M. Venizelos was followed by M. Zographos, the late President of the Epirote Provisional Government, and now Deputy for Attica, who, amid profound attention and great enthusiasm, recounted the enormous sacrifices of blood and treasure by the Epirotes for their freedom, and declared that the liberation of Epirus must this time be final. M. Rallis, one of the leaders of the Opposition, declared that Epirus was resolved to remain united with Greece.
I am informed from a diplomatic source that the great powers have received the announcement of the reoccupation in a friendly spirit, and no protests have thus far been received from quarters whence they might have been expected.
RELATIONS WITH BULGARIA.
Following is an editorial article from the semi-official newspaper Patris of Athens of Dec. 12, (25,) 1914.
With Bulgaria not one of the Balkan States can come to any understanding. The neighboring Balkan peoples, at least the Christians, cannot agree with them—not because they are lacking good intentions, but because the Bulgarians in their demands are unreasonable, unjust, insatiable, monstrous, and treacherous; because the Bulgarians always demand the impossible; because they are pursuing profits at the expense of third parties, whom they invite to cede rights obtained by sacrifices and based on the right of war; because, while they can demand compensations at the expense of a non-Christian neighbor—to which no one would object—they turn on their co-religionists, struggling to take away from them what they lawfully and with sacrifices have acquired.
On account of this policy of the Bulgarians, not one of the Christian peoples of the Balkan Peninsula believes in the possibility of an understanding with them. That, also, is Rumania's position. Accordingly it should be unnecessary to deny the news from Sofia announcing the attainment of an alleged Rumano-Bulgarian rapprochement. In order to reach this understanding, the Bulgarians would not confine themselves to the rules of present Rumano-Bulgarian practice, which in itself is a question of secondary importance.
The Bulgarians turn eager eyes to the whole of Dobrondja, which might perhaps be the dowry of the royal Rumano-Bulgarian match so impudently heralded in Sofia, although the whole thing was a monstrous lie, without any appearance of respect for the family affairs of the royal throne of Rumania.
But, as in our own case, neither the Servians can cede even an acre of land to Bulgaria nor Rumania give back Dobrudja, because all of these territories belong to their present owners by right of war. For the same reason the Serbo-Bulgarian relations failed a month ago; likewise no ground was found for an understanding between Bulgaria and Greece; and for the same reason the negotiations between Rumania and Bulgaria are failing today.
The Bulgarians have turned from one to another of the peoples of the Balkans in order to cheat them. But this attempt, made once too often, at length has failed. But will this final failure bring to reason the hotheads of Sofia? After the cruel disappointment they received at the hands of Rumania, the Bulgarian politicians must understand that whatever is won by war by war only is given back. No one is so stupid as to give them willingly his dominions.
Do they wish to take them? Let them come. Let them declare war. Because so long as they are not doing this, and so long as they persist in their present methods, they are offering the spectacle of a childish if not a demented people.