For the year 1904 the estimated total revenue and expenditure were as

follows:

The gold debt of Greece at the end of 1903 (exclusive of the debt of 1833 due to the three powers) amounted to 29,294, 1207. At the end of 1903 the paper debt amounted to 176,304,210 drachmai (including the forced currency loan of 85,775,975 drachmai). The service of the gold debt in 1903 (including amortisation) amounted to 16,444,273 gold drachmai or francs, exclusive of 900,000 francs for service of the debt due to the three Powers. The service of the currency loans and floating debt for the same year amounted to 7,641,174 paper drachmai.

In 1903, the communal revenues amounted to 21,257,137 drachmai, and the communal debts to 20,721,618 drachmai.

Defence.

There is universal liability to service on all able-bodied males aged 21 years and upwards. The total service comprises 2 years in the active army, 10 years in the reserve of the active army, 8 years in the National Guard, and 10 years in the reserve of the National Guard. The effective number is fixed annually by the Chambers. Those who (as determined by lot) are in excess of the number required pay a tax of 100 to 1,000 drachmai, and pass

Peloponnesus; one archbishop and five bishops in the islands of the Greek Archipelago; and five archbishops and ten bishops in the Ionian Island. There are (1901) 171 monasteries and 9 nunneries, with 2,205 monks and 191 nuns.

Instruction.

All children between the ages of five and twelve years must attend school, but the law is not well enforced in country districts. Of the army recruits 30 per cent. are illiterate, and 15 per cent, can read only.

There were (1902) 3,263 primary schools with 4,346 teachers (of whom 800 were of the female sex) and 210,570 pupils (47,570 females), 285 of the so-called Greek schools with 22,039 pupils and 833 teachers, 39 gymnasiums with 5,556 pupils and 300 professors, besides 16 private Greek schools with 860 pupils, 8 private gymnasiums with 290 pupils, and 1 commercial school. There were 4 normal schools (having 4 model primary schools annexed with 22 teachers and 530 pupils), the normal schools having 25 professors and 490 students; 6 under-normal schools with 6 directors and 294 pupils (annexed were 6 infant schools with 6 teachers and 180 pupils); 3 normal schools for females with 380 students. There are 2 agricultural schools in Greece with, together, 50 pupils. The Trade and Industrial Academy, founded in 1894 by private initiative at Piræus, with 40 teachers to give instruction in the industries relating to wine, spirits, beer, soap, perfumes, dairy-keeping, cattle and silkworm rearing, and in the duties of commercial clerks, was transferred to Athens in 1896. The Government Trade Schools at Athens and Patras have together 126 pupils. The ecclesiastical Rizari Seminary (founded 1849) had (1900-01) 15 professors and 82 students. In 1902 the University of Athens (founded 1836) had 57 ordinary professors, 48 lecturers, and 2,574 students studying medicine, law, philosophy, theology, and chemistry. Of the total number, 800 were from abroad, chiefly from Turkey. The Polytechnicum Mezzovion with 22 professors, and 170 students, provides instruction in painting, sculpture, and mechanics.

The cost of primary instruction is borne by the communes, with a subvention from the State. In 1903, the State spent for primary instruction 2,459 drachmai, and for higher instruction, 3,467,962 drachmai.

Finance.

In accordance with the peace preliminaries between Grecce and Turkey, and the Greek Law of Control of March, 1898, the financial commission of delegates representing Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Great Britain, Italy, and Russia (the mediating powers) is established at Athens in direct relation with the Greek Minister of Finance. To this commission were assigned, for the payment of the interest on the external debt, the revenues from the salt, petroleum, and other monopolies, the tobacco duty, the stamp duty, and the import duties at the port of Piræus. The collection of the assigned revenues and the administration of the monopolies is entrusted to a Greek Company, called the "Société de Régie des Revenues affectés au Service de la Dette Publique," which is under the control of the international commission. The ordinary revenue (exclusive of receipts from loans, &c.) and expenditure (exclusive of debt service) in recent years have been (in currency drachmai of fluctuating value, say 6d.):—

For the year 1904 the estimated total revenue and expenditure were as follows::

The gold debt of Greece at the end of 1903 (exclusive of the debt of 1833 due to the three powers) amounted to 29,294,1207. At the end of 1903 the paper debt amounted to 176,304,210 drachmai (including the forced currency loan of 85,775,975 drachmai). The service of the gold debt in 1903 (including amortisation) amounted to 16,444,273 gold drachmai or francs, exclusive of 900,000 francs for service of the debt due to the three Powers. The service of the currency loans and floating debt for the same year amounted to 7,641,174 paper drachmai.

In 1903, the communal revenues amounted to 21,257,137 drachmai, and the communal debts to 20,721,618 drachmai.

Defence.

There is universal liability to service on all able-bodied males aged 21 years and upwards. The total service comprises 2 years in the active army, 10 years in the reserve of the active army, 8 years in the National Guard, and 10 years in the reserve of the National Guard. The effective number is fixed annually by the Chambers. Those who (as determined by lot) are in excess of the number required pay a tax of 100 to 1,000 drachmai, and pass

into the reserve of the active army. The army is organised in 3 divisions, 6 brigades, and contains 10 regiments of infantry, 2 regiments and 3 battalions of euzonoi (skirmishers), 3 regiments of artillery, 3 of cavalry, and 1 of engineers. There is at Kerkyra (Corfu) a preparatory school of officers of the reserve, and at Athens a school of cavalry; a military school for about 47 cadets (the Euelpides), and a school for sub-officers. The army by the law of April 6, 1900, is placed under the general command and inspection of the heir apparent of the throne, who is a lieutenant-general. The nominal strength of the army in 1902 was:

There were at the same time 3,227 horses and 703 mules, and 180 guns. On the war footing, the strength could be mobilised to 82,000 men. The territorial army numbers about 96,000 men. The navy is of very small calibre. There are three small battleships of 5,000 tons Hydra, Spetsai, and Psara, three 10'6 in., five 6 in., one 4 in., and some smaller guns. There are 19 torpedo boats of no present fighting value the newest being sixteen years old, and some other obsolete craft. The personnel numbers about 4,000. Service is by conscription for two years or by enlistment. Some modern vessels are "projected.

Production and Industry.

Greece is mainly an agricultural country, and the existing manufactures are not important. The cultivated area extends to about 5,563,100 acres, of which about 1,112,000 acres are under cereals, 1,200,000 fallow, and 2,025,400 covered with forest; there are, besides, about 5,000,000 acres under pasture, and 3,000,000 acres of waste land. By the draining of Lake Copais, an area of about 60,000 acres has been acquired for agricultural purposes. Irrigation and drainage canals, farm roads, and buildings are being constructed, tree planting is undertaken, and the breed of cattle is being improved.

While there are a few large proprietors in Greece, the land is to a large extent in the hands of peasant proprietors and métayer farmers. On the whole, agriculture is in a backward state, though the soil is of unusual fertility. The production of cereals in 1901 was:-wheat, 6,834,460 bushels; barley, 2,951,600 bushels; rye, 96,000 bushels; maize, 4,325,000 bushels; mezlin, 1,430,000 bushels. The most favoured and best cultivated crop is the currant, which covers vast districts. The annual yield is usually about 150,000 tons. In 1898 the Retention Law was passed for the purpose of

reducing the quantity available for export to the amount of the demand abroad, so as to maintain the price. From each shipment a quantity is taken without payment, deposited in Government stores, and sold to local distillers and wine-makers. The proceeds are passed to a special fund for a Currant Bank to assist currant growers. This Bank was established in 1899 with a capital of 3,500,000 drachmai (about 85,0007.) which by the operation of the Retention Law increased to about 250,000l. This scheme, however, did not maintain the price of currants to the satisfaction of the growers and, with respect to the crop of 1903, a supplementary scheme was put in operation. The highest price the Bank received for retention' currants was 160 drachmai per ton (metric), but, under the new law, the Bank was required to purchase during the year ending July 31, 1904, whatever dried currants were delivered to it at the minimum price of 260 drachmai per ton (about 11s. 8d. per cwt.), and, to effect these purchases, it borrowed, under government guarantee, 6,000,000 drachmai (about 160,0007.) from local banks. Up to March 15, 1904, it bought 30,000 tons which it could sell at no higher price than 'retention' currants, so that its loss was at least 3,000,000 drachmai (about 80,0007.). The crop of 1903 was very large : market prices fell below the guaranteed price; there was a rush of growers to sell to the Bank which had made no adequate provision for the receipt and storage of currants and was not even able to pay cash for fruit delivered to it. In 1904, a new scheme was put in operation, imposing a prohibitive tax on fresh currant plantations, substituting a retention of 15 per cent. (20 per cent. in the Ionian Islands) as a duty in kind for the export duty, and requiring the Currant Bank to buy surplus currants at prescribed prices with authority to sell for export in years of short supply at prices not below a prescribed limit. The question is complicated, owing to the Convention with Great Britain which reduced (in 1890) the import duty, the Greek Government undertaking not to increase the export duty on currants. The crop of 1903 amounted to 178,000 tons; quantity retained' 26,000 tons; quantity purchased by law 30,000 tons; available for export, 122,000 tons. The crop of valonea (the acorn cup of the Quercus Aegillops, used in tanning) was, in 1903, 10,050 tons; tobacco of light colour and taste is largely cultivated in some districts, the quantity produced in 1903 was 4,800 tons. About 1,000 tons of sugar was produced in 1903. Silk culture is confined to Messenia, where, in 1902 the export of cocoons and silk amounted to the value of 50,000l. The wine, olive, and fig-growing industries are important. There are in Greece 100,000 horses, 360,000 cattle, and 2,900,000 sheep. Factories are powder and dynamite mills, soap-works, woollen and cotton mills, paper, ship-building, engine, glass, leather, thread, flour, and spirit works.

In the Laurium district the marketable ores produced in three years were: