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Page 2
* * * * *
[Illustration: THE GREAT ROUND
WORLD
AND WHAT IS GOING ON IN IT.]
VOL. 1 MAY 27, 1897. NO. 29
* * * * *
The settlement of the terms of peace between Turkey and Greece promises to
be a very long and tedious matter.
It has been announced that Turkey offers to conclude peace, provided
Greece pays her $15,000,000 to cover her war expenses, gives her certain
strategic points in Thessaly, and turns over to her the Greek fleet until
the war expenses are paid.
The Sultan has begun the negotiations by asking for everything he could
think of, but this was just what people expected he would do.
England regards Turkey's demands as unfair, and will oppose them. She
thinks that Greece should merely be made to withdraw her troops from
Crete, and give Turkey a reasonable sum of money as war indemnity.
It is a pity that England did not show some of this sympathy sooner,
instead of standing idly by until Turkey had brought Greece to her present
piteous plight.
That Greece should have been so easily beaten is still a cause of
wonderment.
If all accounts are true, the Crown Prince Constantine deserves a good
deal of the blame of the disaster. He was not experienced enough to take
command of an army in an important campaign, and should not have
undertaken so difficult a task unless he was sure of himself.
It is said by all the newspaper correspondents who were with the Greek
army, that the shameful flight from Larissa was the cause of the series of
defeats that followed it. These men declare that after Larissa the Greeks
lost confidence in their commanders, and had no hope of success.
It is claimed that if the Greeks had pushed forward instead of retreating,
the Turks must have been beaten.
Up to the evening of April 23d, when the retreat occurred, the Turks were
in a desperate condition. Edhem Pasha, the general in command of the
Turkish army, had decided that it was impossible to break through the
Greek lines, and had ordered a retreat to Elassona. That very night he
telegraphed the hopelessness of his situation to Constantinople, and a
special messenger left for Athens, bearing a message from the Sultan,
asking for peace.
The retreat on Larissa changed the whole fate of the war.
There are many rumors why this retreat was ordered, but no one seems to
understand the matter clearly.
One report says that the Turks were actually falling back on Elassona, and
one of the Greek generals, seeing the movement, mistook it for an attempt
to surround the Greeks and cut their army to pieces. He is said to have
galloped to the Crown Prince with this mis-information, and assured him
that unless he ordered a retreat they would all be sacrificed. The Crown
Prince did not attempt to assure himself of the accuracy of this
statement, but at once issued the fatal order.
If this account be true, the two armies must have been fleeing from each
other at the same moment.
Edhem Pasha, being a good general, soon discovered what had happened. He
at once saw his opportunity and took advantage of it.
The Greeks, unfortunately, had no general who knew thoroughly the art of
war, and so their mistake was not understood.
In reviewing the short Greek campaign, some interesting comparisons have
been made between the war in Greece and the war in Cuba. The conclusion
arrived at has been that good leaders are the essential for successful
warfare, and that without them the bravest soldiers are of little use.
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