Show TURKEY AND GREECE TO WAR ON CORSAIR BAND depredations of pirates cost millions yearly london ismet pasha and M venizelos two matter of fact statesmen have condemned one of the I 1 most audacious races of men left on the earth the corsair pirates of the aegean sea by the end of the year turkish seaplanes sea planes and greek gunboats gun boats will begin putting an end to a game of piracy and plunder which the cor have played since they robbed the galleys of pompey the great the reason Is economic the cor cost the turkish and greek treasuries millions annually not only in the loss of revenue on contraband but actually in the pensions paid to the widows and dependents of their victims among excise authorities thorl ties gendarmes gen darmes and coast guardsmen guardsman guards men still left at the beginning of the nineteenth century the corsairs cor earned a a steady income in the mediterranean and were the most regular ma rine tax gatherers that ever practiced piracy while sultans and kings bishops and mad mullahs mullans were turning islam and christendom upside down with wars revolutions and restorations the cor followed their trade with such vigor that they held dominion over their islands and levied a tax tas on all who passed there are approximately of them left there today their blood Is that of ancient greece Phoe phoenicia nicla rome malta and modern greece and turkey they have been christian when the islands fell to the moslems edans under the crusaders or other western rulers they have been perpetually in the opposition they are religious men who never set out to shoot a customs officer or unload a boat filled with narcotics without crossing themselves or turning piously towards mecca many of the little churches in the aegean islands are decorated w with ith the figureheads figure heads ot of eighteenth century frigates the churches and the mosques still collect their tithes from the robbers league of nations worried but greeks and Lev antines directors of corporations in Sal salonica onlea and istanbul make more out of the cor than all the churches and mosques put together this has got them into trouble the league of nations has bombarded the turkish and greek governments with so many notes about contraband tobacco opium hemp hashish cocaine silk wool and cotton that they have decided to literally bombard them out of existence the corsairs cor have made a dangerous enemy in the ghazal pasha dictator of turkey but his task Is a difficult one the greek vessels of war have followed the brigands brigande bri gands into shallow waters before and heeled over like melons with their guns pointing into the air mustapha pho kemal plans to use airplanes instead |