eager to have Mr. Venizelos suggest the best manner of presentation and the points which should be emphasized. His reply to my question was characteristic of the man and in perfect accord with the impression I was rapidly gaining: Tell this story in your own way and place the emphasis where you think best. We Greeks are, naturally, considered to be prejudiced, and it is hard, under the circumstances, for us to be perfectly fair. But you Americans can be trusted to give an honest report, and all that Greece wants to-day is justice."

His eyes, which are large but of a gentle expression, looked straight into mine. He wore, as always, a pair of rimmed spectacles of the old-fashioned variety, which added to the fatherly appearance caused by his white hair and gray beard. But the healthy color of his somewhat round face, the smile which plays so constantly about his rather full lips, the rapidly changing expression which responds to every emotion, all this

T

gives one an impression of youth, strength, and buoyancy which might belong to a man of thirty rather than fifty-five. Mr. Venizelos differs from the ordinary Greek in using few gestures when he speaks. in using few gestures when he speaks. His English is excellent, and he has a direct and simple way of saying things which adds to the impression of absolute sincerity that his straight glance invariably makes. In all our conversation, some of which touched upon the part Greece had been led to play in the war drama through the agency of her great Premier, there was never the remotest trace of egotism, but instead a self-elimination and a spirit of honest humility which were as beautiful as they are rare in the world's leading statesmen. There was at all times, too, the most engaging frankness, as that of a man who spoke to a trusted friend and who had an abounding faith in the good intentions of his fellows.

As our talk progressed there was no sense of hurry, no attempt to shorten my stay by giving the impression that matters

of vast importance claimed his attention -a trick we business men know so wellbut, instead, a hearty cordiality which made his words ring true when, at parting, he walked hand in hand with me to the door and expressed regret that our interview was ended.

As I thought it all over afterwards, it seemed to me that this man and Lincoln, despite differences in training and experience, had very much in common. Both were honest, simple, and straightforward in thought and word; both were statesmen of far-sighted vision who could compromise a present advantage for a future good; both were frank and trustful in dealing with their fellow-men; both suffered the most bitter persecution for their country's sake, and did it with a smile; both possessed extraordinary patience combined with fearless courage; and the words I have quoted from Venizelos are strikingly characteristic of Lincoln: "You shall not force me to fail in my duty. I shall be faithful until the end."

URKEY is too, thoroughly broken up by the war ever to make trouble in the family of nations again. But Bulgaria, although beaten, is still filled with the Prussian spirit, and Bulgaria must be closely watched. This is the opinion of Eleutherios Venizelos, the great statesman and Premier of Greece, by many competent critics considered to be the most astute statesman in Europe to-day.

Yesterday I went to see the Greek Premier in his Paris hotel. He seems to be standing the strain of the Peace Conference better than many of his distinguished colleagues. His complexion is clear, his eye bright. Although my interview was the last event on a long programme, his manner was as animated and, his voice as resonant as if he were just beginning his long day instead of ending it.

We talked first about the territory Greece claims in Asia Minor.

"Is there any danger that the awarding of this territory to Greece will lead to a future war between Greece and Turkey?" I asked the Premier.

"Not the slightest," he answered, promptly. "No one need fear Turkey any more. She will be too weak to make any more trouble. Turkey will be powerless to attack Greece or any other state of any importance whatsoever. The Sick Man of Europe is in his grave.

“But if you should ask me the same question about Bulgaria," continued Mr. Venizelos, “I would answer without hesitation that there is danger from Bulgaria."

“You think Bulgaria is not thoroughly defeated, thoroughly chastened, then, your Excellency'

“Bulgaria is thoroughly defeated,” Mr.

Venizelos answered, “but Bulgaria is not thoroughly chastened. The same is true of Turkey, but Turkey will be in no position to make any more trouble. Bulgaria, however, might go on a rampage again. Bulgaria is like Germany. She has had a good beating, and one that she will not soon forget, but she is still filled with the imperialistic Prussian spirit. It will be dangerous for other nations to forget this."

Mr. Venizelos stopped and stroked his beard. "When I say that Turkey will not be dangerous," he began again, speaking more slowly, “I am assuming several things. I am assuming, of course, that Greece will be given the territory that Greece will be given the territory that she is fairly entitled to in Asia Minor. To leave that territory to Turkey would not only be an injustice to Greece, it would be to endanger the future peace of the world as well. In the vilayets of Aidin and Brusa, as well as in the independent sanjaks of Ismid and the Dardanelles, are living altogether more than a million Greeks. They have lived there for three thousand years. They are skilled workmen and brain-workers, and they are the intellectual backbone of that whole region. They support in all 565 churches and 652 schools, with 91,548 students. If you add to this population the population of the Dodecanesus Islands, who are really one with the people of the mainland in both a geographical and an economical sense, you would have 1.188,359 Greeks, omitting those in the city of Brusa and in parts east of that place which it would be fair to leave within the Turkish state.

"By all principles of justice, and particularly by the principles expressed in the famous Fourteen Points of President

Wilson, the territory inhabited by these 1,188,359 Greeks ought to be given to Greece. Ottoman sovereignty must from now onward be limited to the interior of the country, where the Turkish element is really predominant. Remember particularly that statement in number twelve of the Fourteen Points, The other nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should be secured an undoubted security of life, and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous development.'

"It is unthinkable that the Great Powers will permit the Turks any longer to misgovern and tyrannize over these unhappy Christians who form unquestionably the intelligent and productive portion of the whole population. Of course we would be willing to let the Turks use Smyrna as a free port for their inward and outward trade.

"It is also worth remembering," continued Mr. Venizelos, “that the Greeks who live in Asia Minor form the purest ethnical remnant of the Hellenic type."

"Next to being awarded this territory in Asia Minor herself, what would Greece prefer to have done with it?" I asked the Premier.

"No other solution is thinkable," he replied, emphatically. "If the Great Powers decline to award that territory to Greece, we will have to accept their de cision, but we would do so only under protest. Such a solution would violate the fundamental spirit of the ideals the Allies have been fighting for."

It had been reported in the newspapers a few days before this interview took place that the principal objector to the awarding to Greece of the territory she claimed in Asia Minor was America.

When I asked the Greek Premier about this, he said:

"America at first, I think, was not quite sure of the wishes of the Hellenes living in Asia Minor. Since then a stream of resolutions and requests from those Greeks to be incorporated with the mother land has poured in, and I think there is no longer any doubt in any one's mind on this point."

I asked the Premier if there was any possibility of a compromise between Greece and Italy in regard to the Dodecanesus Islands. These, it will be remembered, were seized by the Italians from the Turks in 1912, during the war between Italy and Turkey. At the time, however, the Italians in official proclamations to the inhabitants, who are all Greeks except for a few Turks in Rhodes, declared that the purpose of their occupation was to free the natives from Turkish rule as a preliminary step to getting them self-government. Italy has since then never shown any disposition to give up these islands, however, and by her secret treaty with England, France, and Russia, of April 23, 1915, Italy was given definite ownership of the Dodecanese. The Greeks claim, however, that this secret treaty can and ought to be ignored, in view of the change in the war aims of the Allies brought about by America's participation. in the war. America, it is understood, heartily supports the Greek demand for these islands, and England and France seem not inclined to consider themselves irrevocably bound by their secret treaty with Italy, now that the dark and devious ways of the old European imperialism. are discredited in the eyes of democratic peoples everywhere.

My question brought out quite a show of feeling from the Greek who through his whole life has been leading his people toward liberty. "Compromise?" he demanded. "Of course there can be no compromise on that question, where right and wrong are as distinct as black and white. By all that is fair Greece is entitled to those islands. The population is entirely Greek, except for a small colony of Turks in Rhodes."

"As to Thrace and Constantinople, your Excellency, if Greece cannot have them, what does she think ought to be done with them?"

"Regarding Thrace there can be no other possible solution, and our people there greatly outnumber those of any other Christian nationality. There seems to be no doubt but that we are going to be given Thrace. It may interest you to know that the Turks in Thrace sent copies of a resolution to the heads of the Great Powers and to myself affirming that in case they cannot be incorporated in the new Turkish state they prefer government by Greeks to government by Bulgarians, in fact, that they could not tolerate being ruled by Bulgarians under any circumstances. We would prefer to have Constantinople under the Greek flag also, of course, but, as Constanti

nople is the center of an international movement and commands the Bosphorus, we will be satisfied to see Constantinople controlled by a mandatory of the League of Nations."

"What Power does Greece prefer as a mandatory for Turkey, and why?"

66

We prefer England, France, or America for that job," answered the man who has been fighting Turks since he first took up arms against them thirty years ago on behalf of his native Crete. "We prefer one of them because they are all strong enough to fulfill this commission well, and because each of them is trustworthy. France's record in her colonies, England's record in Egypt and India, your record in Cuba and the Philippines, prove that any one of you can be trusted by weaker nations."

"You would not object to the United States, then?"

"On the contrary, we would warinly welcome American control in Turkey."

The conversation then shifted across the Bosphorus. I asked the Premier what Greece's attitude would be toward a union between the Bulgarians and the Jugoslavs.

"Of course we would have no objection to such a union," he said, "but I think it is very unlikely in this generation, or even in the next."

"But I have heard several Jugoslavs speak about it as a probability, your Excellency."

"Oh, yes, no doubt you have heard Croats and Slovenes speak about it. They did not fight Bulgaria, they have no bitterness for her. But, unless I am greatly mistaken, the Serbs, who are the strongest mistaken, the Serbs, who are the strongest element in the new Jugoslav state, will have nothing to do with the Bulgarians. You might as well talk about a union between France and Germany as to talk of uniting the Bulgarians and the Serbs. People don't soon forget the sort of things that Bulgaria has done. When she occupied Greek Macedonia, she carried away 120,000 Greeks. Only half of those have returned or have been found. What has become of the rest? That was only one of the things Bulgaria did to us. Well, she was even more barbarous to the Serbs. I don't think you'll find Serbs shaking hands with Bulgarians for a while yet.

In response to a question as to what he considered were the prospects for a Balkan union, Mr. Venizelos said:

66

"I consider that the prospects for a Balkan union of Rumania, Serbia, and Greece are very bright. We would begin moderately of course, with a defensive alliance, and then would gradually tighten the union until we had a common Ministry of Foreign Affairs and common tariffs and postal union. We might even have a common general staff for a common Balkan army, although each state would keep its own quota of soldiers distinct from the others. It would be plainly understood that as far as its military purposes are concerned such an alliance would be for purely defensive ends. We

would all be bound to protect each other against outside aggression, but if one of us should make war on an outside nation the other Balkan states would not be bound to assist her."

The draft of the Covenant for the League of Nations has been made in such a way as to leave it possible for purely defensive alliances of smaller groups of nations to be included, and it is believed that this was done as a result of the representations Mr. Venizelos made in regard to the importance of a defensive alliance among the Balkan States. According to the theory, Bulgaria may be admitted to this Balkan union later if she behaves herself and proves that she has renounced her ambitions for attaining the hegemony of the Balkan Peninsula. It is the opinion of Mr. Venizelos that the Czechoslovaks might join this Balkan league. He does not consider the Hungarians as possible candidates.

When I asked Mr. Venizelos which he considered the more dangerous, the possible creation of a new strong group of Teutonic-Hungarian-Bulgarian Central Powers or the advance of Bolshevism in Central Europe, he answered as follows:

“Of course Germany is going to be strong. That cannot be avoided. But the question is whether or not she is going to be too strong-that is, whether she is going to be so strong that she will again leap on smaller nations as she did in 1914.

"As to Bolshevism, you will find few Greeks who are afraid of that. Of course we are in a fortunate position. We are victorious, and Bolshevism does not attack victorious countries. Then, too, Bolshevism is an industrial disease, and Greece is mainly an agricultural and maritime nation."

"What about Bolshevism in Turkey?"

"Oh, that's pure camouflage to scare the 'rest of us," answered the Premier. "Turkey has very little industry, and her whole religion is diametrically opposed to anything like Bolshevism, teaching, as it does, unquestioning obedience to authority. Bolshevism in Bulgaria, too, is mostly camouflage, for Bulgaria is mainly an agricultural country. But Bolshevism in Hungary is nothing false. It is the real Bolshevism, and strongly rooted, for in Hungary the people who till the soil do not own it."

of war between

thousand in the United States camps and

red man came forward, his "untutored " energies well rallied, his priceless battle lore roused from its long lethargy, and proffered the white man's Nation the supreme sacrifice of his own national life. Quietly, beneath the dignity of crested plumes, bright war paint, and enshrouding blankets, the chiefs of fourteen great Indian tribes gathered at the mighty council fire in Washington and laid their services on the altar of patriotism.

The significance of the act, which preceded even the advance rumors of the draft, was remarked by some, and a few private and personal tributes were made to the tremendous spirit involved. Already known as the "vanishing race," the American Indian undertook to seal the death warrant of his national entity by proffering the best of his blood and courage, mentality and manhood. Perhaps no greater, and less calculated, sacrifice has been made in the great war. Its recognition has been far from general, the responsive tribute and acclaim sadly limited in scope.

Cato Sells, Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Washington, renders unqualified testimony to the selfless devotion and heroism of the American Indian in a recent official report. Commissioner Sells reopens that dusty volume of American history which deals with the native-born red man and adds an indelible line to the long list of loyal service he has rendered to an adopted cause and flag:

"I regard their representation of nine

population unsurpassed, if equaled, by any other race or nation."

Of these nine thousand, nearly eightyfive per cent are of voluntary enlistment, and occupy rank in nearly every grade and branch of the service, from their natural sphere in infantry and cavalry to the dizzy heights of aviation and the technicalities of the Signal Corps. There have been no separate or segregate Indian organizations, with the unofficial exception of "Pershing's Indian Scouts," a body of skilled Apaches and Sioux who formed a part of the General's punitive expedition into Mexico, and who have rendered brilliant scout duty overseas. Their adroit tactics, sense of strategy, and feats of camouflage, the outgrowth of an ancient training in the science of war, have proved invaluable. One company of the 142d Infantry is composed entirely of 142d Infantry is composed entirely of Indians, but without official designation; these are all volunteer Choctaws, presumably so assembled because of their intense community spirit and fraternal association and in the interests of that mechanical unity which is vital to success in action.

There has been no protest or complaint emanating from Indian sources against their undistinguished, unacclaimed service to the country which is by heredity their own and to the flag which is theirs only by adoption, and that adoption not without painful and unpleasant associations and memories.

Colonel Henry C. Smither, U. S. A.,

a graduate of West Point, and for many years a valued member of the General Staff, is an Indian, and perhaps the most signal figure among his race's trained fighting men. Colonel Smither's profes sional career has been the admiration of military authorities who have looked for and found manifestations of his striking ability in the science of arms and warfare in the ranks of his less tutored racial brothers. Although by profession, and perhaps by instinct, a cavalry officer, Colonel Smither has served with the General Staff in France throughout this

war.

Carlisle, the famous Indian college, has sent one hundred and sixty-one men to foreign service, among them three young officers who have won extraordinary renown: Lieutenant Benedict Cloud. U. S. A., Lieutenant Gustavus Welch. U.S. A., and Lieutenant Sylvester Long Lance, who was four times reported dead in the annihilating battles of the "Prin cess Pats." Pete Garlow, of Carlisle grid iron fame, is in the Marine Corps, as is Private Joseph Oldshield, a grandson of the famous chief Red Cloud.

Haskell Institute, at Lawre sas, raised a service flag of and fifty stars, and a Phoenix, Arizona, teers and raised erty Loan and a Savings Stan But the grand financ

war

mates a conservative total of $15,000,000, or a per capita subscription of approximately fifty dollars, to the Liberty Loan. Jackson Barnett, a member of the Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma, individually took $660,000 of the second issue of bonds, and $175,000 of the third issue. The Osages, who are the richest tribe in the country, rallied a population of 2,180 and subscribed $226,000!

The poorer Indian tribes have proved their hereditary pride of country in a thousand ways, ranging from the pathetic to the superb. In the snake-infested bogs and swamps of certain Western sections Indian lads, too young for enlistment or draft, have given vent to their passionate patriotism in the perilous service of gathering sphagnum moss, which has been found of unique medicinal value in the field hospitals of France. It was used for surgical pads and dressings, and was gathered at heroic cost by young embryo warriors whose grievance was that they were too young to fight.

The women have toiled untiringly over farms and cattle, and have found time to execute complicated beadwork and bas ketry, rug-weaving and knitting, the sale of which has netted a considerable sum invested in bonds, stamps, and war relief work.

Thus it has been also with the food problems, which have touched the vast corn-growing regions so largely populated and intensively cultivated by Indians. By means of the several excellent publications of the various Indian schools, the food needs of the country and the Allies

have been made clear and plans have been made and carried out productive of enormous results. In the wheat districts of Montana, where the Indian population is landed but not wealthy and nearly all are full-blooded red men, councils and meetings have been held regularly for the purpose of discussing war measures and their own part in them. Every Indian who had a growing wheat crop donated one or more sacks of grain: in the Southwest sheep-growers donated one or more fleeces of wool per man to a specified war relief work.

The casualty lists bear heavy tribute to the red race, but not without reading between the lines. The tribal name has suffered by civilization.

John Peters, for example, a Menominee, serving with the First Engineers, died in France from wounds received in action. He was among the first to enlist, the first to embark, and the first to die; his name was among the first to flash from column to column of newspaper casualty lists throughout the country. But only the Keshena Indian School, in Wisconsin, knew and claimed him as a "son of that long, unconquerable line," while the squaws of Shawano County lifted up their voices in wailing and sped the warrior's soul to the Happy Hunting-Ground.

Private Ben Green, a Tuscarora, of New York State, fell on Vimy Ridge; and the first Indian killed with the Canadian forces, whose Indian fighters are many of them world renowned, was Lieutenant Cameron Brant, of. the Six Nations, a direct descendant of Joseph

Brant, the great Indian military genius who fought with the British during our own War of the Revolution.

The fleet Indian messenger of bygone wars has never been adequately supplanted by motor cycle and tractor. Indian scouts, Pershing's Apaches and Sioux, and many drawn from among the runners of the Hudson's Bay Company, whose pride is Tom Longboat, the champion distance man, passed through shell craters and barbed-wire entanglements with that lithe ease and silence which have characterized Indian strategy.

Floberth W. Richester, whose name has a romantic colonial flavor, lays claim to being the first Indian aviator to join the Lafayette Escadrille. But the credit of the first air flight of an Indian, who thus rendered himself akin to the eagle, is a plume in the head-dress of a Blackfeet chief, Two-Guns-White-Calf, of the Glacier Reservation, in Montana. Chief White-Calf won the privilege in contest with Chief Lazy Boy, of the Indian police, and presented his own qualifications as inherited from his father, Chief of the Piegan Nation, "who presented the United States with Glacier National Park-and was not afraid to die."

JOSEPH E. OLDFIELD, OF THE U. S. MARINE

CORPS

This Indian soldier is a grandson of the famous Sioux chief Red Cloud

handling war contracts. One large motor firm, overcome by its amazement, felt called upon to write the Department of the Interior a formal word of praise and astonishment that "the Indians employed here are turning out to be firstclass men-and steady!"

The call for volunteers" for dangerous duty" frequently brought from the ranks an Indian of Carlisle or Haskell training, who set forth his right to die in a flow of oratory characteristic of his race. One described his claim as the "inalienable, unchallengeable right of the native born," and later, dying, refused assistance from the rescue party and demanded the further privilege of dying alone and unmolested!

These reports from overseas add a vital and hitherto unconsidered note to the international problem of reconstruction. While the Indian nation has suf

PRIVATE PETE GARLOW, OF THE U. S. MARINE CORPS

Garlow, who was the famous gridiron star of Carlisle, was one of the twoscore Indians who joined the ranks of the "soldiers of the sea fered heavily in casualties, the Indian troops still overseas, scattered through many divisions and withdrawn from many sections of the western front, demonstrate a remarkable co-ordinate ambition. They show an alert interest in foreign affairs and conditions; they are studying foreign systems of agriculture and the intensive economies of peasant life, and applying the information thus obtained to an ambitious interpretation of their own and their tribal future. They are not only acquiring a better use of the English language but show marked linguistic ability in learning French. They are, furthermore, becoming actively conscious of that pleasing lack of race prejudice which is a generous and at the

FLOBERTH W. RICHESTER, THE FIRST AMERICAN INDIAN AVIATOR TO JOIN THE LAFAYETTE ESCADRILLE

same time profitable characteristic of France.

It is the opinion of Indian authorities and students generally that the red man should return to something more than undistinguished collective acclaim. Broadened by travel and associations. reaching upward from the groundwork of education already established at home, the Indian will scarcely be .content. though he may be silent, to return to the life he left.

The accouterments of modern warfare have not been too heavy for the peacesoftened muscles of the red man. But the task is a heavy one, the load a dull one, of bread-earning and crop-producing on the arid fields and sunburnt wastes which are nearly all that are left him of his royal heritage of wide rivers swarming with fish, black virgin soil, and forest lands rich with deer.

land share my own impression that death and pain have deepened, not destroyed, religion in that country-that the war has rebuked those who said in their hearts that there is no God. But the undoubted revival of faith challenges analysis. To some extent people seek comfort in the external. The pageant of war is reflected in ecclesiastical ceremonies-in impressive memorial services which are not in themselves a substitute for individual thought, prayer, and piety. Many soldiers are buried in nameless and distant graves, and women therefore bring flowers to the local Calvary, where the names of their dead are inscribed on what is in effect an altar. This custom,

usually associated with Catholic practice, and some devotions even in Protestant churches suggest prayers for or with the dead. Parallel with this tendency is the crusade led by Sir Oliver Lodge, who, having himself lost a son, joins with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in advocating intercourse with the departed. In this atmosphere the late Mr. Stead used to work, and in his case, as in that of his recent followers, true and sincere inquiry has been embarrassed by quacks and fortunetellers, especially in the West End, where parents, worldly and indifferent to religion before the war, were suddenly confronted with the strain of seeing their nearest and dearest in deadly danger. They

ENGLAND

needed resource and were ready to find it anywhere.

The yearning for religion is not always accompanied by a clear conception of what religion means. Mr. H. G. Wells has discovered the existence of the Deity and congratulated the Deity on this interesting result of his own thinking. In those brief but beautiful lyrics which so many soldiers wrote before they fell there was often a strange and wistful longing for God. Men have valued the Y. M. C. A., but they have not accepted the canteen as an alternative for the Church. Instinctively they know that they cannot be redeemed with corruptible things like tea and coffee. Yet the British workman is not, and never has been, a