ILLU S T R A T I O N S . k My R ecepti on at Pi erni . Fronti spi ece Ar rocast ro Lon li e Greece Lon gy . g v g F c a i ng p . 68 Near t h e Mu si na Pass 76 Ar r c st r eneral i gy o a o . G V ew 80 . L : ! i - f m s a D T n a C NC p S THE SORROWS OF EPIRUS THE R E TURN OF THE E PIR OTE S Cor u 1 315 Ma 1 9 1 3 . f , y, E STERD AY A ril 3ot h , p , the last of the Epirotes left Corfu for their W coast villages , from hich they were driven during the Albanian fury last N ovember . Ten thousand of them had then flocked W to this blissful island , hose roses and orange trees make it an earthly paradise at this season of the year . The cir cu mst ance s of the Epirote exodus had been utterly deplorable . The Turks and Albanians had burnt their homes over their heads, and it was only the devotion f o their Greek brethren of Corfu, and , indeed, of all Greece , which saved them 5 The Sorrows of Epirus from utter despair . The municipality , the central Government and private i n di vidu als had alike come to their assis A tance . subsistence allowance of fifty centimes a day was made to them , and they lived as best they could . Then came the capture of Yanina, followed by that of Argyrocast ro and Delvino . From that moment a great hope raised their sunken spirits . Greece was born again . Under the aegis of the blue and White flag they were enabled to return to their i it z a S enit z a N v . villages , Parga , , (There are about twenty - five of them scattered along the coast opposite Corfu , and all had been abandoned by the Epirote peasants owing to the Albanian menace . ) The victory of the Crown Prince gave for them back their homes , once and all , they thought, delivered from the terrors of the past . I watched the last of these exiles coming on shore at Santi Quaranta . The little 6 The Return of the Epirotes port, which usually sleeps soundly enough in the damp heat at the foot of it s olive crowned hills , presented a scene of the greatest animation . Donkeys and mules in hundreds wound up the white road to Delvino and A r gyr ocast r o with loads of food for the troops and the civil p op u la tion . Houses , disembowelled by the bom bar dm ent ff , were now being stu ed with sacks of wheat , and the walls of the ancient Byzantine city of O nch esm o s swarmed with workmen and porters . This world had for the time being shaken o ff its habitual torpor . It really seemed that a great vision , the Hellenic vision , possessed them . The long nightmare was over . The Epirotes were about to realize the dream of generations , union with Greece, their fatherland by history and sympathy . They could not bring themselves to believe that they would be j oined to an artificial Albania , alien to them in tongue, All civilization and religion . these people, The Sorrows of Epirus ili anni s Vas o . Jo from Cape St . to Cape St , were Greeks , and every man to whom I Spoke, related to Greek families in Corfu, Patras and Athens , refused to have any doubts as to the decision of Europe . They returned to Epirus confident of the triumph of a cause for which they had endured so much . HELLENIC NATIONAL SENTIMENT IN E PIRUS C r u 2 M o nd a . f , y IF the real meaning of the question of Epirus is to be grasped , a pre liminary axiom must be accepted : it i s not the Greek Government which wants to annex Epirus , but the Epirotes them selves who claim reunion with Greece . of The Opponents this reunion , in their academic desire to draw a satisfactory map of Albania, never seem to have given a single thought to this side of the question, which is none the less a vital one . Some have seen in the Greek Empire a danger for Italian naval power . They have suggested that, by extending that ul Empire to the north of Corfu, it wo d enable Greece to transform the Corfu 9 The Sorrows of Epirus Channel into a closed sound in which the Russian , French and English fleets could shelter in case of an international conflict and threaten Italy in the Adriatic . This is to forget that the Adriatic only begins at the Straits of Otranto , and that the coast of Epirus , whether in Greek or Albanian hands , is only about two kilometres distant from the northern end of Corfu , so that a few mines could make it an impregnable lair for the fleets whose highly problematical schemes B e Rome appears to dread so much . sides , so long as Greece remained friendly to the Entente she could place so many excellent harbours in the Ionian Islands at the disposal of the Allied fleets that it is really rather absurd to see oppositi on based on such slight grounds . The other opponents of the reunion of — t oo Epirus with Greece and these , , are to be found in Italy—seem to have of of 1 8 97 retained, the treaty which settled the boundaries of the Austrian IO Hellenic National Sentiment in Epirus and Italian zones of influence in Albania and Epirus , only the hopes of an eventual conquest of the whole eastern shore of the Adriatic . By thus refusing to recognize existing facts and persisting in the creation of an artificial kingdom of Albania , whose endless unrest would furnish the excuse for future intervention and possible annexation , they show that the Marquis di San Giuliano ’ s imperialism has still some fervent devotees . If res nu lli u s Epirus were a , a piece of territory without a national soul which any conqueror could automatically make his own , the Italian policy might be regarded as not incomprehensible . But the truth is quite otherwise . The districts of Epirus which Rome wishes to see drawn into the future Albania are the hotbed of uncompromising Hellenism . They are more Greek than Greece her ” of self, one the most eminent professors of Athens University once said to me , and it is certainly the fact that the attach I I The Sorrows of Epirus ment of the Epirotes to the national cause has been displayed in the most striking fashion for years . There are in Epirus si x great centres : Za ori a of Hellenism Yanina , g , Argy r o cast r o Met z ovo . , , Khimara and Koritza From each of these centres have gone forth men whose first thought , when once they had made their fortune in a foreign land , has been to contribute towards the realization of the national dream , the union of Epirus with Greece . M Ar sak i s . , the founder of the great ’ girls college at Athens , which has two thousand pupils and is the only centre of feminine education in the East , comes Ch ot ach ova from , a village near Argy M / r ocast r o . w . Zapas , another founder - schools and the Athens picture gallery , Lambovo is a native of , likewise near r M Zo r a h o Ar ro cast o . gy g p , yet another Kest orat i founder of schools , hails from , near Tepeleni . M A erov St ou rnaras M . v and , the 1 2 Hellenic National Sentiment in Epirus first a Greek benefactor of universal of repute , the second the founder the Athens polytechnic school , are both M o MM Z imas et z vo . oz natives of . , T osit z a Kaplani and hail from Yanina , M . Banca from Koritza There are hun dreds of other less notable Epirotes who have bequeathed by will to the Greek Government sums , the total amounting to a considerable figure, for the advancement of the sacred cause . The reunion of Epirus with Greece is the single thought . Deposited with the Athens banks are funds the interest of which has been accumulating for years by virtue of a testamentary disposition which is always the same This money, in case of a war of independence, is to be ” used for the liberation of Epirus . What proofs of the necessity of an Epiro - Albanian bloc can avail against such overwhelming manifestations of uncompromising national feeling ! Is it suggested that because Ali Pasha exter 1 3 The Sorrows of Epirus mi nat ed a large number of orthodox families , he destroyed the idea There are Mussulman families of these districts t o day with a living Ch ri sti an grandmother . The villages still have their Greek names , Pr o onat i s Ox at i s such as g and , which recall the heroes and exploits of the past . At Argyr ocast ro there are girls of Mu ssu l man families who go to Greek schools M and ussulman Albanians who , moved - by an all powerful atavism , make the sign of the cross when they pass a Greek church . The past and the present are here united in support of a cause which has sound history and practical politics behind it . 1 4 CORFU Cor u Ma 3rd . f , y HE midday swelter . An English Medi a cruiser , the , was sleeping at anchor in the harbour .