Page:Christian Greece and Living Greek.djvu/238

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2l6 CHRISTIAN GREECE AND LIVING GREEK. contented for the time being with the annexation of Crete and of the border provinces, this being all which was at that moment practicable. On July 5th, 1878, the Congress assigned to Hellas the whole of Thessaly and a large part of Epiros. The island of Crete was not included. This resolution of the Congress was sanctioned by the Conference of Berlin on July ist, 1880. But all this was given on paper only. Greece was left to sue the Turk, cap in hand, for the provinces given on paper. When Turkey found that she was not confronted by united Europe determined to be obeyed, she refused to submit. Poor Greece, instead of being able to dedicate herself to the work of internal development, was left to put herself in possession. The mobilization of her forces swallowed up the en- tire sum of the great loan of 1881. On July 2d, 1881, three years after the signing of the famous protocol of Berlin, Hellas signed the convention by which Turkey ceded to her the flat part of Thessaly and a small strip of Epiros. She signed this convention, but she protested that the faults of the new frontier would soon give rise to new difficulties and dangers. " Eu- rope," in the words of Koumoundouros, "had allowed her own work to be undone for the sake