1941-04-10 — Page 39

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THE CHAIL MAIL, APRIL 10, 1941.

CHINA MAIL

WINDSOR HOUSE

THE BLOCKADE

Marshal Petain, while confirming British con- fidence in his mood and motives by re-stating that it is a matter of honour, for France to do nothing| against her former ally, has furnished no good reason for relaxation of the blockade. Demand of most British observers is that more rigid enforce- ment is essential, be cause Marseilles has been' permitted to become EX dangerous leak. And there is ground for sus- picion that the evidence, of British unwillingness to make things more dif- ficult for Marshal Petam| has encouraged the Nazis. through Admiral Darlan, to agitate widening of the gap. When Marshal Petain, therefore, proclaims that Admiral Darlan has his fullest confidence, the chances of practical mea- sures to meet the problem are small indeed.

to

secure

DEMOCR

BALKANS

THE WATCH ON THE SIDELINES

The Dodecanese

Cathedral of Rhodes on May 4.

a

To the south-west of themselves in Malta, while Sulei Rhodes is the long, narrow island man the Magnificent, who busted of Carpathos, with excellent an- them in 1523, did not only, like islanders should have autonomy, chorage in some of her hays, and General Ameglio, declare that the

but he kept his word,

lastly there is Casos, above whos? precipitous

and unapproachable

coasts there lie a few fertile val- leys which the inhabitants culti- vate with great industry.

The precedent of the last War, when supplies were sent into occupied Belgium for distribution to the civilian population

"In my

Cavern. twofold capacity as at under American, and later

general and a Christian." sat the under Spanish and Italian General Ameglio in the Dutch, control, is present 1912, "these islands provisionally to many minds. It does occupied by italy will at the end not, however, apply to-

of the war against the Turks be given once agam their ancient m day. In 1914 the problem tonomy You can

rely on my was of manageable dimen- promise as you would

Gospel itself" But from that area day until now the Greek inhabit was small, the supplies re- ants of the "Twelve Islands," the

Dodecanese (there are really the quired were limited, and teen, for Rhodes is now included no abuse could have been in the group), have reminded

of the Laorum, that masterpiece on a sufficient scale to of Rhodian sculpture. The trage bring substantial advant- pathos expressed in the counten age to Germany. None of anees of the father and the oldes son may well have been felt by these conditions obtains these patriotic islanders when, wi

Italian administration.

sent

sions. The invaded

the

The

inter

to-day, when some ninety they were persecuted.

der million people are under exile, and generally maltreated. the heel of Nazi domina-When the Italians arrived the

island of

Calymnus, mountain-

By Henry Baerlein

of

Nevertheless the national con- science of the islanders had re- mamed alive, and when the other From the days of Homer, who Greeks rose against the Turks in tells us of the warships sent the islands to serve under Aga- by the islanders, which

by 1821 their example was followed resulted menon, the people of the Tweve in the people of Cos being sold Islands have been the must ardent into slavery and of Greeks.

many another But over and over island devastated. In 1830 the agam they have been obliged, be Dodreanese WATE rate of their situation-- hands of a great naval Power they and Rista, which was not allo- placed des the the protection of England, France, could easily dominate the road together sadisfactory Solution.

However. wher Mahmud would have abolished the island- ers' privileges it was owing to England's protest that he publish- ed a firman, still preserved in the monastery at Patmos, which re- established complete autonomy. tion. Moreover the morals and bare except for two fer-

In 1867, during the Cretan in- surrection, the Dodecanese atmosphere of 1940

again is tile valleys, had 25,000 inhabil-

displayed their Greek spirit, and| wholly different from that them remained. In

ants; after six years only half of

In 1867 the Sultan sent another Leros, noted Suez and the Dardanelles and expedition of fourteen of 1914. In the last War for its excellent

warships harbour, the because of the comparative pau- to work his will. the violation of Belgian while in star-shaped Symi, where under alien rule. That

population fell from 8,000 to 2,500, city of their population, to live When the Young Turks pro- neutrality drew apologetic the best sailing and rowing craft Romans, from 130 B.C. lo A.D: 400, a rosy dawn appeared to be

the claimed the Constitution in 1908

!! excuses even from Imper-itants became 7,000. The popula- the case of Cos, which

are constructed, the 23,000 inhab- was generally severe except in hand, but in July, 1909, they sent ial Germany. The idea of tion, by the way.

out of a telegram abolishing all the of the whole gratitude for the benets enjoyed privileges. For this reason the neutrality as such had not group was in 1936 reckoned at by emperors and consuis who islanders were delighted to help

140,818, of which Rhodes, by far been trampled under foot, the largest, the Island of Roses--the physicians of that island was Turkish war of 1912; their assist- were cured of various ailments by the Italians during the Italo- Small neutral countries whose soil, according to Homer exempted from the heavy burdens ance was

was watered by Zeus with a rain imposed on

so effective

the in Europe retained their of gold,-contained 61,886 in her during this period, by the way, taken with the loss of only five the others. I was Turkish garrison at Psinthos was full independence and 545 square miles out of the total that Xenophon, the famous doe men. In return the Italians have the respect of all the bel- of 1,035 square miles.

tor of Cos, came to England in continued to act in such an op- In addition to those, we have his professional capacity, and he pressive manner that the ligerents, Germany in-mentioned there are the islands of was the first native of the Dode- desire of the people has been cluded. Now there is not Lipsos, Patmos, wild and desolate, canese to visit this country. their liberation from such a re- a neutral in Europe whose with an adipirable port at Scala Then came the Byzantine per-gime.

--Patmos, where St. John, the iod; the large extent of the em- In the cultivation of their fam good will Hitler would favourite disciple of Christ, wrote pire and its great prosperity made ous grapes, their oranges, olives, hesitate to flout, or whose nrst school of medicine was estab- from all quarters. Thus we

the Apocalypse; Cos, where the it the object of predatory raids and tobacco, in the manufacture set of their Oriental carpets, artistic territory he would shrink fished, Hippocrates and his fol- that Isaurians, Persians, Sara-pottery, and tiles, their olive oil from attacking. The Unit-lowers giving it a vast prestige; cens, Genoese, Crusaders, Knights and wine, the auguries for mountainous Astypalaia, around of St. John, and Turks appear in future are very good when ed States is more or less which are

the! the finest sponges; turn in the Dodecanese. Works of islanders, who are virile and gen- openly regarded by Nazi wooded Nisyros, prolific in pum- art would naturally suffer during erous, energetic and intelligent,

ico-stone and mill-stone; the small these invasions; Germany as hostile Telos, with

a hundred of come under the sway of a united orange und lemon the 3,000 statues in Rhodes during Greek Commonwealth. Power. No neutral in-trees; Chalki, with its ancient the Greek period had been con- "I do not know in the whole fluence restrains Hitler sea, established there on account them met the fate of the Colos- excellent strategic position than capital an hour's walk from the sidered 08 marvels. Many of world," said Lamartine, "a more and his confederates; and of the pirates, Algerian Tunisian, sus, which immense mass of brass that of Rhodes, nor a more beau- no form of neutral control Arab, and others the great tra- is reported to have been carried tiful sky, nor a more smiling and gedy of Chalki was when the away by 900 camels, and..when fecund soil," These islands, al- could be devised which Venetians suffocated all the inhab- Richard Coeur de Lion stopped at though bathed in almost eternal

a

that

one

the

1101 It is said that "he viewed cessive heat. The rain descends

with profound astonishment the mainly in November and Decem-i works of art." The Turks, muchary and March. Clear and serene

would afford the slightest Itants who had taken refuge in Rhodes with a British feet in sunshine, are not visited by ex- guarantee against abuse direct asset to Hitler, who of any philanthropic en- will have no scruple about splendid remains of mightier ber, and becomes less in Febru- terprise. Any supplies turning them to his reaching Nazi-occupied usés. The blockade Europe are a direct or in- 'remain intact.

own more than the Knights of St. is the atmosphere of the Dode must John, were sympathetic rulers; canese; it stimulates activity and

for the Knights were as exact causes many of the islanders ing as they afterwards showed 'live beyond the allotted span.

to