672 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H, 



it is therefore of use i)i reconstructing tlie features of the Hellenistic language ; 

 and lastly its vocabulary reflects in a remarkable way the history of the coun- 

 try. Thus the Italian loanwords which are so common in ordinary C4reek are 

 very rare in Asia, but there is no lack of Latin words. The reason for this ii 

 that between the late Roman and early Byzantine period, when the Latin words 

 were taken into Greek, and the period following the Fourth Crusade, which 

 gave the Italian words to the language, there occurred the first irruptions of the 

 Turks, which separated the Greeks of Asia from their European brethren, and 

 their language was in this way .shielded from the influence of Italian. In the 

 same way, of the Slavonic words found in Modern Greek very few are in use 

 in Asia ; the only considerable Slavonic element is formed by the Eussian words 

 which modern conditions are bringing into the dialect of Pontus. In Cappadocia 

 there is also an Armenian element in the vocabulary. The condition of these 

 Greek communities has grown sensibly worse since the New Turk regime ; in 

 particular the introduction of conscription is causing wholesale emigration, 

 especiariy from Pontus into Russia. It seems, too, that the aim of the Turks 

 is now the total destruction of the Greek population, and the outlook is dark 

 indeed. It would indeed be terrible if the time which has seen the increase of 

 the territory of free Greece were also to see the end of those survivors of the 

 old Bvzantine rule in Asia Minor. 



5. Joint Discussion iciili Section E on Racial Distribution in the 

 Balkans, (a) Opening Statement by Professor G. Elliot Smith, 

 M.A.,M.D., F.R.S. 



No adequate settlement is possible of the problems with which statesmanship 

 will soon have to deal in the Balkans, especially when it is recalled that the 

 present struggle is for the due recognition of the claims of race and nationality, 

 unless the facts of geography and racial distribution are taken into considera- 

 tion. But I want to make it perfectly clear at the outset that a multitnide of 

 other factors (with which we are not concerned in this discussion), historical, 

 political, economic, and religious, must determine the application of the facts of 

 ethnology if any stable agreement is to be arrived at ; and even so, that the 

 primary element in the establishment of a real peace is the acquisition on the 

 part of the peoples concerned of the art of tolerance and the spirit of com- 

 promise in attempting to realise their legitimate national aspirations. 



The geographical situation of the Balkans — its peculiarly distinctive rela- 

 tions to Europe, Asia, and to the Adriatic, ^^gean, and Black Seas — marked it 

 out even in prehistoric times as a place of ethnic confusion, exposed on three 

 sides to maritime people, not only of Mediterranean, but also of Armenoid 

 stock ; on the north quite open to incursion;; of all kinds of people from Europe 

 and Asia ; and as the threshold of Europe the natural meeting-place of Euro- 

 peans and Asiatics passing respectively to and from Anatolia. The configura- 

 tion of the country favoured segregation of groups of people and helped towards 

 disunion. These factors have influenced its history and disturbed its peace for 

 fifty centuries. Interposed between Rome and Byzantium it was in turn subject 

 to each, and the scene of strife between warring empires and religions. It 

 has been exposed to a long succession of raids and immigrations from Goths, 

 Huns and other L^grian and Turki people, and Slavs ; and when various settle- 

 ments of these peoples took possession of a large part of the peninsula and 

 amalgamated with their predecessors to form the two great Slavonic nations — 

 Southern Slavs and Bulgarians — the intrusion of the Turks foisted upon the 

 Balkans a new oppression and another religion to add to its unrest. Since then 

 the rivalry between Hungary (with the Teutonic Powers) and Russia has played 

 havoc with the Balkan powers. A minor difficulty has been added by the 

 problems of the Jews. 



The elimination of Turkish influence from the Balkans, where neither the 

 amount of Osmauli blood nor administrative achievement justifies its retention, 

 reminds ns that the Turk is not responsible for the amazing tangle there ; he 

 was merely an aggravation of an already involved situation, to the complexities 



