Hellenic stock Ottomanized. M. Cuinet notes a difference between the Greeks of the interior and those of the coast, among whom he met " types like those of antique statuary," though not so frequently as in the islands. Naturally, since on this strip of coast and its broidered fringe of islands Hellenic blood is probably purer than anywhere else, reminding us that it is the earliest seat of Hellenic civilization, poetically expressed by a distinguished French savant X as " The Springtime of Greece." At the dawn of history it produced the first historians. It was the birthplace of epic and lyric verse. It was the nursery of philosophy and science, and it taught the sculptor's art to Attica, whose perfection it closely rivaled. Here, in this marvelous Ionia, was shaped that Greek alphabet which became the medium of enlightenment to the West, and here — Dr. Hogarth § reminds us — " The city state of Hellenic type first grew to adolescence." One might fill a page with the catalogue of imperish- able names from Homer downwards. Take a map and pitch upon the places at random; you will scarcely find one that is not linked with a name that belongs to Hu- manity as well as to Greece: — Thales of Miletus, Pytha- goras of S.amos, Heraclitus of Ephesus, Anaxagoras of * Texier: L'Asie Minetire. t Reisen vnd Forschunqen im Westlichen Khinasien. :j:Perrot: L'Art dans I'AntiquUi. § D. G. Hogarth: Ionia and the East. GREECE— AND TOMORROW 19 Clazomene, Hippocrates of Cos, Sappho and Alcaeus of Mytilene, Herodotus of Halicarnassus. Colophon was the bu"thplace of Apelles, Ephesus of Parrhasius and of Agasias, the sculptor of the Warrior of the Louvre. The Laocoon was chiseled at Rhodes by Agesander and his sons. The group of Dirce and the Bull was the work of ApoUonius and Tauriskos of Tralles. It is needless to prolong the list, but since we are at Tralles let us journey a few miles farther up the pleasant Mseander Valley to Sultan Hissar, where in a shady dell on the slope of ruddy Messogis, there is a remarkably well- preserved ancient theater. We can rest on the gradines where Strabo probably sat, for Sultan Hissar was Nysa, where he went to school. With this illustrious name of a later age than those before cited, we close an imperfect list of the renowned sons of what is now the Province of Smyrna. Dr. Seton Watson, in a recent book, in- sists that the division of territory should be adjusted on lines of nationahty. For this portion of it the claims of Greece are so patent that they should need no advo- cacy. But the war has let loose a flood of covetousness, blinded to any sense of justice. England at least covets nothing, and, to put it on no higher grounds, it may be in her own interests to see that Greece is not balked in her legitimate aspirations. The end of the war wiU almost certainly be attended by a display of appetites and pretensions perhaps little suspected at present. Circumstances may arise in which Greece would be a very useful ally. Greeks are the only people in the Near East who really like us. It should not be forgot- ten that in the South African war the Greeks raised a corps of volunteers which fought with us, when aU in the rest of Europe fulminated against us. The schemes of politicians notwithstanding, the Greek people are on our side today. Nobody who really knows them can deny it. When the writer was with the Greek fleet in the iEgean in 1913, he constantly met seamen who had 20 GREECE— AND TOMORROW passed a great part of their lives in English merchant ships. They were always glad of a yarn in English, and every one of them looked forward to saihng in English keels again when his term of service had ex- pired. The bond of the sea brings with it mutual un- derstanding and sympathy. Both nations have the salt of it in their blood. There exists a curious fly-sheet * dated 1705:— "The Case of the Greek Seamen." It calls attention to the arrears of pay of those who were killed and who died at sea in the British Navy. It seems that very often the pay did not reach their rela- tives. In pressing their claims, it states that " though they might have considerable advantages in divers re- spects in serving the Turks, they chose rather to serve Christians," and mentions the fact of English mer- chants at Smyrna hiring Greek seamen. This shows the relations which existed 210 years ago. The fact that a small country like Greece has a mercantile marine ag- gregating 997,118 tons is one point of contact between the two nations. Another is the widespread knowledge of the English language. Throughput the campaign of 1913 the writer never failed to find plenty of soldiers speaking English. This is due, however, to the large emi- gration of Greeks to America. f On the other hand, no other nation of the Near East has recourse to the same extent to our public schools and universities. This is not due alone to merchants and financiers established in ■our midst. At least two families | of Aivali in Asia Minor have sent sons to Cirencester and Wye for their agricultural education. Those to whom other claims loom so largely that those of the Greeks are ignored would do well to remember that the seed of freedom was planted in Serbia by Rhigas *Brit. Mus., c S3, c 49 (7). t Note of the American editor: During tliese wars upward of 30,000 Greeks in America returned to fight for their country, almost all of them meeting their traveling expenses from their own savings. i Gonatos and Eliopoulos. GREECE— AND TOMORROW 21 and Constantine Ypsilantes long ere the Slav movement became general. WaUachia and Moldavia were the first to throw off the Ottoman yoke. Why? Because they were inspired by a centmy of Hellenic education. Buca- rest was a center of renewed Hellenic life ere Greece won her own again, and the Rumania of today owes its beginnings to the Greek Hospodars. The story of Serbia's heroic struggle and that of in- domitable Montenegro need no retelling. They are plain for all to read, hke that of Greece who struck her blow for liberty and gained it laboriously. In the first stages, to quote a German historian,* " three hundred thousand Greeks lost their hves in order that six hundred thousand should be free." While these great events were being enacted what was Bulgaria doing? "Who ever heard of her until the day before yesterday, when she was created by Russia? Pitchforked into the arena, this newcomer developed an insatiable appetite and a cjTiical disregard for the rights of others who had shed their blood for that free- dom which came to her as an unearned gift. " The Greeks will have to swim now in order to get to Con- stantinople," said General Ignatieff, when he had wrung from the Turks the treaty signed at San Stefano which threw Big Bulgaria in the face of Europe. That astute diplomatist knew well enough the composition of the population of Macedonia, and he thought he had dealt a deathblow to the Macedonian Greeks, People in Eng- land who know nothing about Macedonia would still deal the blow. Even up to the eleventh hour there was a section ready to fawn upon Bulgaria and offer her other people's property if only she would abstain from help- ing the enemy. She has given them her answer. Ap- parently Germany and Austria have offered her more. The twist which has been given to the opinions of a large number of people may be partly explained by the • Herzberg: Oeschichie Oriechenland>,\o\. I., p. 590. 22 GREECE— AND TOMORROW fact that a vigorous and misleading propaganda has been at work among those whose knowledge of Greece is de- rived from their newspaper, a class which lacks the in- formation necessary to form a judgment, and believes what it reads in the journal of its poKtical party. It must be admitted also that Greek does not occupy so large a place in our system of education as it did once. Classical scholarship is more exact, perhaps more pro- found, but it is limited to a smaller area. When Greek was an essential element in our national culture, it was understood by men in walks of life far removed from that of the professional scholar. Captain (afterwards Vice-Admiral) Spratt, whose business in life it was to navigate and fight ships, found time amidst his work of surveying to write a treatise on the survival of classical words in the dialect of Crete.* Naval officers of our day, and for that matter those in other professions, have not the leisure for work outside their own. Specialization in multiple departments of education has made it impos- sible to all but the very few to devote much study to the language which " remained for a thousand years the great instrument and symbol of civilization." f The wider knowledge of it which obtained formerly had a large share in creating the enthusiasm which greeted the rebirth of Greece. Leicester Stanhope, afterwards Earl of Harrington, wrote : " I feel for and speak about Greece as if it were my country." J That was in a let- ter from Athens in 1824, when he was busied in founding a journal which earned for him Byron's epithet of " typographic Colonel." The glory enshrined in Greek letters influenced not Byron only, but a host of others whose names are forgotten. The present representative of Greece in London, speaking many years ago at the graveside of a great English Philhellene,§ described that * See Spratt : Travels and Researches in Crete. t Gilbert Murray: Euripides and His Age. 1913. t Lewis Iv. J. Bowring, 4th March, 1824. § Sir Richard Church. 1873. GREECE— AND TOMORROW 23 awakening in singularly happy words : " A mother that was thought lost, dead, perhaps never really in the flesh — such was the enchanting, the fairy-like beauty of her image, as dreamt of by them in their college days. They hastened as if to witness a miracle." That springtime of eager enthusiasm is of the past, but amid the dis- paragement of people belonging to a category that was then inarticulate, we have the calm and measured judg- ment of the few who know. Sir Richard Jebb, a thinker as well as a scholar, who did not use words lightly, in a work written towards the close of his life,* expressed himself thus: " Everyone admits now that it was a mistake to make the Greek Kingdom so small. Europe set Greece to make bricks without straw. The Greek race offers, on the whole, the best hope of settled order, of constitu- tional government, and of high civilization in those coun- tries which were once Hellenic. This may be said with- out any undue disparagement of its competitors. Let us concede everything that can be advanced in favor of Ottoman or Muscovite rule by the admirers of either. At least it cannot be said that either Russia or Turkey represents those blessings which subjects of the British monarchy have learned to associate with the name of constitutional freedom and which they believe to be in- separable from the highest and most beneficent forms of civilization. The Greeks have won constitutional free- dom by patient effort, and have proved that they can use it. As regards the new principahties, the type of na- tionahty and civihzation which they represent is, speak- ing broadly, the Slavonic. Now the efficacy of Greek civilization as compared with Slavonic has already been tested on a large scale and with a definite result. In the middle of the 9th century the Slavs seemed likely to per- meate Greece, though, as Karl Hopf has finally dem- onstrated, and as all learned students of the question are * Modern Greece. 1902. 24 GREECE— AND TOMORROW now agreed, the strain of Hellenic blood was never at any time lost in Greece. What happened? In two hundred years the Greeks absorbed and Hellenized the Slavs. How was that done? By the superiority — intel- lectual, pohtical, social — of Greek civilization. If we are sincere in beheving that constitutional freedom and the diffusion of sound education are good things, then we must desire to see the influence of the Greek race extended and strengthened in Southeastern Eu- rope." They confirm the words uttered 22 years earlier by a statesman who has never allowed his judgment to be affected by the intrusion of merely political considera- tions. Lord Rosebery, in a speech at Manchester in 1879, called Greece " the Piedmont of the East, the only hope of reorganization in the future, to those who look for freedom." In these times, when so much is in the crucible, and surprises certainly await us, it is not ill to end on a warn- ing note. And nothing could be more fitting than that of another scholar — Professor Blackie, spoken so long ago as 1853, but well suited for today: — "Keep a keen eye lest some secret conclave of cold calculating diploma- tists shall spin some base inhuman compact." THE FIRST ANNUAL BANQUET or THE AMERICAN-HELLENIC SOCIETY (Being an account of the dinner tendered by the Amer- ican-Hellenic Society to His Excellency, George Roussos, the Minister of Greece at Washington, together with his and other addresses delivered on that occasion.) The first banquet of the American-Hellenic Society, inaugurating what will become, it is hoped, an important annual event in our city, was held at the Hotel Bilt- more on the evening of January 25th, 1918, when the Society gladly embraced the opportimity to do honor to the newly appointed Minister of Greece, His Excellency, George Roussos. Arrangements had been made to give representative publicists, clergymen, journahsts, educators and busi- ness men, both American and Greek, the privilege of coming into an individual and personal relation with the Ambassador from Greece, who stands committed to the new regime so ably administered by the great states- man, Eleutherios Venizelos. The sympathy of Ameri- cans goes out so fully to this New Greece that the response to the invitations of the Society was most spontaneous and enthusiastic. Not only were the facul- ties of Columbia University, Hunter College and the College of the City of New York represented in the gathering, but professors from Vassar, Princeton and Yale shared in the Society's first fete. Our own ex- Minister to Greece, Mr. George H. Moses, came from 25 26 THE ANNUAL BANQUET Washington in order to be present, and John H. Fin- ley, President of the University of the State of New York and Commissioner of Education of the State, came from Albany to address the Society and its guests. The dinner was preceded by a short reception in the foyer of the " Music Room " of the hotel, where an effort was made by the officers of the Society to introduce to our distinguished guest the Philhellenes of our city and the diplomatic and consular officials of foreign Governments resident in New York and vicin- ity. A complete list of those present will be found at the end of this account, but the following guests of honor at the President's table may be mentioned here: Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, President of the Society and Toastmaster, and alternating from right to left. His Excellency, George Roussos (Minister of Greece) Hon. Gaston Liebert (Consul General of France) Miss Abby Leach Dr. Edward Robinson Miss Virginia D. Gildersleeve Prof. Thomas D. Goodell Hon. F. Cunliffe Owen Dr. Theodore P. Ion Hon. Henri Goiran (Consul of France) Hon. Charles Clive Bayley (Consul General of Great Britain) Mrs. Isaac F. Russell Hon. John H. Finley Hon. Henri LaFontaine Hon. George H. Moses Miss Edith M. Thomas Hon. Isaac F. Russell Mr. Constantine Voicly Mr. Constantine A. Panagopoulos (Consul of Greece) Major De Mayo Lieut. David The scene was brilliant and animated. On a dais, shghtly raised, were the speakers and the Society's most honored guests, while at more than twenty round tables little groups of the Society's friends, who were already acquainted, formed new and friendly relations with many of the foremost Greek residents of the city who have be- come known as leaders in the intellectual and social life of the Greeks of New York or who have distinguished themselves in the financial and commercial world. Our banquet was thus most truly an American-Hellenic ban- THE ANNUAL BANQUET 27 quet, and the Society hopes that it will be the auspicious precursor of many such occasions when those who love Greece as their source of inspiration or as their teacher may meet those who love her as their fatherland. Amid united American and Greek flags, and to the strains of the national hymns of both lands played by the orchestra, the guests seated themselves. When the excellent dinner had been served, a moment's pause per- mitted a photograph of the gathering to be taken and soon afterward the speeches were begun. The President of the Society, after briefly extolhng Ancient Greece's contribution to the intellectual and aesthetic life of the world and explaining the aims and objects of the American-Hellenic Society, proceeded in felicitous phrases to introduce the different speakers of the evening, who made their addresses in the following order: Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, President of the Ameri- can-Hellenic Society. His Excellency George Roussos, Minister of Greece. Hon. John H. Finley, President of the University of the State of New York. Dr. Theodore P. Ion, Director of the American-Hel- lenic Society. Dr. Edward Robinson, Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York. Mr. Constantine Voicly, President of the Panhellenic Union of America. Hon. Isaac F. Russell, Ex-Chief Justice of the Court of Special Sessions of the City of New York. Miss Edith M. Thomas, " A Poem on Hellas." Four of these speeches and the poems read by Miss Thomas are printed below. At the close of the banquet by a rising vote the thanks of the Society and its guests were unanimously extended to the speakers of the evening, and the following cable- gram was sent to the Prime Minister of Greece, Mr. 28 THE ANNUAL BANQUET Eleutherios Venizelos, by the President of the Society, Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler: (Translation) : " The members and guests of the American-Hellenic Society, gathered at a banquet to inaugurate its activities, have charged me to convey its sentiments of admiration to that eminent statesman who by his loyal and sincere policy has saved Greece from the abyss tow^ard which she was being dragged. He has re- stored her to that life in which she belonged by virtue of those democratic traditions, from which the attempt had been made to make her deviate. Happy as we are to see Greece resolutely defending those great principles, which the genius of her ancestors first proclaimed, — those prin- ciples of which the American people is today one of the foremost champions, — we desire to assure Your Excel- lency and through you the Hellenic people that we shall not cease to fight for the triumph of the rights of Greece and to endeavor to secure the liberty of her children." (Signed,) Nicholas Murray Butler. The following cablegrams were intended to be read at the banquet but were delayed in transmission and ar- rived " after the feast," as the Greeks say: "Be so good as to convey to the American-Hellenic Society my grateful sympathy for the fruitful work that it has just undertaken, and at the same time to express my prayers for the full success of its efforts. There is nothing that we have more at heart than to enhghten the American public as to the program of liberty and justice for which the Greek people, prepared to make every sac- rifice, is struggling, in absolute conformity with the noble principles laid down so exactly and with such deep convic- tion in the recent message of President Wilson. THE ANNUAL BANQUET 29 " Greece will thus deserve the active sympathy of the American Democracy and can with other small nations rely, for the realization of her just aspirations, on the powerful aid of the United States, which as a living ex- ample of hberty, justice and progress will along with the democratic Powers of Europe guarantee to the world a peace founded on right." Venizelos. Mr. Politis, the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs, also sent a cablegram, which is herewith presented in translation: " I beg you to express to the American-Hellenic Society the feehng;s of joy and satisfaction that its establishment has called forth in Greece. By making known our na- tional aspirations, it will not only contribute to the de- fense of our interests but it wiU render signal service to the general cause from which Hellenism does not separate its own cause. " The sincere love of liberty and justice which vibrate in the last great speech of President Wilson has never ceased from most ancient times to inspire our race. Like our glorious ancestors we are ready to sacrifice all for this. We do not desire the conquest of other peoples, nor domi- nation over them, for only thus shall we realize for our- selves, along with the liberation of our enslaved kinsmen, our desire to hve with the other Balkan nations in rela- tions of friendship and increasing solidarity. It was in this spirit that Venizelos, the faithful interpreter of the Greek soul, endeavored in 1912 to effect a close union of the Balkan states. This ideal, which is shared by our heroic Serbian and Rumanian allies, has met a repeated hindrance in Bulgaria's violent schemes for the hegemony. It can only be realized when the Bulgarian people re- nounces definitely the dominating tendencies of its rulers and gives substantial pledges of its sincere submission to 30 THE ANNUAL BANQUET law. We demand the liberation of our national territory which has been invaded, and the emancipation of our kins- men whose families have been scattered, whose fortunes and property have been destroyed or confiscated and whose very existence has been compromised under the barbarian yoke. Closely united to Serbia and Rumania we will struggle with all our strength for the defense of our his- toric traditions and our national independence. We are convinced that the democracy of the United States, informed as to our purposes by the American-Hellenic Society will, with its well-known generous sympathy, ac- cord us its powerful and invaluable aid. " With these feelings we oflFer our ardent prayers for the complete success of the work of the Society and we express in advance our warmest gratitude." POLITIS. ADDRESS OF HIS EXCELLENCY, GEORGE ROUSSOS Me. Chaiemax, Ladies and Gentlemex: I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your invitation to this banquet. I consider the regard in which you hold me as a great honor, for it permits me to con- gratulate those who by foimding the American-Hellenic Society have undertaken to make clear to the American people the rights of Hellenism. You are preparing to render a great service to Greece, but you are rendering another service just as precious to your own country. By force of circumstances, and owing to the disinter- estedness of the American democracy in the quarrels be- tween the European peoples, the United States has be- come their arbitrator. It will, therefore, assume the greater part of the responsibiUty in that final settlement which is either to secure a long era of peace, with right and liberty in the ascendant, or to cause a recurrence of these tremendous events of which we are the terrified spectators. The noble voice of the eminent man who presides over the destinies of the great American Republic has already laid down the rules which must constitute the basis of rightful regulation. But words alone have no magic power, for right in it- self is an abstraction; the facts constitute a stern reality. The rules of right serve only to regulate facts; conse- quently, you must examine every claim, establish the truth of the facts advanced, determine their reason and their legitimacy and put yourselves thus in a state to render a just decision. 31 32 THE ANNUAL BANQUET The people of all the warring nations alike affirm that they are fighting for right, justice and liberty. On which side is the truth? That is the question, and you must solve it. The questions placed before you are complex, but they can be solved by perseverance, good-will and fairness. The fighting armies of our allies are preparing the means to bring about rightful decisions. We are sure that you will profit by the respite given you by their sacrifice to examine these questions which are pending, in order to be ready, when victory permits it, to impose decisions based upon truth and consequently upon right. Acting thus, the American Democracy will render to humanity the greatest service that a nation has ever rendered to the world. You have undertaken the task of explaining to your countrymen a part of the famous Eastern Question which has provoked many a war and which is, today, the prin- cipal cause of this universal conflict. Your purpose is to defend the rights of the Hellenic nation, which is deeply interested in the solution of this question. This will be easy for you, for if any nation has accepted without re- serve the great principles proclaimed by the American Democracy, this nation has been Greece. She has adopted these principles because they coincide with the Hellenic way of thinking, as countless centuries have fashioned it. Greece has never been a dominating State, She has never tried to enslave other people, but has fought again and again to assure the freedom of Hellenism and in or- der to forward the cause of civilization. I do not need to recall ancient history to prove this affirmation, for you will find the proof in the events of the recent past. As is well known, from the capture of Constantinople by the Turks to our own days, the Government of all the Orthodox Christians, living in the Ottoman Empire, was confided to the Orthodox Patriarchs, their Bishops and THE ANNUAL BANQUET 33 other dignitaries of the Orthodox Church, who were al- ways Greeks. Up to the Greek Revolution against the Turkish tyranny, the ministers, provincial governors and other of- ficials of these countries were often Greeks. In Rumania and Bulgaria many of the statesmen and many of the educated men and higher classes bear Greek names which have come down from these ancient officials of the Otto- man Empire. Hellenism has thus had at its disposal in these regions a vast rehgious power, and a considerable portion of the civil power as well. It might therefore easily have con- trolled the intellectual life of the races that it ruled, and might have tried to absorb them. But these priests and officials chose, on the contrary, to conserve the language, the traditions, the national spirit of these peoples and permitted them, when the hour of their liberation finally came, to regain their existence as nationalities. This attitude of mind, always the same, has permitted the Greek people to accept with enthusiasm the war program of the United States, which advocates the freedom of all peoples, large or small. In this task of liberation it does not expect a selection to be made from among the enslaved peoples, but it ex- pects a complete and general deUverance of all. Nations have always the right to be free, no matter how long they may have been enthralled, so long as they pre- serve their national spirit, so long as they claim their formal will to be free. Freedom does not admit of limi- tation. This attitude of mind has always imposed on our Gov- ernment a unique policy, based on the principle of na- tionahties. A great part of the Balkans was formerly Greek ; but successive migrations have changed their ethnological con- stitution. Recognizing this fact, we have claimed only ^the parts in which compact groups of Greeks live. We 34 THE ANNUAL BANQUET have gone further. Having foreseen German ambitions in the Near East, we have tried, since 1884, to create an intimate union among the Balkan peoples, by a distribu- tion of territories which barred out from the Greek por- tion thousands of our own people. We had hoped that this intimate union would end in a confederation of all these States, strong enough to defend their independence. Our first attempt failed on account of that Balkan State which is today among the predatory nations. This nation betrayed Greece by informing Turkey of our project. Mr. Venizelos later attempted the same thing once more. Cooperation was begun, but at the end of the war against the Turks, Bulgaria showed her ambitions again; in spite of her apparent acceptance of the arbitration of the Czar of Russia, she ordered a criminal aggression against her allies and provoked the second Balkan War. Her acts since then have been instigated by Germany, whose in- terests coincided with the Bulgarian ambitions. Some progress, however, has been made. The common struggle has created between Greece, Serbia and Rumania bonds of close friendship, which promise in the future a still more intimate union. We have the firm resolve to reach our goal; but this union is directed against no single nation. Should the Bulgarians abandon definitely their dreams of domination they can be sure of their ex- istence as a nation. Neither Greece nor her friends have any intention to make an attempt upon them in spite of their repeated treacheries. You will explain to your fellow-countrymen that this has been the constant Greek policy. You will also dispel erroneous beliefs disseminated by a continuous and skillful propaganda. Acting on the psychological principle that a false affir- mation, repeated to satiety and in an appropriate manner, becomes for the masses a proven truth, our enemies, leagued in the purpose to enslave the world, have taught, THE ANNUAL BANQUET 35 during long years, that they were the only powerful agents of civilization and were consequently justified in ruUng humanity. They have even affirmed that all the peoples living in their neighborhood were of their race. A dialect containing a few words of their language, a matter of physical constitution, any and every vmimpor- tant detail was invoked with great seriousness just to im- press the masses and to create in their minds a conviction in accord with German interests. Thus history has been falsified. Alexander the Great has been made a Bulgarian and similar assertions have often been made in their books of history; but for- tunately the wishes of these Balkan peoples are now well known. Hundreds of thousands of Allied troops have been living among the Macedonians for more than two years. They have had the means of knowing exactly the na- tional spirit and the real desires of these people. In Eastern Macedonia occupied by the Bulgarians, notwithstanding persecutions and the attempted extermi- nation of the Hellenic populations undertaken by them, the will of these people as manifested proves what race it is that lives there. I shall be proud to aid you in your endeavor. I desire it because I want to bring to you substantial evidence that justifies our claims. We want your conviction to be based upon reason, not upon feeling. Your love for ancient Greece must not aflPect your decision and your opinion must be established after a thorough examina- tion of the facts. I offer you my services only with this understanding. The position that you have already taken has been encouraging to my country. Greece has passed through a terrible crisis. A handful of men, foolish to say the least, has tried to lead her into treachery and dishonor by the abuse of power and by the abohtion of her liber- ties. The revolutionary movement of Salonika fortu- 36 THE ANNUAL BANQUET nately freed her from these misguided men, though her sufferings, moral as well as material, have been in- tense. Notwithstanding the humiliations to which she has been subjected, she has remained faithful to her tradi- tions, her friendships, and her obligations. She is to- day fulfilling her duty and she needs your esteem and your affection. Every word of encouragement that comes from this noble country gives her new power, raises her morale and strengthens her will to carry out her obligations. Greece has engraved in letters of gold the names of the American Philhellenes who, in great numbers, helped her at the time of the struggle for her independence. I am confident that the marble of Pentelicon will not suffice for the inscription of the names of the new Philhel- lenes, for Greece hopes that all America will help her in her just aims. This will be your achievement. In the name of my country, I thank you. ADDRESS OF HON. JOHN H. FINLEY Me. Chairman, Your Excellency, Greeks Who Are Meeting Greeks Again, Americans Who Are Meeting Greeks for the First Time, and Loters of Greece All: When I received the invitation from President Butler to take part in this Hellenic Festival, I responded in- stantly, as if it were a call from Olympus. I assumed that both Hephaestus, the smithy-god, and Hermes, the expert in transportation, would be propitious. I as- sumed also that the leaves of the oracular oak would whisper with intimations of content for my address from the Jovian chairman. Hephaestus Garfield and Hermes McAdoo have, however, put obstacles in my way. I have been as Prometheus on snowy Caucasus, and am late therefore in arrival. Moreover, when it became necessary to make preparation for my address, I be- came suddenly conscious that the oak was a deciduous tree, which led me to wonder how Zeus communicated his wishes to mortals when the oaks of Dodona were not in leaf, — when they stood silent as that great tele- funken tree out at SayviUe, Long Island, now stands, which before the war could hear and communicate what the Kaiser said in Berlin. Two or three leaves, however, did hang upon my oak, the memories of last year's philosophic fohage, the pro- phecies of next year's public doctrine. They were those epigrammatic leaflets of President Butler on " Peace," " The International Mind," and " The Great Struggle," which have in them a Jovian tremor of suggestion. With that slight guidance, so slight that what I say can hardly be regarded as "inspired," I venture to bring a word 37 38 THE ANNUAL BANQUET from my Albanian Caucasus to this, the Piraeus of our perilous commerce and the Acropohs of our cosmopoli- tan worship and defense. The theme caught from one of these tremulous leaves which whispered that " peace was but a state attendant upon the achievement of an ideal," is that Greece first gave the little world the " ideal of human liberty, justice and an honorable conduct of an orderly society " which animates our world struggle for democracy and that, therefore, we would hold Greece in the immortal com- pany of those who have that same ideal. The world in which that ideal first blossomed in mar- ble, music, poetry and politics, was a little world. I have called its age the peri-nikian age in contrast with the televictorian. [Comparison of words in Greek lexi- con. Telebolos, telemachos (far throwing), teleplanos (far traveling), telekleitos (far famed), telescopes (far seeing), teleboas (far shouting), telegonos (far born), telothe (far, far away).] We have grown from this narrow-horizoned, perinik- ian, horizontal, Ptolemaic, Hellenic earth into a Coper- nican, televictorian cosmos, in which we of America who, though we were baptized under the Ptolemaic system, have from the first days had a cosmic subconsciousness, are now leaping to cosmic action. We have come into the " international mind," into planetary thinking. And in doing so we want to have all ^that Greece was and all that Greece is, fighting with us for the same free- dom on this planet — a planet on which there are no longer two distinct hemispheres and which cannot remain " one- half despotism and one-half democracy." . ******** I have imagined Cadmus, our reputed Father of Let- ters — who brought the alphabet to Greece and so to Europe and the New World — I have imagined his sur- veying this televictorian war-mad world and saying to himself: THE ANNUAL BANQUET 39 " When I contemplate the ravage Of my alphabetic lore, See the mechanistic savage Waging culture-loving war; Using logarithmic tables To direct his hellish fire, Preaching philosophic fables To excuse his mad desire; See pure science turned to choking, Shooting, drowning, human kind; Hear a litany invoking Hate in God's benignant mind ; See the forest trees transmuted Into lettered pulp, while man With a brain deep-convoluted Takes the place of primal Pan, And instead of finding pleasure In a simple life with song Spends his planetary leisure Reading how the world's gone wrong — Seeing, hearing this I've wondered 'Mid this murder, greed and fret Whether I have sinned or blundered Giving man the alphabet." But it is the alphabet given to civilization — and copied even by the uncivilized — the alphabet of Euripides and Socrates, of Shakespeare's plays, of Milton's verse and President Wilson's notes — in which the world is yet to write her televictorian ode of universal freedom, the al- phabet in which we cry back across the ages to that hero of my youth, Prometheus — Prometheus who brought fire to man, freedom from enslavement to the cold whose tyranny now and then creeps back upon us to terrorize us — we cry in the words of SheUey's " Prometheus Un- bound ": " To defy Power which seems omnipotent. To love and bear ; to hope till Hope creates 40 THE ANNUAL BANQUET From its own wreck the thing it contemplates, Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent; This, like thy glory. Titan, is to be Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free. This is alone Life, Joy, Empire and Victory." A poet of our age once let his imagination go back into old Greece and write: " I fancy, though the world seem old enough, Though Hellas be the sole unbarbarous land, Years may conduct to such extreme of age And outside Hellas so isles new may lurk That haply — ^when and where remains a dream Tho' he does picture a place where mist and snow mass hard to metal In fresh days when no Hellas fills the world In novel lands as strange where all the same Their men and women yet behold as we Blue heaven, black earth, and love, hate, hope and fear Over again, — unhelped by Attica ! " But it takes more imagination than I have to think of a civilized place " unhelped of Attica," of Greece, for Greece is the ally of all true culture, and we who fight for freedom in the world may claim her genius as our own and with better reason than Germany claims the genius of Shakespeare and Rodin. So, Your Excellency, I welcome this opportunity to say this word which I have run a marathon to utter and find myself a breathless messenger in trying to speak — this word of love for Greece which America holds eter- nally in her heart. In Paris some years ago when I came to say good-by to the permanent secretary of the Academy, I suggested that he come to America. " No," he said, " when I leave France, I go to Greece. My heart is in Greece." So we say if we leave America we go to France (by way of THE ANNUAL BANQUET 41 England, Mr. Consul) . Our heart is in France. But if we leave France we go to Greece and we go by way of Italy. But still we go to Greece. I walked toward Greece one night in Italy — from Assisi to Foligno. (Mr. Finley here related an experi- ence which led to the mingling of the water of the foun- tain of Assisi with that of a New England spring.) But every spring in America has been touched by drops of water from the fountains of Greece — even if not all of them from the Pierian spring — and tonight we lift our glasses with these mingled waters to the new Ulysses who has passed the Gates of Night and braves the perils of the baths of all the western stars to visit the western coast of Hellas ! ADDRESS OF DR. THEODORE P. ION This gathering of Hellenes and Philhellenes is a sym- bol of those combined efforts of the Greek people and their friends, through which the modern Hellenic State was created. Every student of history knows the en- thusiasm which the Greek War of Independence of 1821 evoked in the civilized world. As a matter of fact, that was not the only time that the people of Greece had striven to free themselves from the Turkish yoke, but all their previous risings which had received no outside help were mercilessly put down by the Turks. When the gpeat French revolution broke out, the minds of the enslaved Greeks were prepared for their Renais- sance. The principles of the French Revolution had, so to say, filtered through every nook and corner of the Hellenic homes. The Herald or Pioneer of the Greek War of Independence, the poet, Regas Pherseos, was the first victim of that idea, having been beheaded by the Turks after being surrendered to them by the Austrians while he was on his way to meet Bonaparte for a rising of Greece. The years following the overthrow of Napoleon up to the outbreak of the revolution in 1821, and a little later, were years of a conflict of ideas in regard to gov- ernment both in Europe and on the American continent. In Europe it was a conflict between peoples striving to secure constitutional liberties and the autocratic rulers of that time trying to curb and crush every liberal move- ment. It was at that psychological moment that the Greek revolution of 1821 broke out. 42 THE ANNUAL BANQUET 43 Towards the end of the year 1815, the so-called Holy (or, to use the words of Jefferson, " Unholy ") Alliance was signed by the then three autocratic rulers of Europe. The mind of Alexander I, who was the soul of that diplo- matic instrument, was not at that time as yet contami- nated by the evil genius of Prince Metternich, because the Emperor was still under the influence of Capo D'Istria, the Greek statesman who then directed the foreign af- fairs of Russia. The very woman who inspired that treaty, namely, Baroness Kriidner, was herself an ardent Philhellene and had actually pleaded the cause of Greece with Alexander I at St. Petersburg. Ever since its sig- nature that extraordinary treaty has been a target of aU liberal-minded men because they ascribed to it all the evils resulting from the oppressive measures of those times. As a matter of fact, that treaty was nothing- but, as Prince Metternich called it, " mere verbiage." The treaty of the Holy Alhance was not the one which was the source of oppression but a subsequent agreement, signed by the same sovereigns, and the resolutions passed by the various famous Congresses which were held be- tween the year 1818 and the year 1822, namely, those of Aix-la-Chapelle, Troppau, Laibach and that of Verona which was held in October, 1822. It was during the sit- tings of that last Congress that the revolutionary Gov- ernment of Greece sent representatives to Italy in order to plead the cause of the Greeks before the sovereigns and statesmen gathered at Verona. But not only were its deputies not permitted to appear personally before the Congress but they were not even allowed to approach the city where the Congress was held and were ultimately expelled from their landing place, Ancona. Chateaubriand, the historian of that Congress who was also one of the plenipotentiaries of France, after telUng us how he vainly pleaded the cause of Greece with Alex- ander I, describes in a pathetic manner, in his usual elegant style, the vain appeals of the Greek deputies to 44 THE ANNUAL BANQUET appear before the Congress. As no translation can give the exact feehngs of the brilliant writer as to this mat- ter, may I be allowed to read in the original the few sen- tences in which Chateaubriand expressed his feelings: " Voila toutes les grandeurs modernes venues se mesurer a Verone aux arenes laissees par les Romains, " Aupres de ces debris, se pla9aient d'autres ruines qu'on n'ecoutait pas, les deputes de la malheureuse Grece. Le vieux monument de la ville eternelle leur eut plutot repondu que ces souverains d'un jour, parce qu'Athenes levait vers le ciel ses mains suppliantes au nom de la liberte!"* Ninety-three years have elapsed since these memorable words were written. Compare the situation of Greece in 1822 when her deputies were imploring Europe to lay before the feet of the sovereigns and statesmen of Europe the griev- ances of the Greek people, with that of the year 1915 when some of these Powers asked Greece to come to their assistance in their war against their enemies. Com- pare the reception given in 1822 to the Greek deputies who from a little, obscure hotel at Ancona were imploring for an audience in the Congress of Verona, with the al- most royal reception given to Mr. Eleutherios Venizelos in 1917 in the European capitals and particularly in London, where he was, one might well say, " honized," with a dinner at the Royal Palace, with a reception at the Mansion House, and a banquet in his honor by the British members of Parliament. When one compares these two events, one cannot help seeing the great stride made by the Greek nation in the course of less than a century. But who can deny that the creation of the Hellenic State would not have been possible, notwith- standing the heroic deeds of the Greek warriors, without the moral and material help of the Philhellenes? The result of the influence of the Philhellenes of that time * Chateaubriand: Congrk de Veivne, Chap. XII. THE ANNUAL BANQUET 45 culminated in the Battle of Navarino, the landing of French troops in the Peloponnesus and the Treaty of Adrianople of 1828 between Russia and Turkey by which the latter Power was compelled to recognize the inde- pendence of Greece. At last, by the Protocol of 1830, the three Protecting Powers of Greece, namely, France, Great Britain and Russia, created the Hellenic State. From that time on the Powers have never ceased to guide, advise, protect and defend Greece and we must admit that without the help of those Powers, Greece could not have existed as a State. Let us therefore, as a token of gratitude, drink to the health of the armies and navies of the Alhes and par- ticularly of Great Britain and France. ADDRESS OF MR. CONSTANTINE VOICLY Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen: In a gathering like this, where the rights of peoples are uppermost in our minds, I may perhaps be permit- ted, without national egotism, and simply as a matter of historic fact, to state that the rights and principles, for the maintenance of which the greater part of the civilized world is fighting today, originated in Greece. Socrates, who refused to escape from his death cell be- cause he preferred to obey the Athenian laws which pro- tested against such an act, and who took the hemlock so bravely and so stoically, in order to obey the laws estabhshed by the Athenian people, of whom he formed a part, and Plato, who gives us the description of an ideal state, in which Government and Justice emanate from the people and exist for the benefit of the people, and Pericles, too, who was guardian, so to speak, of these rights during the best period of the Athenian de- mocracy, together with many other statesmen and writ- ers, proclaimed to the then known world the very rights and principles for the vindication of which mankind has been struggling ever since. Unfortunately, after the fall of Greece, Rome at- tempted to be her successor in the application of these rights, but' Rome, after an unsuccessful trial, failed to oaf ry out these ideals and degenerated into an autocracy of the worst kind; and later on we see these rights and principles vanish, outraged by many usurpers and oppres- sors, who under the pretense of a so-called "Divine Right " substituted their own will for the will of their people. In the Dark Ages there was so much oppres- sion that the people did not dare to take justice in its 46 THE ANNUAL BANQUET 47 hands and proclaim and impose its rights upon the Gov- ernment; and so Hmnanity came down through the ages bearing the burden of autocracy and ofttimes of tyranny, until the, dawn of American Independence in 1776. In this historical year, a comparatively small number of people, in a continent, which they were the first civil- ized beings to occupy, taking advantage of their geo- graphical position, planted a new tree, the tree of Lib- erty, which was to flourish and to take root so deeply and so strongly as justly to attract the admiration of the whole civihzed world of today. The dawn of American independence was closely fol- lowed by another greater historical event, the French Revolution of 1789, an event as beneficial and necessary as was the Revolution in this country, an event which taught Humanity her rights, a debt which she can only repay by her eternal gratitude towards France; but beneficial as it was, the French Revolution failed to extir- pate the roots of the autocratic thistle, which we still see thriving in some parts of Europe so strongly and to such an extent as to encourage the rulers of some coun- tries to conceive the plan of domination over other na- tions, especially over the smaller and weaker states, and impose upon them their own Kultur. This may be said to be the main cause of the present universal war. During this war, ladies and gentlemen, even from its very beginning, the Alhes have given many assurances as to the fate of the nations after the war, but without questioning the sincerity of these nations, the assurances have been so vague, so uncertain, and of such a nebulous form, that they have left behind them an atmosphere of uneasiness, for every nation, whether or not involved in the war, until the message of the President of the United States came to enhghten us. This message, in praise of which not sufficient words can be found, and which will pass down to posterity as an intellectual monimient and as a masterpiece of 48 THE ANNUAL BANQUET modern ideals as well as of language, has really crystal- lized those nebulous assurances; it has done more, it has purified and sanctified the war, and, indorsed as it is by the Congress of the United States and having ob- tained the unanimous approval of the American people, it stands today as a warning to the strong against unjust or ambitious conquest, and as a shield to the weak, assur- ing his own independence and the amehoration of his fate; and now everybody feels confident that after the Armageddon now raging around us is over, a new era will prevail among all nations, a new era which will stand, to use the expression of President Wilson, " for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own Government, for the rights and liberties of the small nations, for a universal dominion of right, by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free." To such a noble cause, ladies and gentlemen, and to such a high aspiration, the Greeks, imbued as they are by these ideals, cannot be deserters nor can they ever be indifferent. They are therefore here tonight to join the American people in the approval of this great message and to pledge themselves to the fulfillment of it; they are doing more, they are already fighting in Macedonia and are joining the American army here, upholding every word of the great message, and since the cause and ob- ject are one and the same, it is quite immaterial whether they fight under their own colors or under the colors of the United States. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the Greek nation is fighting already for every sentence, nay, for every word of the great message, but owing to circumstances which are regretted by all who serve the common cause, and es- pecially by the Greeks themselves, whose opinion I voice, the Greek nation is fighting with her left hand, her right hand having been until lately tied behind her back by a Government which was supposed to exist by the will of THE ANNUAL BANQUET 49 the people and for the benefit of the people, and in order to uphold the honor and the traditions of the nation, but which instead has proved itself to be nothing else than an example on a small scale of the same form of Gov- ernment that this message condemns, of that form of Government against which the American people and the other Allies are shedding their blood today, and against which we too are anxious and eager to shed our own tomorrow, to fight, that is, with all the vigor of our race and with both our hands free. Fortunately, at the present time, by the intervention of the Allies, and especially by the drastic though benevolent action taken by noble France, we, the people of Greece, have reas- serted our rights, and we have intrusted the destinies of our country to a strong man, to the greatest states- man undoubtedly that Greece ever had, and we have also entered the war with full confidence in a final vic- tory, and on the side, we are thankful to say, where our honor, our traditions, our duty and our interest have long been calling us; but war is war, and its fortunes are uncertain. Should the worst happen, we shall have the right, as things now are, to look the world in the face and to tell it with pride that everything is lost save our honor ! . This hand of ours we here extend to the American people, and we offer it as Greeks to Americans, and we ask you, after witnessing our pledge, to be the interpret- ers of our feehngs to your people, and to herald all over your country that the Greeks are standing by the princi- ples they have learned from their ancestors, that they join you and the other Allies in the noble fight, and that they will stand by all of you for the accomplishment of these noble ideals, and that they will stand by you to the end. Finally, from the bottom of their heart, comes the wish that they may see once more, and that right soon, their country united in spirit, so that they may be able 50 THE ANNUAL BANQUET to give to the common cause a more substantial and more valuable assistance than now, assistance that is with both their hands; the very same hands, which in the days of old, raised the trophies of the Persian Wars that saved the world at that time from a barbarous cataclysm; the very same hands which, following the example of the American and the French people, broke the chains of their tyranny, and won their independence; the very same hands which, five years ago, as liberators of their brethren, wrought two successive and successful wars ; the very same hands, finally, which through the ages have always fought against despotism and tyranny, whenever and wherever they met them. And when beautiful Greece, united, shall stand again firmly on her feet, attired in her glorious panoply, brand- ishing her spear, her face radiating beauty, glory and genius, terrible to her enemies and respected by her friends, then, gentlemen, you must not be surprised if you see even these fair women who sit now at the tables before us running to her like the Spartan women of old, surrounding her and imploring her to let them fight with her for the common cause. POEMS WRITTEN BY MISS EDITH M. THOMAS AND READ BY HER AT THE BANQUET "WHO SHALL SAVE HELLAS? " Who shall save Hellas from impending doom — She, the beloved, the revered from eld, Whose Psyche still behind the world-soul stands, Voicing the law of Beauty and of Art? Who shall pluck back the garland of her honor, Torn from her stately head by ruthless hands? Who shall restore the azure and the white Of her loved banner — Truth and Faithfulness — Redeeming thus her pledges of a friend To a stript land that held with her the pact Of mutual aid against inhuman foes? Who shall save Hellas from impending doom? Oh, who but weep to see her chained again — She that could snap the fetters Islam forged ! Shall her young Freedom — not of century's span — Be taken from her, or those trophies lost Which precious blood of hers so lately bought — Kavala, Seres, Drama, be lost as pawns In a vile game of war played by her foes. Of whom, in friendship's guise, one bore afar Soldiers of hers and held as chattel-guests? Ev'n he who sits upon her throne, inclined Unto her foe — Europe's Arch-enemy! Shall he not heed — the " King by grace of God " — Lest he on Greece should bring a last disgrace ? Who shall save Hellas from impending doom? Greeks of America, not few are you. Or cold of heart ; and still resides in you A klephtic spark that can be blown again! 51 52 THE ANNUAL BANQUET I think I hear you with one voice proclaim : " He shall save Hellas — he whom Crete leads forth To be her savior when near lost is all ! " He shall safeguard her dear-bought liberties ! Does not his chrismal name of Freedom ring — " Eleutherios " — the deliverer? Greeks of America, do not ye say, " He shall save Hellas from impending doom — Zeto, Venizelos ! " THE FREEDOM OF GREECE HAS COME ONCE MORE! « Now has great Freedom come once more to Greece, For lately was she bound in subtler gyves — More mordant than the Turk upon her forged. While all her angry Hellenes, near or far, (Those most of all within our widewayed land!) Stormed in their hearts to see her chained so fast. Rejoice, O Hellenes! All-the-world's Belov'd — Your native land, of proudest legendry. Breathes free again, and, stretching her lithe limbs, Is ready now to meet the Earth's One Foe, And in the combat join her olden friends! You had, long since, O Greeks, a Constantine, Who in the heavens saw a golden cross,* Whence m hoc signo vinces rang his cry ! Your latest Constantine beheld a cross — But other ! For an Iron Cross it was. And in his secret heart its image lay And there a thousand treacheries it bred . . . But let him pass — this last of Constantines ! Hellas, let him pass — without a word : He that betrayed thee shall betray no more; Into the dark of exile let him go, With other crown'd betrayers of their trust! Dantean is their doom — ^hateful to God, And (soon) unto the enemies of God! Thy wedded traitors, Hellas — let them pass, And think no more of them ; but call thy clans ; THE ANNUAL BANQUET 53 And, first of all, the chieftain of the isle Set in the sparkling sea where free airs blew And filled his soul with Glory, as the wind Fills the fain sail that has been sick with calm. And, now, a larger voyage still must shape — Call, Hellas, call thy Venizelos home, And set him over all — who has the hearts of all! NEWS OF THE AMERICAN-HELLENIC SOCIETY Two of our officers have recently aided in forwarding the objects for which the Society was formed by lec- tures on the Near East. Dr. Theodore P. Ion, the Director of the Society and formerly Professor of In- ternational Law at Boston University, on March 3rd and March 12th gave two lectures at Columbia Univer- sity under the auspices of the Institute of Arts and Sci- ences of that institution. The lectures dealt with the " Eastern Question and Greece." In the first Dr. Ion dwelt on the origin of the Eastern Question and the causes which gave rise to it, and then, after a brief his- torical sketch in which he emphasized the political and social incompatibility of Christians and Mohammedans, he reviewed the diplomatic history connected with the creation of the Hellenic Kingdom. In the second lec- ture the speaker treated of various phases of the East- ern Question, beginning with the Egyptian troubles, and, passing next to the part taken by Russia in the Near East, as exemplified in the Crimean War, concluded by explaining the relation of Greece to the present situation, and the part that the Hellenic people is destined to play in the final settlement. On April 6th Professor Mitchell Carroll of the George Washington University at Washington, D. C, who has been for many years the General Secretary of the Archaeological Institute of America, dehvered an in- teresting lecture entitled: "Greece," in the Wars Be- tween Orient and Occident from Theseus to Venizelos." The lecturer passed rapidly through the long centuries of Greece's contests, as the buffer state, with the hordes of East and North, showing now the portrait of some 54 NEWS OF THE SOCIETY 55 great man, whose very name epitomizes the achievements of an epoch, and again some lovely landscape where a great battle or a famous temple once symbolized con- cretely the glory of ancient and medieval Greece. When more modern times were reached, and the great events of the last hundred years and in particular the occur- rences of the recent Balkan Wars were touched upon, events which have brought about the doubling of Greece's territory and the quadrupling of her power and prestige, the feeling was aroused that this alone might well form the theme for another lecture, centering around the figure of Venizelos, whose strong and sympathetic face, when shown upon the screen, called forth the applause of the gathering. On February 16, 1918, Professor William Scott Fer- guson, of Harvard University, a member of the Execu- tive Committee of the Society, tendered an informal re- ception and tea at his home in Cambridge to His Excel- lency George Roussos, the Minister of Greece, on the occasion of his recent visit to Boston. Many of the members of the Local Council of Massachusetts were present and among the guests may be mentioned Profes- sors Lanman, Gulick, Chase, Patton and Harris. Our General Council was represented by Dr. Ion, the Di- rector, and Professor Brown, Chairman of the Execu- tive Committee. Mrs. Ferguson entertained her guests most charmingly and hospitably, and the Society's aims and hopes were freely and helpfully discussed. A meeting was held in Faneuil Hall on Sunday after- noon, February 17th, which was attended by several thousand Greeks of Boston and vicinity. At the close of a stirring address by His Excellency Mr. Roussos, Professor Carroll N. Brown spoke briefly, first in Greek, and then in English, on strengthening the friendly rela- tions of Greece and the United States, and expressed his confidence that the hearty co-operation of the Greeks in America would advance materially the cause of the Allies in this war against Prussian militarism. 56 NEWS OF THE SOCIETY DONORS The following persons have contributed the amounts designated opposite their names to the work of the Society: Mb. Anthoxy Embiricos of London, England $3,500.00 Messrs. Antoniades & Mitrou, New York City 250.00 Ms. M. B. Atheneos, N. Y. C 100.00 Messrs. Condogiane Brothers, N. Y. C 10.00 Mr. G. Constantin, N. Y. C 25.00 Mr. D. Cotjmantahos, N. Y. C 200.00 Mr. G. C. Crassopoulos, N. Y. C 100.00 Messrs. Dimou Brothers & Co., Inc., N. Y. C 25.00 Mr. J. Dooanges, N. Y. C 10.00 Mr. B. Dostoolou, N. Y. C 5.00 Mr. D. DotTKAs, N. Y. C 25.00 Messrs. Douvhis Brothers, N. Y. C 5.00 Mr. B. D. DtTGUNDji, N. Y. C 100.00 Mb. Theodore Efstathioij, N. Y. C 5.0O Messrs. Fatseas & Samios, N. Y. C 35.00 Mb. J. Gauinos, N. Y. C 250.00 Messrs. G. A. Georgopulo & Co., N. Y. C 250.00 Mr. E. M. Grammatikakis, N. Y. C 5.00 Messrs. Gyftakis Georgopoulos Co., N. Y. C 200.00 Mr. N. Hapsas, N. Y. C 10.00 Mr. S. Karakostas, N. Y. C 15.00 Mr. John Kasimatis, N. Y. C , 5.00 Rev. M. KouRKOtTLis, N. Y. C 25.00 Mr. M. Litzas, N. Y. C 100.00 Mr. B. A. LiviEBATo, N. Y. C 250.00 Mr. E. a. Manikas, N. Y. C 50.00 Mr. a. Megalos, N. Y. C 200.00 Mr. Geo. A. Microutsicos, N. Y. C 200.00 Mb. George Minakakis, N. Y. C 25.00 Mr. p. Morosini, N. Y. C 250.00 Mr. George Mulinos, N. Y. C 5.00 Mr. H. Papadoptilos, N. Y. C 5.00 Mr. p. a. Pavudis, N. Y. C 400.00 Mr. T. Petbotj, N. Y. C 5.00 Messrs. C. Pialoglou & Sons, N. Y. C 250.00 Messrs. Poltmeho & Ringa, N. Y. C 100.00 Messrs. Poulo Brothers, N. Y. C ' 30.00 Mr. a. G. Psomiades, N. Y. C 100.00 Messrs. Ravazula Brothers, N. Y. C 250.00 Mr. J. Sabantis, N. Y. C 150.00 Me. S. Sofianopoulo, N. Y. C 100.00 Mb. S. D. Stamatopulo, N. Y. C 300.00 Mb. Ab. Stathakos, N. Y. C S.OO Mb. B. Stavhacos, N. Y. C 250.00 Mr. Petbos Tatanis, N. Y. C 250.00 Mr. p. Theophilopulos, N. Y. C 25.00 Mr. J. Tryforos, N. Y. C 25.00 Mr. Ath. Tsukalas, N. Y. C S.OO Mr. p. Vardakis, N. Y. C s'oo Mr. Theodobe Vougas, N. Y. C 10.00 $7,600.00 NEWS OF THE SOCIETY 57 NECROLOGY To the deep regret of the members of the Society, Professor James Rignall Wheeler of Colimibia Univer- sity, a member of the Executive Committee of the Gen- eral Council of the Society, died at his New York home on Saturday, February 9th, We present herewith the resolutions on his death drawn up by the Executive Committee and sent to Mrs. Wheeler, as well as a brief life of Professor Wheeler, which first appeared in the Vermont Cynic. March 16th, 1918. My deae Mks. Wheeler : At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the American- Hellenic Society, held at its offices on Saturday, March 2, the following resolutions on the death of Professor James R. Wheeler were adopted. It was further voted that they be recorded in the minutes of the Society and that a copy be sent to you. " Be it resolved that in the death of Professor James Rignall Wheeler the American-Hellenic Society has lost one of its most valued members and friends. His profound understand- ing of the real significance of Greek art and literature in our modern life, and his associations with the leading exponents of Greek thought in our country were an earnest of the invaluable help that he would have rendered our newly formed Society. The Committee had, indeed, already learned to rely on his judgment, and had found that his knowledge of Greece and her affairs, and his interest in her people and their progress, were equaled only by his willingness to do his part in furthering her cause here in America. "Resolved that the Society can never forget that among the last acts of a life devoted to Greek idealism, it could claim and so freely receive the self-sacrificing service of one who, we hope. 58 NEWS OF THE SOCIETY saw with prophetic vision that Greece still has something to offer America as well as to receive from her. " Resolved further that we herewith express our sense of per- sonal loss and our deep sympathy with you in your bereavement." Very sincerely yours, Carroll N. Brown, Chairman Executive Committee. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Professor James Rignall Wheeler died at his home in New York City on Saturday, February 9, after a brief illness. An attack of la grippe lasting about ten days affected his heart (which for a year or two had not been strong) and Saturday at noon sud- denly brought on a critical condition to which he succumbed in a few hours. Professor Wheeler was born in Burlington on February 15, 1859, the youngest son of President John Wheeler of the Uni- versity of Vermont, who was president from 1833 to 1849, and his second wife, Mary C. Wheeler. Professor Wheeler was gradu- ated from the University of Vermont in the class of 1880 with the degree of A.B. and received the degrees of A.M. and Ph.D. from Harvard in 1885. After further study in Europe, at Berlin and at Bonn, he became a lecturer at Johns Hopkins and in 1888 was made instructor in Greek and Latin at Harvard. From 1889 to 1895 he was professor of Greek at the University of Vermont. Since then he had been a member of the faculty at Columbia Uni- versity as professor of Greek until 1906, and then as professor of Greek archaeology and art. He was more closely connected with the American School of Classical Studies at Athens than any other one man. A student of the school at its opening in 1882, he returned to Athens as annual professor in 1892-93, and spent several months at the school on two later visits to Europe. He had been a member of the managing committee of the school since 1891, was secretary of this committee from 1894 to 1901, and from that time until his death was its chairman and a trustee of the school. To his ideals of scholarship and his wise guidance is due in no small measure the high position which the school holds today among the foreign schools of archaeology in Athens. NEWS OF THE SOCIETY 59 Professor Wheeler's publications consisted chiefly of scattered articles in the classical and especially the archaelogical periodicals, reviews in The New York Nation and occasional addresses. He was joint editor with Professor Fowler of Western Reserve Univer- sity of an important handbook of archaeology, and he contributed to a work on Greek literature, published by Columbia University in 1912. The soundness of his judgment and his prominence in the academic world led to off'ers of important administrative posi- tions, among others that of curator of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, but he preferred the life of a teacher. He was acting dean and dean of the faculty of fine arts of Columbia University from 1906 to 1909, had been vice-president of the American Philological Association and associate editor of the American Journal of Archaeology, and was an honorary editor at the time of his death. For more than two years he had been a member of the Municipal Art Commission of the City of New York. He received the hon- orary degree of LL.D. from the University of Colorado and from the University of Vermont, and was a trustee of the latter insti- tution, having been elected in 1914. He is survived by his wife, who was Jane Hunt Pease, daugh- ter of President Pease of the University of Vermont (1851-61). Professor Wheeler was the last of a family of seven children. Funeral services were held Monday afternoon, February 11, in New York at Professor Wheeler's home and in St. Paul's, the Columbia University Chapel. The body was brought to Burling- ton, where a funeral was held Tuesday afternoon, February 12, in the College Street Church. Cornell University Ubrary DF 759.F38 Greece — and to'"°t'',9,'{(,i "3""T924 028 256 174