| Show EXTENSION OF THE WAR NOT PROBABLE WellGrounded Belief That the GrecoTurk Troubles Arc Over ARE MANY WILD RUMORS AFLOAT POSITIVE STATEMENTS ABE MET BY DENIALS Germany Said to be Thoroughly Opposed Op-posed to the Annexation of Crete by Greece and is Willing to Treat Only Upon Expressed Conditions Con-ditions King George Quoted asSaying as-Saying that He Has Decided on Annexation All the Provinces of Crete are Said to be in Favor of a Union With Greece Mussulmans Excited Over the Massacre of Their CoBeligionists Berlin Feb 20The proposals of the emperor to blockade the Piraeus the port of Athens which various papers especially the English journals yesterday yester-day characterized as having failed completely are on the verge of provisional pro-visional acceptance by England Italy and France Prior to the kaisers starting on a shooting trip to Huber tusstock last evening his majesty received re-ceived dlsatches from London and Home conveying the information that the British and Italian governments had assented to the proposal to blockade block-ade the coast of Greece in the event of persistence of the king of the Hellenes I in going to war with Turkey unless Crete should be called to Greece The 5zI request made by Lord Salisbury that Greece be allowed time to pause and consider the effect of her headstrong fle has been virtually conceded by the powers and if King George decides de-cides upon a cessation of warlike operations oper-ations the ending of hostilities and the union of Crete with Greece must be made consistent Should the king decide de-cide otherwise Germany Russia and Austra with or without the cooperation coopera-tion of the other powers will undertake under-take to coerce Greece into submission to the wishes of the European governments govern-ments I is expected in official quarters quar-ters here that the negotiations with the government at Athens will be concluded con-cluded and a decision reached one way or the other by Tuesday and ib is also believed here that England and Italy will join the other powers in a blockade block-ade of the Pireaus i such action Is decided upon V The emperor has been much blamed for taking precipitate action against Greece but there Is good reason for stating that his majestys sudden determination deter-mination is largely due to the receipt of concurrent dispatches from Constantinople Constan-tinople and Athens representing the imminence of the danger of a Turkish invasion of Greece which tne Greek forces are utterly unprepared to resist King George has practically asked Russia and Germany to prevent the porte from making war upon the Greek frontier while Greece used her land and sea forces to acquire possession of I Crete but this extremely bold request was not complied with The emperors policy is not by any means guided by public opinion but the weight of public opinion in this cnse is certainly on the side of approval of the emperors policy of intervention to restrain Greece from plunging into war Only a few Liberal newspapers which are biased by sent ment favorable to Greece orotest against the blockading of the Piraeus Nevertheless German popular feeling Is in nowise in sympathy with the Turk The policy of the emperor is receiving re-ceiving popular support because i Is generally recognized as being most opportune and prudent The Cologne Gazette expresses the drift of the best current opinion by spying that the powers must counterbalance counter-balance the pressure of Turkey bv checking with severity the schemes of ureece The same paper also asserts that German will insist that Greece I must evacuate Crete before the powers consider the matter of the administra tion of the island The actual position of fe negotiations on the subject at present shows however that this assertion as-sertion is not correct a the powers are now discussing the scheme of administration 3 admin-istration proposed by Lord Salisbury which permits the Greek troops which are already in Crete to remain on the island until a settlement of the Cretan difficulty is comnleted dlfuly There is t profound conviction ill political circles here that Greece will submit to the wishes of the powers and hat an extension of the war is highly improbable Another Story Berlin Feb 20The semiofficial North German Gazette publishes whac I I q is believed to be an inspired article on tho Cretan question I says that Germany is willing to negotiate with the other great powers concerning thE fyturc of Cref but only on two conditions con-ditions the first of which is that the Island must not be annexed to Greece and the second that Greeces action must be stopped before the negotiations negotia-tions begin Mussulmans Excited Canea Feb OThe Mussulmans a Retimo became greatly excited when I tney learned of the massacre of their coreligionists at Sitia and they today fully armed made a sortie from the town and attacked the insurgents who U were gathered in force in the vicinity The fighting was still proceeding this evening without apparent advantage J to either side The Mussulmans actuated ac-tuated by the spirit of revenge are I reported to be making a most determined L deter-mined effort to severely chastise the Christians but the latter by their superior su-perior knowledge of guerilla warfare are easily able to hold their own against the attacking forces I Cs well cst shed now that the Greeks are masters of the islands except of the towns All i Favor of Union Canea Crete Feb 20The insurgents Insur-gents who are occupying the hills back ti of Canea sent a warning yesterday of their intention to attack the town of Akromro To this notice Admiral Canovaro commanding the combined fleets sent a reply giving the Insurgent t leaders to understand that the foreign 1 warships would intervene at the first i sign of an attack on the part of the insurgents l the provinces of Crete 7 j > had voted In favor of the union wit the Greeks This fact has been communicated com-municated to the various consuls by the Greek republic It i Expected Berlin Feb 20 Maron Marschall von Bieberstein minister of foreign affairs af-fairs received the Greek minister to Germany and held a long conversation with him regarding the attitude of Greece towards Crete and the powers I is expected that the Greek minister gave satisfactory assurance that there would be a cessation of the war move cessaton ments on the nart of Greece to Crete and on the Turkish frontier fronter George Wants Crete Atheps Feb 20The Asthy says that King George in an Interview vlth a diplomat today explained the attitude atti-tude of himself and the government on the Cretan question His majesty declared de-clared that he decided to annex Crete to the Greek dominions and had ordered or-dered the army of occupation not to abandon the island The king requested re-quested the diplomat to communicate Athens this decision to his colleagues in A Council of Ministers New York Feb 21A special cable dispatch to the Herald from Constant nople says A council of ministers held at the Ylldiz palace lasted until midnight Friday Another held this evening deliberated de-liberated on the Cretan question All subgovernors of districts occupied occu-pied by the first army corps received orders from the minister of war to hold all active reserves and reserves of the first class of the Dedlfs territorial in readiness to start 4 Germany May Go it Alone Paris Feb 20The Latin says it has good authority for asserting that the powers will accept Lord Salisburys propositions to grant autonomy to Crete though Germany alone may oppose op-pose such a course |
