The present Greek army can be said to date back no further than 1935, when King George LI was recalled to the throne, on the almost unanimous vote of the Greek people. One of his first tasks was to review the strength of the cquntry's defences, which were in a shocking state. Anti-aircraft defences were limited to four guns. The army possessed ten old pieces of artillery, and the rest of the equipment was on a little better level. With the assistance of the present Prime Minister of Greece, King George proceeded to remedy this state of affairs, until now the Greek army is extremely well equipped, and at the end of 1939 had more than two hundred anti-aircraft guns, hundreds of other pieces of ry, tanks, anti-tank guns, rifles and ammunition, sufficient, it is claimed, to equip an army of a million men, should that be'necessary. General Metaxas also set to work to build fortifications similar to the Maginot Line, which are known as the Metaxas Line, and are reputed to be very powerful. The line was, of course, begun before the Italian coup in Albania, and it may be doubted whether it is so situated as to be of use in a possible invasion from that quarter. From the tone of a review of the strength of the Greek army published at the beginning of this year, however, it would seem that adequate precautions have been also taken along this frontier. The Greeks do not want war, but if they are forced into it, they believe that they can give a good account of themselves, even against the overwhelming force the Italians would be able to bring against them.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.