free download here - Michael Llewellyn-Smith

The Great Island
near Rethymnon. Mustapha Pasha, having defeated the westerners at
Vaphes, turned his artillery on the monastery. For two days the monks
and soldiers defended Arkadi. Finally the Turks forced the gate and
rushed into the courtyard. Down below the hegoumenos Gabriel, surrounded
by fighters, monks, women and children, put a match to the
powder-magazine. In that tremendous explosion, both Turks and
Christians died. A year later their bones were still to be seen scattered
round the ruined monastery.
Crete could not be ignored after this. In Athens King George’s
attitude was of sympathetic neutrality; for open support would have
meant a war with Turkey. Nevertheless Piraeus was busy with the
to-and-fro of ships carrying Greek volunteers and supplies, and bring-
ing in refugees from Crete. Moscow called for donations for those
Cretans who had taught the Russians how to practise their holy
religion. In England newly-formed Philo-Cretan societies subscribed
enough money to raise a ship, the Arkadi, which started to run the
blockade with food and supplies and volunteers in 1867. A Greek
Relief Committee was formed, in America, and the Senate publicly
sympathized with the insurgents. In Italy Garibaldi was in touch with
the Cretans; ‘Rejoice then, brave children of Ida . . . learn that our
spirit suffers because of your sadness, and our heart beats during your
triumphs.’
Victor Hugo the greatest rhetorician of them all, was indefatigable
in his published support, and magnificent in his exposure of Great
Power politics. He wrote in a reply to the Cretan leader Zymbrakakis:
‘Helas, la politique de retraite du gouvernement a deux resultats, refus de justice
pour la Grece, negation de sympathie pour l’humanite. Oh Oui! Un mot sauverait
ce peuple. Un mot seulement de I’Europe est si facile a dire. Dites ce mot.’
The word will not be spoken; among the powers there is a conspiracy
of silence.
Mais la foudre ne participe pas a cette conspiration. La foudre vient de haut, dans la
langue politique, elle s’appelle insurrection. La porte pressee par la hache est pre’s de
tomber. Le vieux prend une bougie dans le sanctuaire, il voit les enfants et les femmes, il la
plonge dans la poudre et se sauve. Intervention effraynte, l’explosion aide les lutteurs,
l’agonie se change en triomphe, celui du monastere heroique, apres avoir lutte comme une
place forte meurt comme un voleau. Psara n’est pas plus epique, Missolonghi n’est pas
plus grand. Tels sont les faits.
The practical results of this heroic sacrifice, this new pan-European
interest? Nothing except the concessions embodied in the organic
statute of 1868. The French now recognized the truth; that prudence
as well as justice demanded enosis. The Marquis de Moustier declared
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