Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/1020

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GREECE

(principal town, Xauthe) and the greater part of the province of Aidin in Asia Minor (principal town, Smyrna).

As a result of the Treaty of Sevres with Turkey, Greece will obtain (1) all that is left of Turkey-in -Europe west of the Chatalja lines, only leaving out the Derkos water supply area, including Adrianople and Kirk-Kilisse ;

(2) Western Thrace, transferred to the Allies under the Bulgarian Treaty ;

(3) the Dodecanese Islands (to be ceded by Italy, which holds them at pre- sent, May, 1920, when the Treaty with Turkey is signed. Some arrangement will also be come to in regard to Smyrna. (But as yet (May, 1921), Greece is at war with Turkey in this district.) It is estimated that Greater Greece will be inhabited by 6 million Greeks (some 4^ million in Europe and 1£ million in Asia Minor and the Aegean Islands), and about 2 million non- Greek peoples, 1 million of whom live in Smyrna and its hinterland.

Mount Athos is inhabited by the monks of Greek (17), Russian (1), Bulgarian (1), Rumanian (1), and Serbian (1) monasteries and hermitages (&ketai). The monks and their servitors till the fields, tend the vineyard, take in the harvest, fish, weave, sell in shops, and, indeed, take upon themselves all the secular duties of the community as well as the sacred. Originally inhabited by one mediaeval ascetic, Peter the Athonite, it has at last grown to a religious colony of thousands, contained in 20 monasteries with their respective dependencies ; and after having passed in the fifteenth century from the sovereignty of the Greek Emperors of Byzantium to that of the Sultans it fell again into the hands of the Greeks, who occupied it in November, 1912. Each of the 20 monasteries is a sort of little republic in itself, those of the ' coenobitic ' category being ruled by abbots chosen for life, while the ' idiorrhythmic ' monasteries are administered by a board of overseers (epitropoi) elected for a certain term of years. Hitherto the peninsula has been administered by a Council of 4 members, and an As- sembly of 20 members, the latter consisting of 1 deputy from each monastery. In recent years there has been considerable emigration. According to United States statistics, the number of Greek immigrants into the States was in 1915-16, 26,792 ; in 1916-17, 25,919 ; in 1917-18, 2,602 ; in 1918-19, 813. The principal towns are the following, with populations, 1907 : —

Athens

Piraeus

Patras

Corfu

Volo

167,479 73,579 37,724 27,397 23,563

Larissa. Trikkala. PyTgos. Zante Calamata

18,041 17.809 13,690 13,580 15,397

Chalcis.

10,958

Tripolitsa

10,958

Laurium.

10,007

Syra (Hermou-

polis).

18,132

pulation of

provisional

Fiorina.

10,155

Kozani.

9,408

Retymo.

9,086

Vodena.

8,846

census 1915) are : —

Salonica. . 157, S89 Serres. . 18,668 Candia. . 25,185 Yauina. . 16,804 Canea. . 24,399 Verria. . 13,812 Cavalla. . 23,378 Drama. . 12,903

By 1919 the population of Athens and Pimua together was over 300,000, while that of Salonica had increased to about 250,000 civilians.

Religion.

The great majority of the inhabitants of the Kingdom are adherents of the Greek Orthodox Church. By the terms of the Constitution of 1864, the Greek Orthodox Church is declared the religion of the State, but complete tolera- tion and liberty of worship is guaranteed to all other sects. A National Synod, held at Nauplia in 1833, vested the government of the Orthodox Church, withiu the limits qf the Kingdom, in a permanent council,