ll stop all ships taking foodstuffs to Greece. They
have just released seven grain ships from America, that were held up at
Malta, and ships carrying food to Greece have been stopped at points as
far away as Gibraltar. As related in the last chapter, the Greek steamer
on which we sailed from Naples was held up at Messina for twenty-four
hours until her cargo was overhauled. As we had nothing in the hold more
health-sustaining than hides and barbed-wire, we were allowed to
proceed.

Whatever course Greece follows, her dependence upon others for food
explains her act. To-day (November 29) there is not enough wheat in the
country to feed the people for, some say three--the most optimistic,
ten--days. Should she decide to join Germany she would starve. It would
be deliberate suicide. The French and Italian fleets are at Malta, less
than a day distant; the English fleet is off the Gallipoli peninsula.
Fifteen hours' steaming could bring it to Salonika. Greece is especially
vulnerable from the sea. She is all islands, coast towns, and seaports.
The German navy could not help her. It will not leave the Kiel Canal.
The Austrian navy cannot leave the Adriatic. Should Greece decide
against the Allies, their combined war-ships would pick up her islands
and blockade her ports. In a week she would be starving. The railroad
from Bulgaria to Salonika, over which in peace times comes much wheat
from Roumania, would be closed to her. Even if the Germans and
Bulgarians succeeded in winning it to the coast, they could get no food
for Greece farther than that. They have no war-ships, and the Gulf of
Salonika is full of those of the Allies.

[Illustration: _From a photograph by Underwood and Underwood._

King Constantine of Greece and commander-in-chief of her
armies.

In two years he led his people to victory in two wars. If now they
desire peace and in this big war the right to remain neutral, he thinks
they have earned that right.]

The position of King Constantine is very difficult. He is supposed to
be strongly pro-German, and the reason for his sympathy that is given
here is the same as is accepted in America. Every act of his is
supposed to be inspired by family influences, when, as he has stated
publicly through his friend Walter Harris of the _London Times_, he is
pro-English, and has been actuated solely by what he thought was best
for his own people. Indeed, there are many who believe if the terms upon
which Greece mi