The Case of Northern Epii is 
 
 By N. J. CASSAVETES 
 
 Director of Pan-Epirotic Union in America 
 
 The author of this article is Director of the Pan-Epirotic Unions an. organiza- 
 tion for making known the aspirations of the Greeks of Epirus. He presents here 
 the Greek side of the case, backing up the clai7ns laid before the Peace Co inference 
 by M. Venizelos. 
 
 IN 1913 the Greek Army occupied 
 Epirus as far north as Chimara, 
 Korytza, and Lake Ochrida. Mme. 
 Jeanne Leune and M. Kene Puaux, 
 both correspondents of the Temps of 
 Paris, bear witness that the people of 
 Epirus received the Greek forces with 
 enthusiasm as liberators and brothers. 
 M. Puaux, who is now in the Cabinet of 
 M. Clemenceau, in his book, " La Mal- 
 heureuse Epire," extols the Hellenic 
 sentiment of the Epirotes and appeals to 
 France to lend her influence for the 
 union of Epirus with Greece. 
 
 Italy and Austria, covetors of Albania 
 and Epirus, sent an ultimatum to Greece 
 to withdraw her troops from Northern 
 Epirus. 
 
 At the Ambassadorial Conference of 
 London, in 1913 two-thirds of Epirus 
 was annexed to the Albanian State. In 
 1914 the Greek troops began to evacuate 
 Northern Epirus, despite the universal 
 entreaties of the Northern Epirotes to 
 stay. No sooner had the Greek Army 
 departed than the inhabitants, Christians 
 and Mussulmans, broke out into revolu- 
 tion and defeated the Moslem Gheghs 
 of the Prince of Wied. 
 
 Colonel Murray of the British Army 
 
 made a tour of three months, and cov- 
 ered most of Northern Epirus. His 
 lectures on " Northern Epirus in 1914 " 
 gave proof that the Northern Epirote 
 revolution was spontaneous and against 
 the will of M. Venizelos. The enemies 
 of the Epirotes have attempted to 
 diminish the significance of this outbreak 
 of national aspirations by stating that 
 the Greek Government suborned the 
 Epirotes to revolt; but the Governments 
 of Italy and Austria, the principal par- 
 ties interested in an Albanian Northern 
 Epirus, have officially admitted that the 
 Government of Greece acquitted itself 
 honorably in the case, fulfil 'ing e'« ery 
 stipulation of the Conference A LondoV 
 The Epirotes rose unassisted and f'.Higlr 
 for their rights and liberties uniii even 
 the Triple Alliance was forced to recog- 
 nize in 1914, in the Protocol of Corfu, 
 the autonomy of Northern Epirus ar' 
 the Greek character of the Epirotes. 
 
 Arnold Toynbee, in "New Eiv :pe " 
 and in "Greek Policies Since 1882," 
 writes: "They are Greeks, like any one 
 else, but some of them happen to speak 
 Albanian. * * * The Epirote has be 
 come Greek in soul. Hellenism and na- 
 tionality have become for him identical 
 
ideas, and, when at last the hour of de- 
 liverance struck, he welcomed the Greek 
 armies that marched into his country 
 from the south and from the east, after 
 the fall of Jannina, in 1913, with the 
 same enthusiasm with which the island- 
 ers of Crete or of Chios welcomed 
 them." 
 
 Rene Puaux, in " La Malheureuse 
 Epire," says: " It was a travesty of jus- 
 tice to put the Epirotes at the mercy of 
 the Moslem majority on the ground that 
 they happened to speak the same lan- 
 guage. To surrender to an artificial Al- 
 banian people which differs from the Al- 
 banians in language, in civilization, in 
 religion, and in aspirations is a- crime. 
 All Epirus from Cape St. Basil to Cape 
 St. John is absolutely Greek; and their 
 friends and relatives constitute the intel- 
 lectual and plutocratic aristocracy of 
 Athens and Patras." 
 
 The Turkish census of 1908, previous 
 to the first Young Turk Parliamentary 
 election, gives the population of Epirus 
 as 31-1,000 Greeks and 176,000 Alba- 
 nians, Turks, and Jews. 
 
 There are in Epirus 950 elementary 
 Greek schools, with 28,820 pupils; three 
 colleges for boys, (Jannina, Konitza, Ko- 
 rytza;) and one college for girls, (Jan- 
 nina;) 2,000 Greek churches; 189 Greek 
 monasteries — all self-supported and en- 
 \ ;d by Epirotes who have made for- 
 um ; abroad. 
 
 Korytza, the city which the Albanians 
 )efer to as the centre of Albanian cul- 
 ture, maintains one Greek college for 
 boys, with 100 pupils; one Greek girls' 
 high school, with 750 girls; two Greek 
 kindergartens, with 700 children. In all, 
 in a city of 25,000, there are 2,200 boys 
 and girls attending Greek schools, where 
 instruction in Greek is given by ten 
 professors, fifteen male and fourteen fe- 
 male teachers, and four kindergarten in- 
 structors. The total appropriation made 
 
 by the city for this instruction was, in 
 1914, 70,000 francs. 
 
 In the District of Korytza, with a 
 Christian population of over 43,000, there 
 are maintained 120 Greek schools, with 
 180 Greek teachers and 12,500 Greek 
 pupils of both sexes. The Albanians 
 have in Korytza only one girls' school, 
 with forty girls. 
 
 The Epirotes support the school by 
 local taxation and through the endow- 
 ments of rich Epirotes, like Baron Sinas, 
 who acquired his wealth in Vienna and 
 left his millions for Greek schools at 
 Korytza and for the erection and main- 
 tenance of the splendid academy at 
 Athens. John Bangas of Korytza, who 
 died twenty years ago, left 2,000,000 
 francs in the National Bank of Greece, 
 and from the interest on this money 
 20,000 francs yearly are used for the 
 maintenance of the Greek College of 
 Korytza. Anastassius Adamides, like- 
 wise of Korytza, has built the Church of 
 St. George, has founded and endowed the 
 two high schools for boys, and has es- 
 tablished a drug store where the poor 
 citizens of Korytza get medicines gratis. 
 He also has left in the National Bank 
 of Greece large sums of money, the in- 
 terest of which is used to enable poor 
 and deserving Greek girls of Korytza to 
 marry with a dower. Other public- 
 spirited citizens of Korytza have per- 
 formed similar services. What has 
 prompted these benefactors to leave 
 their fortunes for Greek culture, unless 
 it be their Greek conscience ? 
 
 But the Epirotes have not made Epirus 
 alone a country where Greek letters and 
 Greek learning are intensely cultivated. 
 They have endowed Athens with the 
 Academy, with the Rhizarion Theological 
 Seminary, with the Arsakion College for 
 Girls, (where 3,000 Greek girls receive 
 higher instructions each year.) The Ob- 
 ser-vatory at Athens, the National Grovk 
 
University, the Polytechnic Institute, the 
 Military Academy, the famous Greek 
 Stadium, the modern Prison of Averoff, 
 the battleship Averoff, the Zographion 
 at Constantinople, (a Greek college,) 
 and other princely gifts are the contribu- 
 tions of Epirotes. 
 
 Amadori Virgili, an Italian officer 
 charged with the task of organizing 
 Italian propaganda in Epirus in order to 
 
 Albanicize tht Epirotes, wrote in 1908 in 
 La Questione Rumeliota: "The Chris- 
 tians hate the Albanian language; the 
 Mussulmans do not care for it at all." 
 M. Puaux wrote: 
 
 " The Epirotes are more Greek than 
 the Greeks themselves." It is to be 
 hoped that this intensely Hellenic 
 province will be ultimately united with 
 Greece. 
 
 MAP OF GREECE, INCLUDING EPIRUS— AT THE NORTHWEST CORNER. THE • ' 
 AREA INDICATES THE TERRITORY INHABITED BY GREEKS. THE WHITE LiXE 
 SENTS THE GREEK CLAIMS PRESENTED BY MR. VENIZELOS AT PARIS AND THE bi.j 
 AREA LANDS WHERE THE GREEK AND TURKISH RACES ARE IN EQUAL NtMBL . 
 
Caylord Bros. 
 
 Makers 
 Syracuse, N. Y. 
 PAT. JAN. 21, 1908