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Show GREEK ARMIES NOT DISARMING Base in Eastern Macedonia Prepared to Defend Rich Territory Wrested From Bui gars Two Years Ago. CITY IMPORTANT PORT Quays Cluttered With Big Guns and Ammunition Streets Blocked With Soldiers. Cavalla, Greece, Jan. 28. (Correspondence (Corre-spondence of The Associated Press) What Salonlki was a few weeks ago, Cavalla has become today the base of the Greek armies in eastern Macedonia, tho military headquarters from which Greece must defend the territory she conquered from Bulgaria Bulga-ria two years ago if it Is to be defended. de-fended. The quays of the port are cluttered with big guns and their ammunition. The steep, narrow streets are blocked block-ed with soldiers. Long trains of mules laden with the Impediments of war, climb the winding ways, between overhanging Turkish houses, bound for Drama, for Seree, for the Bulgarian Bulga-rian frontier. Nor, judging from the appearance of Cacalla, has she any intention of leaving the rich land she wrested from the Bulgars in tho last war In any danger of falling into Bulgarian Bul-garian hands again. It is easy to understand the Greek desire to keep Cavalla; not that It is xeally a Greek city, as every Greek is so ready to assert so passionately, for it Is far less Greek even than Salonlki. But certainly It Is not Bulgarian, Bul-garian, either. It is Turkish Turkish, Turk-ish, with a leaven of Saloniki's ad mixture of Hlspano-Portuguese Jewish blood and some slight relic of the Venetian' occupation of the middle ages. But being just that, it can readily be turned Into Greek, Bulgarian, Bulga-rian, Serbian or what not in a few years time The Turkish element is as always infinitely adaptable. Cavalla Important Port. why Cavalla and the district it serves should not be Greek. Every smoker of a Turkish cigarette holds between his fingers the reason from the Greek point of view why It should. For Cavalla is tho port of export for one of the richest tobacco-growing tracts In the world Not as rich as certain districts of Cuba; but nevertheless never-theless exporting over a hundred million mil-lion drachmae worth of tobacco per annum more than $20,000,000 worth, with very primitive means of cultivation cultiva-tion and shipment For there aro no railroads out of C.ivalla to the plain of Phillppi which, from being the battlefield of the army of the army of Marc Anthony, victorious victo-rious over tho armies of Brutus and CassluB in B. C. 42, has become the gateway of the tobacco-growing country coun-try of Macedonia The only way to Drama hy the "Lion," an automobile transformed into a stage coach, which makes dally trips when the roads permit. And at Drama is the nearest railway connection. To ship the tobacco to-bacco out of Greece by a Greek port, it must be brought over the mountains moun-tains on mule back, sewn up in neat little bales. Nor Is the port in its present stage adequate to a proper shipment The hay of Cavalla is rather an open road stead or an harbor, though with a little money it could readily be im-pioved. im-pioved. The existing quays are inadequate. in-adequate. Even the smaller ships must lighter their cargoes to and from the shore a process scarcely calculated calcu-lated to improve the tobacco, which is frequently wot In tho course of transference. The town lies on the skirts of a semi-circle of barren hills that seem to crowd it into the sea. Like so many of the Aegean towns, it bears in Its general character the imprint of Venetians. It might be an Italian town Amalf; for preference with its blue and yellow and pink houses, with red-tiled roofs, climbing the steep hillsides in the shadow of tho Venl-tiati Venl-tiati citadel and the splendid Venltian aqueduct that dominates tho city. Only the frequent minarets of the Turkish mosques, and the great mauy domed edifice built by the Egyptian Moslems mark the Turkish character of tho place for afar The latter was constructed as a free school for orphan or-phan boys. Today the same foundation founda-tion gives hundreds of poor a dally ration of bread and soup. Correspondent Meets American Greek. The gate of the citadel is guarded by a soldier. The Associated Press correspondent approached him with a box of cigarettes and his thirty-six words of Greek. Inside the gateway another soldier lounged listening to the halting colloquy. Finally he stepped step-ped forward. "Say, don't you speak English?,' he asked. The correspondent admitted the soft impeachment The soldier was a New York Greek of whom there seem to be no end in the Greek army. An arrangement was quickly made, the commanding officer called his cheek still bandaged from an unhealed wound received in the last war. He In his turn spoke German. Permission Permis-sion to visit the fort was promptly given. "Within, the courtyard was full of tents, the whole place alive with Greek soldiers. One offered a necklace neck-lace of colored beads he had been making in his Idle hours for a drachma Too Much Idle Time. "We got too much time," said the New York Greek, "Not got 'nough to do. Better fight," The court of the old castle was badly drained. The sanitation of the camp manifestly rudimentary ru-dimentary Leaning over a wall, a similar odor rose from the wrecked Turkish hovels clustered under tho walls Below, far below, one could see sixteen men with four Jong poles from which was swung by ropes a swaying ton of wine. Hands on one another's shoulders, interlaced to keen nrecarions si en. thev shuffled unsteadily up the muddy slippery main street. Descending porters, bent double under four bales of tobacco piled high on the back of each, squeezed against the walls to let the grunting wine carriers pass Long trains of mules loaded with hay hustled hus-tled other caravans loaded with wood, while tho turbaned drivers swore at one another and at the mules. From above there scarcely seemed to bo any streets of shops all were bazaars, open to the ground, the shoemaker shoe-maker or tinsmith or pressor of fezes working at the sidewalk's edge the passersby in measure sheltered by overhanging eaves almost meeting above the narrow ways. Occasionally, at an open spot, the inevitable tree, under which the Turks sit to smoke their bubble-pipes and drink their coffee, cof-fee, and vines that stretch from roof to roof to shade these peaceful corners cor-ners where each leads the indolent life of the Ottoman. United States for N. Y. Greek. The New York Greek, leaning over the crumbling Ventian parapet, sniffed, at the offensive odor. "When I'm through here," he explained, ex-plained, "back to th' 'nited States. This poor country awful poor country. coun-try. All right for Greeks don't know no better. No place for 'merican citizen." citi-zen." "Why, are you an American citizen?" citi-zen?" "No. Not yet. But will be soon as I can believe mo!" oo |
