765.68/267: Telegram

The Minister in Greece ( MacVeagh ) to the Secretary of State

197. Every year on this date the Greeks celebrate the Dormition of the Virgin with special rites at the town of Tinos in the Cyclades. Many devotees gather there in view particularly of the miraculous [Page 534] cures said to be performed. This morning the Greek cruiser Helli, anchored off the quay, after having brought several officials to the ceremony and while bedecked with gala flags was torpedoed without warning by an unidentified submarine and sunk almost immediately with the loss of 1 officer and about 30 men. I am also informed that the submarine damaged the quay with one or two torpedoes which missed the cruiser and that civilian casualties occurred. The Premier has issued a request by radio to the people of Tinos to remain calm and has guaranteed the safe return of all excursionists. He has also consulted with the chiefs of the military and naval forces but no result of this conference has been divulged.

The cynical brutality of this attack is reminiscent of the Corfu incident of 1924 [1923],16 as well as of the violation of Albania on Good Friday of last year17 and the Greeks are in no doubt as to its author especially in view of the Italian anti-Greek press and radio campaign with its trumped up charges which was reported in my telegram No. 194, Aug. 13, 3 p.m.,18 and which still continues. The demands which normally follow intimidation in this type of diplomacy are expected soon.

MacVeagh
  1. Occupation by Italy of the Island of Corfu. See League of Nations, Official Journal, November 1923, pp. 1276–1316, passim.
  2. For correspondence on this subject, see Foreign Relations, 1939, vol. ii, pp. 365 ff.
  3. Not printed; the charges referred to related to the affair reported in the memorandum of August 15 by the Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs, supra.