We have kept to the last the worst item in
the foreign news —the growing tension between Greece and Turkey. Last Saturday came the news that M. Venezeloe had announced in the Chamber at Athens, in regard to the persecution of the Greeks in Turkey (the refugees now number, he declared, fifty thou- sand persona), that Greece could not confine herself much longer to merely weeping with the persecuted. He ended by expressing the hope that the attitude of Turkey would permit the continuance of friendly relations—an expression which all diplomats recognize as the precursor of an ultimatum. The next step was the issue of a formal decree by Greece annexing the islands of Chios and Mytilene. These islands, it will be remembered, were assigned to Greece by the Treaty of London, but have not yet been hauded over. The cession of the islands was made dependent on the Greeks' surrender of Sasseno to Albania and the evacuation of Epirus; but now that these conditions have been fulfilled Greece claims her right to annex the islands. Finally, an official Note communicated to the Grand Vizier a week ago terminates with the warning that Greece will not be responsible for the consequences of a continuance of the present situation, of which the Porte is requested to make a epeedy end. Friday's telegrams show that to this the Turks have made a courteous reply, but their object is probably to gain time rather than to make a true settlement.
