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cophobe spirit which ruled all the dealings of the Young Turks during the preparations for the first elections. It is, therefore, probable that the numbers compiled do not exaggerate the preponderance of the Greek element.

Further explanation should be made. The table appended below shows as Greeks, not only those who speak Greek, but also the Orthodox Christians who, while speaking the Albanian or the Coutzo-Vlach, are, and call themselves, and wish to be Greeks. They represent about onethird of the total element indicated as Greek.

As we have dealt a little earlier in this article with the linguistic question, we will only add that language is not a safe criterion for the distinction of ethnic elements. Albanophone Greeks speak Greek as well, and can read, write and transact business only in Greek. The same holds true of the Coutzo-Vlachs. Nobody denies today that the only safe test of nationality is conscience and the will of the individual.

Greece, confident that the Northern Epirotes desired union with her, proposed to the International Epirotic Committee to have a popular referendum applied, in order to determine the will of the majority. "But Austria-Hungary and Italy rejected this plan. They feared that Greece would win" writes Mr. Rene Puaux in La Malheureuse Epire.

In the comparison which will be made in the table below as regards the ethnic elements, it is not sufficient to note that the Greek element represents two-thirds of the population, although that fact in itself is adequate to confirm the rights of Greece to claim the regions where her sons preponderate. It is also necessary to add that if Greece will be forced to annex some few thousands of people of nonGreek character, it must not be forgotten that the frontiers are so drawn as to leave within Albania considerable numIbers of her children.

The boundaries proposed by Greece take in 154,413 Mussulmans, but at the same time leave out 44,119 Greeks.

The territories claimed by Greece are Greek, not only on account of the inhabitants; they are Greek also on account

of the Hellenic civilization, which has already joined them to Greece by the ties of thought and sentiment.

Table of population of the vilayet of Jannina

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193,925 47,586 15,409 256,920 112,896 369,816 43,800 1,214 45,014 53,919 98,933

193,925 91,386 16,623 301,934 166,815 468,749

* Ottoman government statistics by Amadori Virgili, 1908.

We now come to the culture of Epirus:

Table of statistics of schools in Epirus

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School and church maps and statistics by Amadori Virgili, 1908. "La Questione Rumeliota."

From the preceding table we see that Greece has 726 schools for boys and girls. Three of these are colleges for boys (Jannina, Konitsa, Korytsa) and one is a college for girls at Jannina. We see that Greece has 900 teachers, male and female, and pupils attending schools to the number of 27,000, which represents 9.2 per cent of the entire population. If we take into consideration the fact that the Mussulmans dislike schooling and they never send their children to school, we should compute the percentage not on the total population, but on the Greek population only, or on the 270,000 which would give us 10 per cent. Very few countries among the most civilized can show a nobler educational effort. And this effort acquires a more striking

significance when we know that the Ottoman Government had been ever so suspicious of the Greeks as to check the educational ardor of the Epirots. Yet what has Roumania accomplished with all the lavish expenditures to detach the Coutzo-Vlachs from their allegiance to the Hellenic ideals? In twenty-five years she has succeeded to establish only three schools in Epirus, with 13 teachers and 103 pupils over a total population of 22,000 Vlachs. Over an equal period of time, Italy has only 2 schools, 5 teachers, and 40 pupils. As to Albanian schools, there are none at all.

On the other hand, Greek culture without any subsidies from the Kingdom of Greece, spread itself in full vigor enlightening not only the Greeks, but also the Turks and the Jews. At Jannina, Konitza and Koritza the Turks and the Jews attend the Greek schools, Essad Pasha is a graduate of the Greek College of Jannina.

But even more strikingly Greek is the work of the Church. There is not in Epirus one village, no matter how small, but it has one or more churches, and one or more priests. This moral education prepares, completes and prolongs the instruction received at the schools. And along side with the churches have sprung up the monasteries, which served as a refuge for the persecuted, and as a school which perpetuated the Greek language, and the Greek traditions. There are 49 monasteries in the sandjack of Jannina, 12 in that of Preveza, as many in Himara and others in other sandjacks, or 189 in all.

There are in Epirus eight metropolitan episcopates, as follows: Preveza, Paramythia, Jannina, Argyrocastron, Conitza, Corytsa, Berat, Durazzo.1

These episcopates are also the supervisors of all the charitable institutions in Epirus.

But it is private initiative that has distinguished itself in the works of charity, which have made the Epirots famous all over Europe. The Epirots, oppressed by the Turks and the Albanians, left their homes early in their boyhood and went to Russia, Roumania, Egypt, Austria, England and

1 Oecomenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, Erpiscopates in European Turkey (Map).

Marseilles, where they amassed large fortunes. Their first thoughts as soon as they became rich, were to donate to Greece, or to their native towns their large fortunes for the erection of schools, hospitals, orphan asylums, museums, and churches. At Jannina the largest hospital is due to the generosity of a patriotic Epirote. Likewise the orphan asylum at Jannina is the gift of an Epirot from the contested portion of Northern Epirus. The Greek College for Boys is due to the Yanniote Zossima, and the College for Girls to Naxios. At Prevesa, Argyrocastro, Paramythia, Delvino, Metsovo, Lambovo, Konitza, and other cities of Epirus, one will see the princely gifts of Averof, Zappas, Zographos, Bancas and Anagnostopoulos (a Boston citizen).

Everywhere the traveller in Epirus will see the fruits of culture, and will feel the force of Hellenic civilization. The inhabitants who are proud to call themselves Greeks, are Greeks not only by blood, and sentiments; they are Greeks also by mentality, by civilization and by the love they cherish for Hellas.

We have only given a few testimonies of writers of well recognized ability, and of unassailable veracity to prove that the Northern Epirots are Greeks, not Albanians.

But the Albanian organizations in America and England insist that the decision of the ambassadors at London in 1913 shall be respected. According to that decision the greater part of Epirus is to go to Albania, and the Greek districts of Argyrocastron, Korytza, Chinara, Premeti, Pogonion, Tepeleni are to be sacrificed to the Albanians.

The Albanians as a whole are not responsible for such an imperialistic attitude. The very large mass of the Albanian people do not care for an Albanian state. They would welcome the Turkish rule which left them to their tribal independence.

The so-called Albanian movement is the work of a few Albanian chieftains who have fled their own country, pursued by antagonists.

These self-styled Albanian leaders have created a circle of sympathizers in England and in America, whom they deceive by false representations.

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