Since the war began, a wonderfully organised German propaganda has been set in motion, not in Athens only, but in all Greek towns. Germany purposed by so doing to capture Greek public opinion, and also the sympathies of the countries in which the Greek element is predominant, namely, some parts of Turkey and Egypt. The Wolff Agency overwhelms Greece with communiqués, news guaranteed to be true, and despatches from Berlin; a tremendous number of German professors, who have spent years and years in Greece, studying and searching every inch of Greek soil, wrote from the Fatherland to all their friends and acquaintances the most fetching letters, and, lately, news in Greek was printed in Berlin and sent free of charge to every influential person in Greece. The Philadelphia, the German club in the rue d'Homère, has become the centre of such propaganda, and every night there are lectures, kinema shows, etc., to which, as the posters say, "everybody is cordially invited."
I went out of curiosity to one of these lectures; the audience was not very large, and was mostly composed of Germans. "You know what would happen should the Entente win; which, of course, is almost impossible. Russia would reach the Ægean Sea, the Slavs would be ultra-powerful in the Adriatic, and Greece would never have a chance of fulfilling her aspirations.
"And about England—has Greece forgotten the quarrels with Palmerston and Disraeli?"
The German propaganda is specially conducted against England, France's interests in the Near East being of little importance, and German people being very annoyed at the very friendly feeling held by Greece towards Great Britain.
I don't know, for instance, what the numerous German agents felt like at seeing in Athens the most popular of picture-postcards, on which a sentence from a book of Rhaïdes has been reprinted: "Whatever may be the adventures of war, England is always certain to win one battle; namely, the last one."
The confidence of Greece in Great Britain is almost unlimited, and the efforts of Germany to diminish it leads to the opposite result.
During the last year the Greek Army has made enormous progress; the new populations recently annexed have given to Greece an excellent supply of men, out of whom capable and well-trained officers have made some really efficient troops. Cavalry and artillery have also been increased, and new guns have been purchased at Krupps and Creuzot. The same can be said of the Navy, though two new Dreadnoughts, which were being constructed in Germany and France, are not likely to be delivered now.
The aerial services are also being reorganised, and recently some new aeroplanes were bought in Italy, and it is said that shortly Greece will also have some large modern dirigibles.
The merit of such important reforms belongs especially to King Constantine himself, who remained Commander-in-Chief of the Army even after his assumption of the throne. He understood that the next war would be the decisive one for Greece, and with wonderful activity he has managed to bring his country to the height of the situation.
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