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Our Historical Archive
San Francisco Call Bulletin
June 4, 1915. This article is reprinted below.
Disclaimer: All newspaper articles are reprinted exactly as they appeared in the newspaper regardless of misspellings, grammar,
errors, or omissions.
Greek Consul Places Army Supply Order
Dr. C. Vassardakis, Royal Greek Commissioner to the Exposition, and Consul General of Greece, is here at the Palace Hotel with his American
wife. He arrived yesterday to take over the consulate, which with his formal occupation, will become consulate general. The change of status
in the consulate is due to the opening of the Panama Canal and the approaching completion of Greece's new Royal Uniting Railroad, which will
make a short cut to the Suez Canal. The railroad will, according to Dr. Vassardakis, cement the commercial and human interests of the Hellenes
and San Francisco.
Dr. Vassardakis is directing purchaser for the Greek government, and his arrival here is consequently of commercial interest. His purchases since
his arrival in New York in September include the placing of large orders with the United States Steel Corporation, and with the American Locomotive
Company for locomotive engines. He has also placed big orders for telephone equipment with the Western Electric Company, and with several wholesale
shoe concerns for army shoes for his government.
The Consul General refuses to admit that the purchased of thousands of pairs of army shoes has any significance in relation to the present European
war. But what he does say is that Greece will give the final word in the deliberations that will settle the differences in the eastern part of Europe
and Asia Minor.
"There is no doubt but what Greece will be invited to say its word in the settlement of world strife, and that Piraeus will become the most
important port in the Mediterranean. Greece has one of the most important places in the present war, but we are not conquerors. Our strifes are
those of deliverance. Until today Triest and the Italian ports have had much importance in the account of their railway. But now, in October, when our
railroad will be finished, Greece will take the place in the modern commercial world that she occupied in ancient times."
"Our geographical position is the same now that in ancient times afforded our development as the most important naval and commericial power in
the world. Nothing has survived out of the wealth of the other ancient peoples, but Greece used her wealth to create civilization which has sustained
the organized society which has developed in Europe."
"The life of modern Greece is a continuation of her ancient life. She lives for life, for beauty. There is a great and beautiful domesticity there. The
Greek national spirit which inspired the Greeks of other times is just the same, and modern Greece shows it. Greece is sufficient unto itself. There is
no question about that. We believe that all artificial boundaries set by kings and ambassadors are fatal. Our King is very patriotic and he is a military
genius, but his government is a utilitarian government. 'You give that I give; you do that I do'. That is the policy of Greece."
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