"THE FRIENDS OF GREECE."
(TO THE EDITOR OF "SPECTATOR.") Sin, The friends of Greece have got to stand by her now, or she will hue rather than gain by their recent diplomatic support.
allude, more particularly, to those of the Great Powers who have brought about the favourable decision of the Berlin Con- ference; who have secured Janina and Larissa to the Greeks, as far as mere words can secure them. When once this decision became known in Greece, it was clear that a determined effort must be made to profit by so great an occasion. Men of all parties agreed to this. Greece must arm herself for the task imposed on her by the success of her friends at Berlin. A bracing amount of exertion and expenditure would be necessary to occupy the territories which Europe had awarded her, and to this necessity the little kingdom cheerfully submitted. But it was always understood that Turkey would withdraw her officials from Thessaly and Epirus, as she lately with- drew them from Bosnia ; that the fighting—if fighting there were—would only be between Greeks and Albanians, would only be a struggle in which Greece could very well hold her own. Now, however, that the Sultan hesitates to accept what has been done at Berlin, now that Turkish reinforcements are proceeding to Thessaly, and that officers of note are being sent by Turkey to the Greek frontier, it is high time for the friends of Greene to be up and doing ! Not a stone must be left unturned to bring about a speedy solution of the question. For good or for evil, the die is cast. The Greeks can never sit down quietly again within their old frontier. They have been roused to action by what Europe has done, and they cannot let the matter pass as a mere " diplomatic incident." No Con- stitutional Ministry in Greece can afford to neglect the public feeling on this point. The country is too poor to bear the strain of long-continued armaments, and too proud to sit still with folded hands, whilst every Slav province obtains practical independence, and only the Greek element remains anywhere in bondage. Some policy of adventure must be adopted by Greece, if her friends do not bring her diplomatically out of the scrape. She may ally herself with her Slav rivals, to destroy the common enemy, or she may provoke Turkey, single-handed, to give cause for a second Navarino. But something desperate and unsatisfactory (to Western statesmen, at least) she is bound to attempt, should the Sultan's Non possum us be an effectual barrier against the decision of Berlin. It is earnestly to be hoped that very strong pressure will be brought to bear on the Porte to obtain a quiet surrender of all that the Conference awarded to Greece. Nothing less will content the Greek people, and nothing less will secure for Turkey an interval of much needed repose.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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