A LETTER FROM THE ISLAND OF RHODES.

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.1

Sm,.--,Many people would visit the island of Rhodes were it a little more easy of access, but a long day's sail beyond the Piraeus.. is likely to deter the ordinary tourist. Another objection to its popularity is that it is not a winter, but a spring and summer resort, for the winds off the mountains of Anatolia keep the temperature cool and healthy during the hottest months, but are excessively boisterous in December and January. In summer the island is much frequented by the wealthier Egyptiani and members of the foreign commercial tornmunities of all parts of the Levant, but the British and American visitor is likely to make sojourn there no longer than his steamer lingers off the port in the course of a Mediter- ranean cruise.

' The island, however, has many attractions, which render it worthy of a longer visit, chief among which are the splendid architectural monuments of the great periods of its history— that of the Hellenistic era, when Rhodes succeeded to the leadership of Athens as the head of a great maritime league, and that of the heroic resistance of Christianity against the Turk, when for two centuries and more the flower of Western chivalry, enrolled in the order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, held out against the onset of the Moslem tide. Of the earlier period of classical antiquity the monuments are unfortunately few, for the Knights were forced to use columns, architraves, and walls of ancient buildings, covered as they often *ere with ornaments and precious inscriptions, as quarries for the erecting of castles of defence. But the latter period has left to Us some of the finest examples of mediaeval architecture in existence.

The magnificent triple circuit of fourteenth-century forti- fication bears witness to the spirit of European co-operation in its bastions or castles that still bear the name of the patron- saints of the great nations which defended it. Surely it is a story to "stir the blood to think how Englishmen side by side with Frenchnien, Spaniards, Germans, and Italians resisted foot by foot in countless sieges both by sea and land, though utterly outnumbered ; six thousand heroes only in the last great battles holding out against over two hundred thousand Moslems under Suleiman the Magnificent ! The hostels of the various nations are still to be seen in a street of almost unique significance, while their great hospital with its splendid quadrangle surrounded by a double rank of arches, from which magnificent wards and halls lead out, is in itself a sufficient

reason for a visit to Rhodes, embodying, as perhaps no other building does, the inspiration of the military monastic spirit.

For the rest, the town has all the charm of an eastern port with its bazaars, mosques, minarets, and hanging-gardens, that are shadowy with tall palms and cypresses and glowing with bright-coloured flowers and blossoming creepers. On the one hand; you have here, as in few other places, the

variegated Eastern crowd in its characteristic native dresses, and on the other; a newly built first-class hotel, a bathing plage, and public gardens, with modern civic buildings which do not clash with their mediaeval and Oriental surroundings.

Outside the town there are excursions to be made by-motor r on excellent new roads to picturesque Turkish villages, to ancient castles such as those of Lindos and Ialys.sos, where

a Greek Acropolis has been crowned by fourteenth-century towers and battlements, or to famous beauty-spots. where some historic spring has supplied the' reason for an open-air restaurant, overshadowed by giant plane-trees or Turkey oaks. The foliage of the island is one of its chief attractions—

cypresses, palms, terrapins, thick-leaved carobs and the full Greek olive mingle in belts and undulating coppices with the well-known trees of northern climes ; the trees are haunted

by birds of great variety, from the eagles of the mountains to the neighbourly nightingales. In spring and autumn the flowers, too, are marvellous and would be an endless source of interest to the botanist.:

As for the population and their political aspirations, after RS careful inquiry as possible I have come to the following conclusion : First of all, there are large ancient minorities of Turks and Jews, recently swelled by refugees from Crete and other places, whose presence undoubtedly would justify the administration of the island by a European Power aloof

from the immemorial enmities still existing between the various sects of the provinces of the old Turkish Empire. All that

we say in justification for the continuance of our occupation

Of the island of Cyprus applies with at least equal :force to the Wand of Rhodes, and, I think, also to the other islands :of the Dodecanese. The TUrks, at any iate"; bOast themielves to be

hencefOrth Italian citizens and are willing to undergo military training in the Italian. Army. The Greeks, on the other hand, have no desire to 4urve.iniithe,ranks of the Greeks, which

annexation by Greece .wohild ,naturally imply.. They are proud of their. language, their Church, and their national traditions ; and as lonikaa these are respected and they possess their own

schools, it is unlikely that any irredentist agitation will win their support or approval. The Greek of the islands seems to most observers:to be Of purer race than the mixed population of the Greek mainland, and his spiritual allegiance appears to be far more towards his patriarch and the great city of Constantinople, by which !he has been governed through .all the centuries, rather than to Athens, whose political dissensions and frequent revolutions he seems to despise and deplore.

This, at any rate, is the opinion of those few islanders whom I

have been able to consult. They appreciate the immense work of development recently achieved in the islarid----over

two hundred kilometres of new roads in place of the ancient Turkish mule-tracks; extensive reafforestation of mountain and barren hillside, introduction of hundreds of thousands of new plants, such as American vines and more productive olives and fruit-trees, with schools of Scientific Agriculture and several minor industries, that are bringing new prosperity

to the island. Moreover, those of the Greeks who are suffi- ciently instructed are not likely to be indifferent to the very careful restoration of the monuments of their glorious history by the enlightened and energetic Governor, H.E. Mario Lego, assisted- by a school of archaeologists.—I am, Sir; &c.,-

Yours CORRESPONDENT FROM RHODES.